DUCK SHOOTING OVER PROTECTED AREA
COMMERCIAL shooting over protected wetlands in Ballynatray Estate is still a regular occurance, sources told the Irish Mail on Sunday. Illegal shooting happens despite the damaging effects lead shots have on wild birds. Sources told the MoS that a report by a wildlife ranger recommended the estate be prosecuted by the National Parks and Wildlife Service for the ‘damaging’ activity and there is clay shooting over wetlands intended as ‘special area of conservation’ and ‘special protection areas’.
The estate had been told about this and gave an undertaking it would stop, the source said.
An investigation found clay pigeon traps at the edge of a special area of conservation reed bed. Some of the duck shooting is also taking place in conservation areas. A source said some shooting involves ducks along the Glendine River, who are then shot over the river, which enters the Blackwater estuary, an area of conservation, a couple of hundred metres downstream.