I remember reading, and it was VERY many years ago when I was in my pre-teens, about the reintroduction of caper' from Scandinavia. My recollection says there were quite a number of attempts over about a decade and a half and that they were fairly widely dispersed but one name sticks in my mind and that is Breadalbane. In the same chapter it related a tale about a cock caper' that attacked cars in Morningside in Edinburgh in the1930s! At school in southern Pethshire some friends and I chased the caper in the Keillour Forest and occasionally caught them in the fences. I also, in my 20s in the late 1970s, shot driven caper on Deeside, to reduce damage in the scots pine there as they were very numerous. The Victorian reintroductions must have been genuinely successful to have as widespread a population sixty and a hundred years later. The decline has largely been since the 1970s as gamekeepers became more poultry keepers and less fixated on vermin destruction; that is very sweeping and generalised but contains an element of truth as the post-war keepers used more poisons, until The Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 took effect. Thereafter more effort went back into trapping and snaring and the skills required for that. I am emphatically not being derogatory to 'keepers as for all of my life they have been a hard-working [far harder than me], group prepared also to share their knowledge and expertise with a wet-behind-the-ears young assistant factor, land agent and stalker.
I agree entirely with u.
Im 20 or so years behind u but i know of lots of folk only 10yrs older than me.
Used to get free cartridges of the foresters to shoot black grouse, and this is not a grousey area.
U look at almost any Bto or bird survey almost every single type/species of prey bird started to decline around the same time across the whole UK.
Different feeding needs, different habitat etc.
Its not a coincidence.
Even in the late 80s still had decent numbers of waders country wide.
The habitat loss thing as far as i am concerned is just an easy excuse in many areas esp more upland areas, even over 150m which is really not high at all.
No doubt on lower ground it has been a big issue.
But over 150m the marigns for farming are pretty tight so not much chemicals being thrown about or even much land drainage or the land that was drained with grants in 70s is now blocked and needing redrained so back to wet/semi wet ground
Jall55 said something earlier about the state of nature resrves.
I used to be on the comittee for a local 1 for 10+ years.
Fantastic reserve, great manager lad do a lot of good for local town and kids.
But refuse point blank to do ANY predstor control.
Could be 15 or even 20 years since they fledged a mallard duck (or any ground nesting bird) yet always have 50 odd on the pond year round.
So mallard ard attracted in by the year round food and nice habitat but all it does is make predation easier.
In actual fact it causes more harm to local wildlife than good, comittee members just could not get their head round it at all.
Ur only talking shooting or trapping 4 or 6 crows and possibly a couple of stoats per year march april time.
Its just absolutrly crazy.
To be fair the manager told me to go do early morning and do wot needed done.
But i wanted it officail and put signs up to educate the many folk that walk there.
That is the massive harm r spb has caused brain washing folk that predator cobtrol is not needed
