Bird Slaughter in France and Europe

[Iceni]

I have just had a colleague mail me with reports from the RSPB magazine. Now I know that in this area birds are not shot like this and our locals seem as interested as us in the passing of the geese overhead. Does this happen in your area??????

Having just seen in the latest RSPB newsletter, a picture of 150 Whitefronted Geese on their migration slaughtered by French hunters and the bodies will just be thrown away, and a picture of a row of Robins slowly dying with their legs broken as they're stuck on lime sticks on Malta and Italy, photos of Honey Buzzards and Golden Orioles shot as they migrated over Europe and the bodies just left in the dirt, plus news of thousands of Turtle Doves shot on migration through France last year ........ forgive me if I'm a bit jaundiced!  Like all things, there are good and bad elements to all of it and that sort of thing is definitely the bad side.   Sooner rather than later, the numbers of migrating birds will fall and rarer species will just not be seen any more.  Makes me so mad......

Mind you, raptors don't seem very safe in the UK either .

[0BRIAN WOODHEADI,m here in franceddMMyyyy0Falseen-USI,m here in franceTrue]

Not sure where you are going with this,animal welfare, illegal shooting, legal shooting or the mere fact that a colleague pulled you up.You must be well aware of the hunting and fishing lobby in france and what goes for france is mainly the same for most of southern europe.For me it is not the passing by in the sky of the birds(though to shoot a bird of prey take a disturbed mind),it is the fact that animals are bred only to be slaughtered by having their throats cut and left to bleed to death in the name of religion.

 

[RayB]

[quote]I have just had a colleague mail me with reports from the RSPB magazine. Now I know that in this area birds are not shot like this and our locals seem as interested as us in the passing of the geese o...[/quote]

On the news today I saw people's houses just covered in birdcrap and it won't just wash off, either. I would be less than happy about that.

[Tresco]

Both of you previous posters should have thought twice before posting such replies.

tresco

[Dick Smith]

I agree, Tresco.

Our little corner of Manche doesn't seem to suffer much from bird-shooting or trapping (mostly fishing and controlled duck shooting), so we still have plenty of songbirds etc., and also 'exotic' species from time to time.

I can understand shooting something if you want to eat it, like a duck or a wild boar, or fishing for your supper, but not the point of killing just for the sake of it.

By the way, Ray, here in England we are near quite a colony of geese, and my roof is pristine...

[RayB]

[quote]I agree, Tresco.Our little corner of Manche doesn't seem to suffer much from bird-shooting or trapping (mostly fishing and controlled duck shooting), so we still have plenty of songbirds etc., and als...[/quote]

**

By the way, Ray, here in England we are near quite a colony of geese, and my roof is pristine...**

Not sure what that has to do with what I reported. The homes I saw will have to have the walls repainted. It was terrible. The wires looked like a scene from 'The Birds'! Really scary.

[Jsey]

The UK can't crow when the common Sparrow, among others, is close to extinction there, ok they may not be shot but simply poisoned by the vast amounts of pesticides and other chemicals put on and into the land which gets into their food chain, the water they drink is not all that safe either making both birds and fish sterile.

But this is a case of out of sight out of mind.

[Boghound]

[quote]Both of you previous posters should have thought twice before posting such replies. tresco[/quote]

Why?

[Russethouse]

Jsey, you will pleased to know I have enough Sparrows waking me up at day break to ensure they are not in any real danger of extinction. They live where a bramble and clematis have become hopelessly and eternally entwined, come out through the day, just as dusk falls they feed like crazy then 'retire' for the night with their neighbours, the long tailed tits.

According to South Today last night they are the of South East Englands most common bird with one other area of the country recording more blue tits than Sparrows.

Many farmers are well aware of the need to maintain and plant new hedgerows to assist wildlife. Its not all gloom !

[Musicmonkey<ADDRESS><STRONG>Musicmonkey<STRONG><ADDRESS>]

<<Jsey, you will pleased to know I have enough Sparrows waking me up at day break to ensure they are not in any real danger of extinction.>>

Then I must say Gay, that you are lucky.  I too live in S.E England, in an urban area and I honestly can't tell you when I last saw a sparrow in my garden.  In fact, walking home from school this morning I thought about contacting the RSPB to ask them how to attract them to my garden.  I already leave fat balls and water and have some bird friendly hedges but only now see one or two blackbirds, blue tits, dunnocks, a robin, a couple of pigeons and of course seagulls.  I wouldn't have seen a thrush for a long time were it not for the school run where I was privileged to hear one in the park singing for all it was worth.

Not that long ago we had more sparrows here than any other bird and had occasional visits from chaffinches and siskins, etc.  I abhor this loss of natural wildlife.

It will be too late once they are all gone.

[Russethouse]

Perhaps I am luckier than I thought - I live about a mile from Reading town centre and about the same from open countryside. Over the last week or two we have had visits from Magpies, Crows, starlings, blackbirds, thrush, blue tits, long tailed tits, coal tits, siskins, robins and collared doves. We also sometimes see wrens (they are there, but shy) field-fare and jays. In the Autumn we came home to discover a sparrow hawk lunching on a pigeon ! Luckily it didn't return.

The garden thrives on neglect, we do feed, a seed mix plus sunflower seed (the black ones)and peanuts plus we have a large plant saucer on a chimney pot serving as a bird bath. I also use a variety of feeders, different birds prefer the different types.

We have a hazel which seems to attract the birds, plus a far too large holly.

I have a large kitchen widow and throughly enjoy 'birdwatching' from there, but the sparrows present rather a problem - the bits of the the year the plants they are in would be manageable to trim, the sparrows are nesting - by the time the chicks are grown, the sheer mass of the plant is rather off putting ! Then of course its autumn and they need somewhere to shelter again .........

[Musicmonkey<ADDRESS><STRONG>Musicmonkey<STRONG><ADDRESS>]

We are only half a mile from the South Downs so you would expect that we would see more birds here.  I did look up the RSPB site and it says that once sparrows move out of an area they tend not to come back as they only travel a short distance from where they were born. If so, that is quite sad as it could be a long time until I see them again here.

At least when we go to our place in France we can enjoy a larger population of visiting birds (some of which we can't identify like Swissbarry in a recent posting of his).  Added to which we have been thrilled as we have often seen a red squirrel in the garden though we haven't seen it on our most recent visits. 

Edit - I must learn to neglect my garden more often!

[Russethouse]

I used to love gardening, but for many years we had a cat charity next door, you know cats prefer to foul someone elses garden rather than their own

Now they have gone I have a jungle to tackle !! (and birds in the garden once more )

[0BRIAN WOODHEADI,m here in franceddMMyyyy0Falseen-USI,m here in franceTrue]

Here in france there are song birds abound,just one more reason why,

[Teamedup]

Outcast many song birds? I have not heard a decent dawn chorus since I have lived here and we are surrounded by trees.

[SaligoBay]

My area's like that too, TU.    The birds are all too sad to sing, you've seen the signs about Stolen Chicks.

[Pushkin]

The dawn chorus is alive and well here in the Charente Maritime.  We have house sparrows nesting under the patio roof, wrens in the car port/log store, two pairs of collar doves who are daily visitors to the garden and we are waiting for the return of the swallows who nest in the barn every year, just to mention a few.  It is a joy to wake up each day to the sound of the 'choir'. 

Sue

[Weedon]

The reason why you've got no birds in your gardens is because they got fed up with the noise from all of that renovation work going on. 

Here in 53 we try to sleep despite the noise from the owls screeching to each other and the other ones toowettowooing in the oak trees and then in the mornings they are all having a go doing god knows what little birds do at 6am.  Later on the magpies and starlings compete with the kestrels for territory and the buzzards glide about telling us its a great place to be in the sunshine.  Later on in the summer I have to keep going to the window in the evenings to shout at the sparrows playing in the virginia creeper because they interrupt my TV watching with their noise.  The swallows sit on the telephone line watching me trying to "point" my walls and chattering "that's not how you do it".  You don't know how lucky you are in the towns with your traffic and neighbours

weedon

[Musicmonkey<ADDRESS><STRONG>Musicmonkey<STRONG><ADDRESS>]

Further to my previous post, I am now pleased to report that I have managed to attract sparrows (both tree and house) and chaffinches back to my garden!  All it took was a new bird feeder filled with ordinary loose feed so the sparrows can't have been very far away.  So, if anyone else is missing sparrows or just wants to help them along a bit spend around £3 on a cheap feeder (I have a bird table but they don't seem to like that) and place in it the trees filled with a mix of seed.  It's worked for me!

 

[Russethouse]

We have started clearing our garden and have chopped down many overgrown shrubs,brambles etc, but we have kept the bird feeders full and so far we seem to be maintaining the status quo.

It's quite amusing to watch the collared doves and pigeons take material from the pile of cuttings for their nests.

[Weedon]

Its very nice to go to the trouble of putting out wild bird feed to try to attract more birds to your garden rather than them go to somebody elses, but if you have an ordinary garden with trees, shrubs, brambles and just bits of everything the birds will come just the same and you and the birds will enjoy it all the more.  I don't go out of my way to attract anything, but we still  get our fair share of whats out there, and although I think I detect more magpies than before the sparrows are here also and as far as I am concerned they all manage themselves better without my help.

Somebody earlier said that they had seen a roof covered in birds whatnot, that I would like to see, perhaps they are trying to tell the owner something?

weedon

[Musicmonkey<ADDRESS><STRONG>Musicmonkey<STRONG><ADDRESS>]

LOL Weedon, but I don't think you read the previous posts, in particular the ones I made (not that I blame you as I don't always bother)

 

[Turnip]

[quote]<<Jsey, you will pleased to know I have enough Sparrows waking me up at day break to ensure they are not in any real danger of extinction.>> Then I must say Gay, that you are lucky. I...[/quote]

Sparrows are plentiful here in Cornwall. It's fun to sit in the conservatory and watch them feeding or cavorting in the trees and  the fading evening light is greeted by the sight of numerous sparrows wheeling through the sky in a vast flock. So. like a previous poster I cannot see the point of killing for the sake of it.