Taffyshooter

Its pointless to talk of bringing back wolves to any part of the UK with the current style of sheep husbandry. In places like Romania you have a tradition of full time shephards, indoor lambing and guard dogs. What might change all this is if the EU start cutting subsidies to hill farmers which is really the only reason why sheep are still kept on mountains in the UK.

I'd agree with that - it won't make much difference to the current state of play. I thinks its more a case of the DM whipping up a non-storey. Lets face it - they do have form in this area.

A job for an airgun. Releasing vermin is totally without any merit.

I read in the ST it was one licence for one shoot. However that may be the end of it given the fuss kicked up and some of the stuff that leaked out about the application which didn't make EN look too bright.

Pen birds are doing fine - we've gone with Manchurian X's this year and they seem to cope well with the heat. Good few wild broods knockin about too

You mean as a Disinfectant??

Another vote here - between trapping and lamping we've done in near 2 dozen this year.

We have a good few buzzards on our shoot, but compared to the likes of foxes, mink, road casualties etc. the number of poults lost to them is insignificant as far as I can make out. Gamekeepers operating outside the law are gonna bring down even more hassle for the rest of us. This has already happened in Scotland where all types of traps and snares will now have to be tagged with the owners details.

Its easy enough to remove most lead fragments from the likes of gamebirds. Most shooters/hunters I know do this as part of carcass preparation. Its not hard to do. In any case me and the family have eaten game meat from many sources over the years with no ill affects.

What a waste of court time. This ban must be the most stupid pointless piece of legislation brough in in recent times. I'm all for protecting species that are officially fully protected and prosecuting rogue hunters who kill them. But this concerns bl**dy foxes!!!!!!!!!!!!

Appears now to be a CGI hoax. At least according to be Daily Mail and other sites. Always looked a bit dodgy for such a bird to be hanging around a city park.

That or some kind of mustalid ...I've seen similiar damage done by mink in the past

You can get liquid vitamin feed which is added to their drinking water. You can also privide greenery like chickweed,dandelion for young birds and turnips,artichokes and potatoes for older birds.

Sounds like a ground based predator. Probably some kind of mustalid. Best to put down a few mink traps and see what turns up!!

A heron will take chicks allright if given the oppertunity, but unless an adult mallard is injured or sick I doubt a heron would represent much of a threat. The wound on the bird in the pic does look like it was made by a pellet. Though I have seen farmyard ducks with similiar injuries after a mink attack.