Shooting crackdown ‘threatens rare birds’
Farmers claim last-minute changes leave endangered songbirds, doves and curlews at mercy of pests
Britain’s rarest birds are being put at risk after Natural England’s decision to revoke shooting licences, farmers say. They claim that the nests of turtle doves, curlews and songbirds risk being plundered by crows and magpies if they are not allowed to control “pest” bird numbers. Chris Packham, the naturalist who helped forced Natural England to revoke general licences, has been the subject of anger for many rural organisations. Dead crows were yesterday tied to his gate.
BRITAIN’S rarest birds are being put at risk by Natural England’s decision to revoke shooting licences, farmers say.
They claim that the nests of turtle doves, curlews and songbirds risk being plundered by crows and magpies if they are not allowed to control the numbers of “pest” birds.
Landowners have argued that the decision to ban shooting birds under a general licence – with farmers having to apply for an individual licence – has come at the worst time of year, when birds begin to lay eggs, and those taking care of the rare species have had no time to apply for individual licences. Chris Packham, the naturalist whose organisation Wild Justice forced Natural England to revoke general licences, has been the subject of anger for many farmers and rural organisations.
Yesterday, his house was targeted by protesters who left dead crows tied to his gate. He wrote on Twitter that he had informed Hampshire Police, who were investigating.
However, the decision has not just been criticised by farmers and gamekeepers – conservationists have spoken against it.
Curlews, a shy grassland bird with a distinctive long down-curved bill, are endangered in the UK. In some parts their numbers have declined by 90 per cent in the last 20 years.
Mary Colwell, a conservationist, said that revoking licences put curlews in even graver danger of extinction.
She told The Daily Telegraph: “You couldn’t have chosen a worse time to revoke the general licence. We completely welcome a general licence review, it needs tightening and more rigour, but to time it with the peak start of laying is really terrible.
“Crows eat both the eggs and the young of curlews. If we had time to prepare, people could have applied for individual licences, no one would have minded if it happened at a different time of year. Curlews don’t often re-lay if they lose a clutch. So we have lost a season and that’s bad news.”
Peter Hall, who runs Target Farm in Marden, Kent, grows cereals and fruit in fields fringed by hedgerows that house some of Britain’s rarest birds – yellowhammers and linnets, “red” listed by the RSPB. He said: “Had this happened in December it would have been fine ... but 36 hours’ warning at this critical time is not a great deal.
“While once we only had a pair of yellowhammers on the farm, we recorded 196 in one site in the course of the 12 months. There are flocks of linnets, thousands of linnets. It’s depressing. We’re not into slaughtering or the extermination of anything, but ... we control our magpies using traps, which was absolutely legal until today. We did this annually for a scant two months.
“This gives songbirds the chance to have one uninterrupted clutch without it being plundered.”
Tim Palmer, the chairman of the Martin Down Farmer Cluster, in Salisbury, takes care of rare turtle doves on his land. He said in a letter to The Daily Telegraph: “The decision by Natural England to revoke general licences to control certain pest bird species such as crow and magpie with immediate effect comes at a time of year calculated to do maximum damage to the prospects of a number of endangered species. In pandering to Wild Justice in this way, in the middle of the breeding season, Natural England has not only damaged the turtle doves’ chances of survival but has also damaged, perhaps seriously, the trust that we had been building in recent years.”
Marian Spain, the Natural England interim chief executive, said: “This is not a ban on control, it is a change to the licences that allow control to take place. We have been very clear there will be new licences in place in the coming days that cover the vast majority of circumstances covered by the current licences.”