Strange Bop???????

[Wullz 408]

Sounds like a Gos to me, but it could also be a Black Spar, there are tons of falconry places near you and one of them could have lost a bird. Could also be a young Gos? May be a wee bit early, but it could be....they have more brown than the adults.

 

Cracking birds, mate of mine had one called Izzy, saw it taking 13 heads of quarry of 14 flights......fast as fook!

[johnny boy68 11,726]

The Buzzard's over where Jai is a keeper circle the pens like f*****g vultures, I think I counted 16 the one day, they're perched in the tree's, on the pens. Its like the Red Kite feeding station's they have in some areas over there but instead of Kites its Buzzard's everywhere.

[j j m 6,611]

ive the dvd phantom of the forest all about gos hawks in my collection fantastic footage of goshawks hunting in the wild.a must for any one that is in to bops

[fitchet 788]

When i was keepering on lambourn downs i usued to leave pigeon and rabbit heads on a post for bops. There was a nice spot where i shot loads of muntjac and fox. If you left your quarry where it dropped though the red kites would soon be on it. I personslly think they account for alot of leverets on that place too.

[Ratreeper 441]

Could be a gos, either a wild bred or could be more likely one a flaconer lost as they are pretty shy. Accipiters are my favourite BOP to see, I miss watching a spar that used to catch sparrows/lbj's on our front lawn regularly.

 

If Gos's became more common, would you lot be looking to wipe them out again to save your phessies then? It does seem to be the attitude that anything that cuts into pheasant shooting profits needs to be wiped out and I think that's a pretty sad situation really. I would love to see wild goshawks in the UK (might have seen one but now not so sure) but they would kill a hell of a lot of birds over a season so there isn't really a solution without one side getting buggered.

 

The 150 a night thing is a joke, that keeper sounds a bit of a pleb it sounds like something a mustelid would do though.

[stewie 3,387]

what a stupid thing to ask on an open internet site............ times have changed and so have attitudes towards birds of prey...........

[Ideation 8,217]

Could be a gos, either a wild bred or could be more likely one a flaconer lost as they are pretty shy. Accipiters are my favourite BOP to see, I miss watching a spar that used to catch sparrows/lbj's on our front lawn regularly.

 

If Gos's became more common, would you lot be looking to wipe them out again to save your phes

sies then? It does seem to be the attitude that anything that cuts into pheasant shooting profits needs to be wiped out and I think that's a pretty sad situation really. I would love to see wild goshawks in the UK (might have seen one but now not so sure) but they would kill a hell of a lot of birds over a season so there isn't really a solution without one side getting buggered.

 

The 150 a night thing is a joke, that keeper sounds a bit of a pleb it sounds like something a mustelid would do though.

 

I'm not suggesting that any action can be or is taken against BOP's. However, look at a small shoot.

 

Say they release 3500 birds ish.

 

And they stick them in six pens, at about 600 birds a pen.

 

The keeper feeds the pens twice a day. And picks up only two dead poults from each pen, on each feed, that have been killed by BOPs (and that's a conservative estimate).

 

So over the first say six weeks, he will pick up over 1000 birds. Almost a third of what has been released, and something like £3500-£4000 worth of poults (not including the price of any feed they have consumed).

 

So it's not really just about eating into profits. The Bop's can quite easily bankrupt a fecking shoot. In my opinion in certain areas, a license should be available to cull them, or destroy eggs, or give them to falconers or something.

 

The only reason they are there in those numbers anyway is the pheasants, remove the pheasants and the BOP population collapses.

[baw 4,360]

You've got your answer....... Remove the pheasants

[Ideation 8,217]

You've got your answer....... Remove the pheasants

 

During foot and mouth. Exactly that was done (for obvious reasons). The Buzzard population crashed and there were dead buzzards all over the shop.

[Born Hunter 17,909]

http://www.moderngamekeeping.com/2013/05/23/buzzard-licenses-not-for-shooting/

 

[Ratreeper 441]

 

Could be a gos, either a wild bred or could be more likely one a flaconer lost as they are pretty shy. Accipiters are my favourite BOP to see, I miss watching a spar that used to catch sparrows/lbj's on our front lawn regularly.

 

If Gos's became more common, would you lot be looking to wipe them out again to save your phes

sies then? It does seem to be the attitude that anything that cuts into pheasant shooting profits needs to be wiped out and I think that's a pretty sad situation really. I would love to see wild goshawks in the UK (might have seen one but now not so sure) but they would kill a hell of a lot of birds over a season so there isn't really a solution without one side getting buggered.

 

The 150 a night thing is a joke, that keeper sounds a bit of a pleb it sounds like something a mustelid would do though.

 

I'm not suggesting that any action can be or is taken against BOP's. However, look at a small shoot.

 

Say they release 3500 birds ish.

 

And they stick them in six pens, at about 600 birds a pen.

 

The keeper feeds the pens twice a day. And picks up only two dead poults from each pen, on each feed, that have been killed by BOPs (and that's a conservative estimate).

 

So over the first say six weeks, he will pick up over 1000 birds. Almost a third of what has been released, and something like £3500-£4000 worth of poults (not including the price of any feed they have consumed).

 

So it's not really just about eating into profits. The Bop's can quite easily bankrupt a fecking shoot. In my opinion in certain areas, a license should be available to cull them, or destroy eggs, or give them to falconers or something.

 

The only reason they are there in those numbers anyway is the pheasants, remove the pheasants and the BOP population collapses.

 

 

Not denying it, just think it's sad that we now have a countryside with no place for native species and I don't know if there is a solution. As I was a falconer for a long time I have a soft spot for BOP in particular and there are a lot of buzzards around, however there are very few goshawks and even killing a few makes a big difference to their population and the population diversity. But if you have one shoot with a pair of goshawks and a neighbour with none, they straight away can't compete. Same goes if you had an osprey on your trout lake or whatever other example, you can either wipe out indigenous species or put up with massive losses and overall nature loses time and again. Do you have a link about the foot and mouth thing? I haven't heard of that, I generally think buzzards are on the up for the same reason as crows etc because we have so much roadkill and myxy and they are scavengers for the most part.

[Ideation 8,217]

It's nice to see that they have finally granted someone a license. But they are like rocking horse shit. Chances of getting the license are next to none!

[Ideation 8,217]

 

 

Could be a gos, either a wild bred or could be more likely one a flaconer lost as they are pretty shy. Accipiters are my favourite BOP to see, I miss watching a spar that used to catch sparrows/lbj's on our front lawn regularly.

 

If Gos's became more common, would you lot be looking to wipe them out again to save your phes

sies then? It does seem to be the attitude that anything that cuts into pheasant shooting profits needs to be wiped out and I think that's a pretty sad situation really. I would love to see wild goshawks in the UK (might have seen one but now not so sure) but they would kill a hell of a lot of birds over a season so there isn't really a solution without one side getting buggered.

 

The 150 a night thing is a joke, that keeper sounds a bit of a pleb it sounds like something a mustelid would do though.

 

I'm not suggesting that any action can be or is taken against BOP's. However, look at a small shoot.

 

Say they release 3500 birds ish.

 

And they stick them in six pens, at about 600 birds a pen.

 

The keeper feeds the pens twice a day. And picks up only two dead poults from each pen, on each feed, that have been killed by BOPs (and that's a conservative estimate).

 

So over the first say six weeks, he will pick up over 1000 birds. Almost a third of what has been released, and something like £3500-£4000 worth of poults (not including the price of any feed they have consumed).

 

So it's not really just about eating into profits. The Bop's can quite easily bankrupt a fecking shoot. In my opinion in certain areas, a license should be available to cull them, or destroy eggs, or give them to falconers or something.

 

The only reason they are there in those numbers anyway is the pheasants, remove the pheasants and the BOP population collapses.

 

 

Not denying it, just think it's sad that we now have a countryside with no place for native species and I don't know if there is a solution. As I was a falconer for a long time I have a soft spot for BOP in particular and there are a lot of buzzards around, however there are very few goshawks and even killing a few makes a big difference to their population and the population diversity. But if you have one shoot with a pair of goshawks and a neighbour with none, they straight away can't compete. Same goes if you had an osprey on your trout lake or whatever other example, you can either wipe out indigenous species or put up with massive losses and overall nature loses time and again. Do you have a link about the foot and mouth thing? I haven't heard of that, I generally think buzzards are on the up for the same reason as crows etc because we have so much roadkill and myxy and they are scavengers for the most part.

 

 

I have to admit I like Bop in general, and don't really have much of a problem with most species. The buzzards are just a nightmare here. If there were the same levels of Gos as there are buzzards. . . . . there would be no shoot. But at the moment we must live and let live.

 

No link on the foot and mouth thing - it was here on our shoot.

 

Here the buzzards 100% hunt and kill the poults. There are simply no where near enough rabbits etc to sustain the population we have, It's nothing to see 20 over one field. And every single day when we have poults here, I watch them killing them, every pen you go to, they are lifting off. And plenty of times I have actually witnessed the buzzards striking them and holding / killing them

 

We really don't have very much road kill or many rabbits here for them to feed on. They even bring their young to the pens to learn.

[WILF 49,796]

The only strange thing about a BOP on a rearing field in Scotland is that it is there in the first place!

[Born Hunter 17,909]

It's labs rearing field.............. he keeps pet cats and feeds the foxes! It's like a predators McDonalds!