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Here we go again


anser2
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I see that greylays have now been added to the whole of Scotlands GL pest list and can now be shot from July. Let this be a warning to English Wildfowlers. We only narrowly overturned efforts of English Nature to add greylags to the English GL. Despite our victory the odds are if greylags keep increasing they will end up on the GL sooner or later. There is only long term answer and thats to bring some control over the population and that lies in the hands of wildfowlers. This season take a few extra birds when you are shooting, lobby your club if it has a bag limit to raze it by a brace or two. If we do not act then greylag control will be taken out of our hands and be taken over by so called pest controllers as has happened with canadas and that has been a disaster in my county of Norfolk where this once abundant goose is becoming quite scarce.

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Got to be honest, they have become a serious pest in some areas. One area I shoot over, it is not uncommon for two or three hundred to descend on a field of wheat and strip it bare. These are birds which live year round on lakes inland and never have seen a foreshore. Drive around Leicester and out to Corby, also east of Doncaster. Same happened to deer, with the Deer Initiative, the Forestry Commission and some forestry owners didn't sort the problem, avidly protecting the rights to shoot deer to a few and of course they ballooned in numbers and now the plan is to shoot everything which sticks it's head out, irrespective of age, time of year and if male or female, by issuing open licenses, and organising mass shoots.

With greylags, there is no easy answer, there is certainly no shortage.

Edited by Walker570
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I have no problem with a farmer who is having trouble with greylags getting a licence to control them ( they are very easy and quick to get ) , but what happens when a general licence is issued to all and sundry. Cowboys come out of the woodwork and the next thing is an over kill and and important quarry species goes into decline as has happened with my local canada geese.

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I have no problem with a farmer who is having trouble with greylags getting a licence to control them ( they are very easy and quick to get ) , but what happens when a general licence is issued to all and sundry. Cowboys come out of the woodwork and the next thing is an over kill and and important quarry species goes into decline as has happened with my local canada geese.

 

Correct Robert.

I've said/typed it many times before Far to Many Trigger happy shooter's out there and not enough who first try Non Lethal Scarring Methods THEN apply for a licence do the job and keep quiet.

As you and i both know Geese can be a right pain in the bottom but does not mean it has to end in a Big pile of Dead Geese that they then pose with and brag about

Edited by 6.5x55SE
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as i understand it, the GL is allowed for July and August only I suppose so that standing crops are not harmed, in effect it means advancing the season by two months this is for Greylag. Canada geese, the GL is for the full year, this is my understanding so not necessarily correct

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We have an abundance of canada'saround our way. I look after a golf course and only take beetween 1/4 and 1/2 of the population. Normally there are uowards of 20 mating pairs on the course. We have in the past just pinned the eggs but this year nests were not found by green keeper so he asked me to thin them. I think total wipe out would be the wrong way to go and is a miss use of the gl. Purely my opinion though

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There had been a massive increase in greylag on the west coast. western isles and Orkney .

But it's still illegal to sell wild goose meat here in Scotland. I think this will be changed because at the moment people only shot a couple for themselves and because the game dealer can't take them there is no interest in shooting them in large numbers.

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Highlandladdie , Your right Barnacles are definitely on the up.

 

On our island it's the greylag and Canada's that are increasing and we never see a single Barnicle goose ,

 

yet the neighbouring island ( few hundred metres , separates us ) is Barnicle geese everywhere .

 

Only difference I can see they have bigger flatter better grass fields , where as our fields are smaller and rougher which the greylag and Canada's seem to prefer ???

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