did anyone see countryfile last sunday where a gamekeeper was putting forward the case for buzzard control. he stated that predation by buzzards was making his shoot unvyable. he stated that the total amount of birds predated by buzzards was 1000 birds, YES 1000 BIRDS BY BUZZARDS. now i would hesitate before saying he is a liar but for those of us that know about buzzards they do not gather in flocks of ten to twenty with mass feeding and a bird as large as a pheasant would not have a bird that size dayly. then just do the figures, to predate 1000 pheasants how many buzzards, over what time span. then just look at it from a different aspect, if YES IF he had 1000 birds predated by buzzards how many birds did he release, if the losses were 10% that makes 10000 birds he released in a very limited area. these mass releases are really the cause of a major problem of a non native species causing problems to native wildlife. it seems to me the sea eagle sydrome, where eagles were filmed carrying a lamb to its nest and compensation was paid and suddenly every lamb loss was caused by a sea eagle and the claims for compensation if paid for every lamb would mean a population off several hundred birds feeding on nothing but lamb. so 1000 yes 1000 pheasants taken by buzzards what the odds and our daft bbc give these people air time.
terry whalin
