The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Over the years we get huge amounts of information about birds we have ringed. One that I thought non-ringers would find interesting was a Magpie that was ringed on 19/7/2009. The BTO were informed that it had been caught in a Larsen Trap at Thorpe on the Hill on June 8th this year. The finders exact words were - " Caught in Larsen Trap and used as a decoy until 13th June when it was killed"!! Two things that surprised me was that it was reported in the first place and the finder had no qualms to describe exactly what happened to it!

All sorts of seemingly bird loving people seem to regail in tales of killing horrible Magpies. It does get worse I have one countryside guardian and lover of birds up here who constantly tells me that virtually every species from Kestrels to Kingfishers have been dessimated by those horrible Marsh Harriers. He also swamps the countryside with 100's of released Grey Partridges every year and was sort of letting slip that he also releases Quail and wonders how they survive in winter!