Wildlife on the farm.

Rabbits eating into a crop of spring barley. All the Buzzards have disappeared from around within the last year, there was a lot of them there and they certainly were keeping the rabbits in check. Nobody seems to know what happened to them.
I believe some gun clubs have taken to shooting them, and in some case poisoning them [anecdotal - can’t prove it], under the belief that they are killing full size cock pheasants.

Now we have plenty of both here, and I have never seen the buzzards bother or attack a pheasant - even when crossing a freshly cut hay field. Of course that doesn’t mean they don’t, but I don’t believe they do given they have an abundance of rabbits to eat around these parts. And even if they do take the occasional pheasant, they are not the Buzzard’s main food source, and they certainly are not wiping pheasants out.

Like any organisation, gun clubs have both outstanding decent members and then some who are less so, and just want any reason to shoot things. In my experience it is usually the non-land owner types in gun clubs who have no affinity to nature and just want to shoot anything that moves, and would take any opportunity, true or not, to kill a large bird of prey such as a buzzard.

Not saying this is the case where you are Mid cork, but if the rabbits are still there, then you can be sure it is some sort of human interference that has caused the Buzzards to have disappeared.
 
I believe some gun clubs have taken to shooting them, and in some case poisoning them [anecdotal - can’t prove it], under the belief that they are killing full size cock pheasants.

Now we have plenty of both here, and I have never seen the buzzards bother or attack a pheasant - even when crossing a freshly cut hay field. Of course that doesn’t mean they don’t, but I don’t believe they do given they have an abundance of rabbits to eat around these parts. And even if they do take the occasional pheasant, they are not the Buzzard’s main food source, and they certainly are not wiping pheasants out.

Like any organisation, gun clubs have both outstanding decent members and then some who are less so, and just want any reason to shoot things. In my experience it is usually the non-land owner types in gun clubs who have no affinity to nature and just want to shoot anything that moves, and would take any opportunity, true or not, to kill a large bird of prey such as a buzzard.

Not saying this is the case where you are Mid cork, but if the rabbits are still there, then you can be sure it is some sort of human interference that has caused the Buzzards to have disappeared.
I never have killed or harmed a buzzard, but they do kill pheasants and other birds, I have seen them killing pheasants, pigeons, crows and many other small birds. Pheasants are dying out around here, the only pheasants left are those released by gun clubs. I have not seen a clutch of pheasants raised to maturity around here for well over 10 years now, but pheasants are an imported species so are not a big loss, but other small bird number are in decline and they are being killed by buzzards. It is not the only cause, but it is a cause.
 
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I believe some gun clubs have taken to shooting them, and in some case poisoning them [anecdotal - can’t prove it], under the belief that they are killing full size cock pheasants.

Now we have plenty of both here, and I have never seen the buzzards bother or attack a pheasant - even when crossing a freshly cut hay field. Of course that doesn’t mean they don’t, but I don’t believe they do given they have an abundance of rabbits to eat around these parts. And even if they do take the occasional pheasant, they are not the Buzzard’s main food source, and they certainly are not wiping pheasants out.

Like any organisation, gun clubs have both outstanding decent members and then some who are less so, and just want any reason to shoot things. In my experience it is usually the non-land owner types in gun clubs who have no affinity to nature and just want to shoot anything that moves, and would take any opportunity, true or not, to kill a large bird of prey such as a buzzard.

Not saying this is the case where you are Mid cork, but if the rabbits are still there, then you can be sure it is some sort of human interference that has caused the Buzzards to have disappeared.
The buzzards have started to appear here again only a one though yet. No one still seems to know what happened to them. It’s strongly suspected they were poisoned and there’s certainly going to be no one admit to doing that.
 
I never have killed or harmed a buzzard, but they do kill pheasants and other birds, I have seen them killing pheasants, pigeons, crows and many other small birds. Pheasants are dying out around here, the only pheasants left are those released by gun clubs. I have not seen a clutch of pheasants raised to maturity around here for well over 10 years now, but pheasants are an imported species so are not a big loss, but other small bird number are in decline and they are being killed by buzzards. It is not the only cause, but it is a cause.
Interesting…it’s some what the opposite here. We have a breeding pair of buzzards in an old oak tree about 150metres down the field away from the house. In the last 4 years, I have noticed an increase in the Blackbird, Starling, Thrush, Wagtail and chaff finch populations. In fact a couple of years ago you would rarely see a Thrush but now we see them each day around the house.

We have also in the last two years had a flock of the following birds appear in the fields around the house, and they were never seen here previously. They are about the size of a Thrush, if any knows what they are, I’d be obliged:

F17A9D45-9DE1-4381-90B8-14660AB49A46.png49CCD950-B5B7-425F-9029-AFAE6DD0A9DF.jpeg

The pheasant population around here is also strong, and we have several gold headed and a silver cock around over the last six years, despite the buzzards. We don’t let anyone shoot the two fields at the house and I believe that is a big help to their population numbers as in my experience when they get rare, it is due to over hunting or improper hunting such as lads shooting them from the road to sell to restaurants. A lad around these parts was caught at that about 10 years back and was banned from all local gun clubs.

I’m far from anti-hunting, my pops set up the local gun club. The buzzards around here have on the surface of it at least, only added to the natural ecosystem, which is a big part of why they were reintroduced. When bird or animal populations get out of kilter, it’s usually mostly down to something us humans have done in my experience.
 
Interesting…it’s some what the opposite here. We have a breeding pair of buzzards in an old oak tree about 150metres down the field away from the house. In the last 4 years, I have noticed an increase in the Blackbird, Starling, Thrush, Wagtail and chaff finch populations. In fact a couple of years ago you would rarely see a Thrush but now we see them each day around the house.

We have also in the last two years had a flock of the following birds appear in the fields around the house, and they were never seen here previously. They are about the size of a Thrush, if any knows what they are, I’d be obliged:

View attachment 116544View attachment 116545

The pheasant population around here is also strong, and we have several gold headed and a silver cock around over the last six years, despite the buzzards. We don’t let anyone shoot the two fields at the house and I believe that is a big help to their population numbers as in my experience when they get rare, it is due to over hunting or improper hunting such as lads shooting them from the road to sell to restaurants. A lad around these parts was caught at that about 10 years back and was banned from all local gun clubs.

I’m far from anti-hunting, my pops set up the local gun club. The buzzards around here have on the surface of it at least, only added to the natural ecosystem, which is a big part of why they were reintroduced. When bird or animal populations get out of kilter, it’s usually mostly down to something us humans have done in my experience.
Magic Buzzards you have there, hold on to them.
Hard to see clearly, but Fieldfare would be my guess.
Screenshot_20221215_223222_Samsung Internet.jpg
 
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Magic Buzzards you have there, hold on them.
Hard to see clearly, but Fieldfare would be my guess.
View attachment 116548
I’d say that’s them, thanks gone.

Nothing Magic in the slightest about the Buzzards, they are just having a positive impact here. We have an unwanted abundance of rabbits here, which is what we mostly see them eating, and likely a significant contributing factor to their success and non-impact on the pheasant population.

Probably other factors at play where you are.
 
A lot of pheasant clutches reared on the farm . The buzzards get a good mobbing from the crows and particularly when they go near the rookery. The buzzards follow the combine and the verge trimmer hunting rats mice and often frogs after the verge trimmer. I cannot understand how we have so many pheasants with all the foxes. Every time I finished a shut with the combine a fox ran out.
 
Any idea what these birds are? Taken last year but they were back again this year in the spring.
 

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there are dozens of them round here since i sorted the magpies
hanging round the yard at the moment are
4 robins
10 blackbirds
loads of wagtails
loads of sparrows
a few flying rats
and some blue tits
 
there are dozens of them round here since i sorted the magpies
hanging round the yard at the moment are
4 robins
10 blackbirds
loads of wagtails
loads of sparrows
a few flying rats
and some blue tits
I had a serious hit on the magpies last spring.
Has made a difference no doubt about it.
Need to find a decoy bird again now as I'm seeing too many!
Any advice on starting a trap without a decoy!
 
I had a serious hit on the magpies last spring.
Has made a difference no doubt about it.
Need to find a decoy bird again now as I'm seeing too many!
Any advice on starting a trap without a decoy!
bait the larsen with eggs
make it look like a nest

could try a bit of bread too
 
I had a serious hit on the magpies last spring.
Has made a difference no doubt about it.
Need to find a decoy bird again now as I'm seeing too many!
Any advice on starting a trap without a decoy!

We have always had problems at silage time with grows and magpies where they damaged a lot of bales. But last summer a golden eagle appeared as we were mowing and stuck around to pick up frogs and field mice until days after we had wrapped. We didn't have a single bale with bird damage and normally we would see them circling around as we would be baling- the eagle sat on the unwrapped bales, but never touched a wrapped bale.
 
there are dozens of them round here since i sorted the magpies
hanging round the yard at the moment are
4 robins
10 blackbirds
loads of wagtails
loads of sparrows
a few flying rats
and some blue tits
If you have a bird table in your garden fill it up well as the cold weather is making it hard for them
 
I've seen it a few times over the years, always early in the evening at this time of year but hadn't seen it last winter or this one until now.

It's funny but I was actually thinking about it on the drive home from work yesterday.
 
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