The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Press release from the RSPB :THE PUBLIC STEPS UP FOR BUZZARDS


The RSPB is pleased that an outpouring of public concern for a much-loved bird has encouraged Richard Benyon - the Wildlife Minister - to drop proposals to licence the destruction of buzzard nests and to bring adult buzzards into captivity around shooting estates.

Martin Harper is the RSPB’s conservation director. He said: “We’re pleased the minister has listened to people’s concerns and acted in the public interest by cancelling this project. This is a strong decision, reflecting the strength of the nation’s desire to see Government protecting precious wildlife.

“The recovery of the buzzard is being celebrated by the public after many decades of persecution. It is clear they don’t want their taxes being spent on removing buzzards and the Government has to ensure that no bird of prey will be killed in the name of sport.

“We don’t want anything to distract Defra from the pressing task of saving our threatened wildlife. It should be putting its limited resources into areas such as preventing the extinction of hen harriers in England.

“Government-backed research has already concluded that illegal persecution is limiting the populations of golden eagle and hen harrier. The RSPB believes there are well-tried non-lethal solutions to reducing impacts of buzzards at pheasant pens.”

A little late I know but then peer-review can take a while, especially when your paper gets a rough ride....

Pheasants, buzzards, and trophic cascades
Alexander C. Lees1,2, Ian Newton3, & Andrew Balmford2
1Coordenacao de Zoologia, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Avenida Perimetral 1901, Terra Firme, Belem, Para, 66077-530, Brazil
2Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
3Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Maclean Building, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxon OX10 8BB, UK

Abstract

The partial recovery of large birds of prey in lowland Britain has reignited conflicts with game managers and prompted a controversial U.K. government proposal to investigate ways of limiting losses to pheasant shooting operations. Yet best estimates are that buzzards are only a minor source of pheasant mortality–road traffic, for example, is far more important. Moreover, because there are often large numbers of nonbreeding buzzards, local control of breeding pairs may simply lead to their replacement by immigrant buzzards. Most significantly, consideration of the complexity of trophic interactions suggests that even if successful, lowering buzzard numbers may directly or indirectly increase the abundance of other medium-sized predators (such as foxes and corvids) which potentially have much greater impacts on pheasant numbers. To be effective, interventions need to be underpinned by far more rigorous understanding of the dynamics of ecosystems dominated by artificially reared, superabundant nonnative game species.

PM me for a PDF...
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... x/abstract

_________________
Dr Alexander C. Lees
Lecturer in tropical ecology
Manchester Metropolitan University

Lab Associate
Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
Cornell University

http://www.freewebs.com/alexlees/index.htm
@Alexander_Lees