Buzzard shot down - caught on camera

[JKD]

OK,,,, after messing with G maps,,,, rotating and zooming in, Street View etc, I must apologise and retract my statement that this was NOT filmed from that location. It was. Proof in the screenshots below. Large red arrow is direction of camera aim. Buildings shown in the zoomed shot are those in the film. EXACTLY where the filming took place, I can't figure out,,,, or where the buzzard dropped.

The datelines and other info in the report are still in question, as is the buzzard's 'clean' condition 🤔

What we can deduce from this, I don't know. But I do apologise if I was misleading in any way 🙁 and hope that BASC et al do get involved.

 

1 hour ago, ShootingEgg said:

As has been said google maps doesn't seem to put this where it was supposedly taken

Apologies,,,, it was. Please see above.

[ShootingEgg]

10 minutes ago, JKD said:

Apologies,,,, it was. Please see above

No need for apologies, so its clear the shot was there looking at the map. What not clear is the rest of it. 

[NatureBoy]

There report says it happened on South West boundary of reserve. I can't see locality either  . . . I guess orgs don't wana give this/them oxygen. Lot going on and coming up at mo. Hence RSPB selectively releasing this now. Less is more with there info. A distraction! Specially after Beefy's go at them all. Dr NO trying as well today with pics for same reason. . . . . A buzzard was shot! Illegally? Who knows? They would/should of had someone for this by now if they were going to. Ant gona happen. It's how they have used and spun the info that's wrong. Bearing in mind how much they bang on about  facts and science. Yeah right! A dead buzzard pic randomly added to story to tug heart strings! FUNDING. Half there staff are furloughed. Clever! Have you noticed, they always seem to find a good photogenic corpse that looks like it could fly or run off any time? Not the bloody headless sodden predated ones we find. And everything they find seems to have been shot trapped or poisoned. Why do we never find them? Especially those with dogs, and we in field more than any of them. Strange that!         NB

[stuartyboy]

We've had a lot of conspiracy theories on this so far:

It wasn't a buzzard, it was a crow.

The location isn't right.

The time of year isn't right.

What are the odds of someone filming it.

Why hasn't someone been charged by the police.

The RSPB did it.

Antis did it etc etc

If we devoted as much time to denouncing this act and putting shooting in order, as we have looking for evidence of a conspiracy theory concocted by the RSPB we, as shooters, may have a slight chance.

Fact is. Odds are that a buzzard(s) has been shot. Its on nationwide news and no amount of conspiracy theories will sway the public regarding it. Only hope is that the perpetrator is found, and if caught acting outwith the law(highly likely), he is punished accordingly and all shootees unite to condemn this.

[JKD]

2 minutes ago, NatureBoy said:

There report says it happened on South West boundary of reserve. I can't see locality either  . . . I guess orgs don't wana give this/them oxygen. Lot going on and coming up at mo. Hence RSPB selectively releasing this now. Less is more with there info. A distraction! Specially after Beefy's go at them all. Dr NO trying as well today with pics for same reason. . . . . A buzzard was shot! Illegally? Who knows? They would/should of had someone for this by now if they were going to. Ant gona happen. It's how they have used and spun the info that's wrong. Bearing in mind how much they bang on about  facts and science. Yeah right! A dead buzzard pic randomly added to story to tug heart strings! FUNDING. Half there staff are furloughed. Clever! Have you noticed, they always seem to find a good photogenic corpse that looks like it could fly or run off any time? Not the bloody headless sodden predated ones we find. And everything they find seems to have been shot trapped or poisoned. Why do we never find them? Especially those with dogs, and we in field more than any of them. Strange that!         NB

Hi NB,,,, if you look at the screenshots that I've posted above, you can see the buildings that are in the film clip. I've rotated the map to show this,,,, if you look on G maps with North directly upwards, it would have been filmed roughly on the sw border. Quite close to the road if you notice, and quite open,,,, no mention of seeing a man with a gun roaming around or camped up, or even legging it, despite quite a clear field of view !

[NatureBoy]

Got it JKD. Ta. Like you say open ground surprised they didn't see him or find bird. Especially if he didn't now they were there.        NB

[WalkedUp]

7 hours ago, stuartyboy said:

We've had a lot of conspiracy theories on this so far:

It wasn't a buzzard, it was a crow.

The location isn't right.

The time of year isn't right.

What are the odds of someone filming it.

Why hasn't someone been charged by the police.

The RSPB did it.

Antis did it etc etc

If we devoted as much time to denouncing this act and putting shooting in order, as we have looking for evidence of a conspiracy theory concocted by the RSPB we, as shooters, may have a slight chance.

Fact is. Odds are that a buzzard(s) has been shot. Its on nationwide news and no amount of conspiracy theories will sway the public regarding it. Only hope is that the perpetrator is found, and if caught acting outwith the law(highly likely), he is punished accordingly and all shootees unite to condemn this.

Agree, however given some of the stunts that have been pulled previously and the misleading errors in the RSPB release it is natural that there will be distrust. 

What is evident:

- A Buzzard was shot on film

- The location is known

Everything else is conjecture, but with the information we accept a crime is likely to have been committed and someone needs to be interviewed by the police. 

[Fellside]

Thanks to JKD for the  map work - establishing that the location / angle was genuine. Much appreciated! There are still multiple inconsistencies however - as noted. All we can hope for, is that the police respond in some fashion (eventually) and determine an outcome. If there isn’t an arrest and inconsistencies remain - then the shooting org’s should make great capital of this. 

[stuartyboy]

12 minutes ago, Fellside said:

Thanks to JKD for the  map work - establishing that the location / angle was genuine. Much appreciated! There are still multiple inconsistencies however - as noted. All we can hope for, is that the police respond in some fashion (eventually) and determine an outcome. If there isn’t an arrest and inconsistencies remain - then the shooting org’s should make great capital of this. 

No one will listen to the shooting organisations though unless they have solid proof and more importantly, the media runs with it. 

At the moment,  the shooting organisations should be all over social media and the mainstream press condemning this and offering a substantial reward for any information that leads to an arrest. Even then, the damage is done. Shooting sports has been badly damaged by this act. If it does turn out to be a legitimate killing under licence or a 'set up ', this should be broadcast from the rooftops. But it won't be. The media won't carry the story as it doesn't fit their agenda and BASC for all their communication centre and money, rarely communicate to the non fieldsports public.

[clangerman]

ALL shooting orgs should be shouting louder than anyone their silence speaks volumes for what we receive in return for our money at the moment we have nothing but a bird being shot and a dead buzzard so fresh after days of being on the ground it could almost fly with access to both landowner and who holds the perm kent police are a disgrace not to speak up with this smear against us all credit to jkd for his efforts locate the site top man 

[JKD]

1 hour ago, stuartyboy said:

No one will listen to the shooting organisations though unless they have solid proof and more importantly, the media runs with it. 

At the moment,  the shooting organisations should be all over social media and the mainstream press condemning this and offering a substantial reward for any information that leads to an arrest. Even then, the damage is done. Shooting sports has been badly damaged by this act. If it does turn out to be a legitimate killing under licence or a 'set up ', this should be broadcast from the rooftops. But it won't be. The media won't carry the story as it doesn't fit their agenda and BASC for all their communication centre and money, rarely communicate to the non fieldsports public.

Hi Stuart, have you backed up your statement by contacting any of the shooting orgs ? How do you know if they are already looking into this, and even rattling a few cages ?

Also, you must know that all these replies on this thread, including yours, show that legitimate shooters care intensely about situations like this. Any action towards the culprit is not going to happen over night, so lets give it some time and see if anything comes to light soon 😉

[JKD]

8 minutes ago, clangerman said:

ALL shooting orgs should be shouting louder than anyone their silence speaks volumes for what we receive in return for our money at the moment we have nothing but a bird being shot and a dead buzzard so fresh after days of being on the ground it could almost fly with access to both landowner and who holds the perm kent police are a disgrace not to speak up with this smear against us all credit to jkd for his efforts locate the site top man 

As I've said above, who knows what's going on in the investigation. Lets give it a few days/weeks for things to happen 😉

I wouldn't know who to contact to ask any pertinent questions,,,, could anyone else do this or perhaps are doing so ? 🙂

Edited November 18, 2020 by JKD

[clangerman]

2 minutes ago, JKD said:

As I've said above, who knows what's going on in the investigation. Lets give it a few days/weeks for things to happen 😉

I wouldn't know who to contact to ask any pertinent questions,,,, could anyone else do this or perhaps are doing so ? 🙂

personally i think it’s a put up job after over fifty years shooting i know what a fresh bird looks like and that thing is about to fly lol this is solvable with a bit of luck 

[stuartyboy]

3 minutes ago, JKD said:

Hi Stuart, have you backed up your statement by contacting any of the shooting orgs ? How do you know if they are already looking into this, and even rattling a few cages ?

Also, you must know that all these replies on this thread, including yours, show that legitimate shooters care intensely about situations like this. Any action towards the culprit is not going to happen over night, so lets give it some time and see if anything comes to light soon 😉

Fair points but I've not seen any response from any shooting organisations. Now, they may have responded and I've missed it. But thats the whole point. They should be all over this so that the general public can see their response. I've not seen any response on any media outlet, including PW.

I appreciate that legimate shooters care about this, but that's not being demonstrated to the public. Its fair enough coming on a shooters forum to complain about it but thats not getting our view across to the general public. That's why I think BASC should be leading the way by offering a 10k reward or whatever for info. 

There's going to be one of 2 outcomes to this. First one is that the authorities never get to the bottom of it. They can't identify the culprit or have insufficient evidence to charge. This in my opinion is the most likely. In this case, antis will continue to use this particular case to further their cause.

Or, they identify and charge a legitimate shooter with an illegal act and again, the antis will be all over it.

Either way, it ain't good so there has to be damage limitation led by shooting organisations. 

[JKD]

3 minutes ago, clangerman said:

personally i think it’s a put up job after over fifty years shooting i know what a fresh bird looks like and that thing is about to fly lol this is solvable with a bit of luck 

I agree,,,, to me there seems to be a lot of bending the truth, to put it mildly !!!

 

4 minutes ago, stuartyboy said:

Fair points but I've not seen any response from any shooting organisations. Now, they may have responded and I've missed it. But thats the whole point. They should be all over this so that the general public can see their response. I've not seen any response on any media outlet, including PW.

I appreciate that legimate shooters care about this, but that's not being demonstrated to the public. Its fair enough coming on a shooters forum to complain about it but thats not getting our view across to the general public. That's why I think BASC should be leading the way by offering a 10k reward or whatever for info. 

There's going to be one of 2 outcomes to this. First one is that the authorities never get to the bottom of it. They can't identify the culprit or have insufficient evidence to charge. This in my opinion is the most likely. In this case, antis will continue to use this particular case to further their cause.

Or, they identify and charge a legitimate shooter with an illegal act and again, the antis will be all over it.

Either way, it ain't good so there has to be damage limitation led by shooting organisations. 

I agree with all of your points, but like I said, I personally wouldn't know where or who to start asking about this 🤷‍♂️

[Stimo22]

33 minutes ago, stuartyboy said:

Fair points but I've not seen any response from any shooting organisations. Now, they may have responded and I've missed it. But thats the whole point. They should be all over this so that the general public can see their response. I've not seen any response on any media outlet, including PW.

I appreciate that legimate shooters care about this, but that's not being demonstrated to the public. Its fair enough coming on a shooters forum to complain about it but thats not getting our view across to the general public. That's why I think BASC should be leading the way by offering a 10k reward or whatever for info. 

There's going to be one of 2 outcomes to this. First one is that the authorities never get to the bottom of it. They can't identify the culprit or have insufficient evidence to charge. This in my opinion is the most likely. In this case, antis will continue to use this particular case to further their cause.

Or, they identify and charge a legitimate shooter with an illegal act and again, the antis will be all over it.

Either way, it ain't good so there has to be damage limitation led by shooting organisations. 

There had been information on the BASC app news feed for several days asking for information and giving the police reference etc 

[wymberley]

14 hours ago, JKD said:

OK,,,, after messing with G maps,,,, rotating and zooming in, Street View etc, I must apologise and retract my statement that this was NOT filmed from that location. It was. Proof in the screenshots below. Large red arrow is direction of camera aim. Buildings shown in the zoomed shot are those in the film. EXACTLY where the filming took place, I can't figure out,,,, or where the buzzard dropped.

The datelines and other info in the report are still in question, as is the buzzard's 'clean' condition 🤔

What we can deduce from this, I don't know. But I do apologise if I was misleading in any way 🙁 and hope that BASC et al do get involved.

 

Apologies,,,, it was. Please see above.

Spot on. I didn't go far enough away. The power/phone lines running lower left to right in the video just have to be those in your top screen-shot at below 6 o'clock in the top circle and just below that square pondish looking bit and running from NE to S and from there straight as a die to  above the building at 2 o'clock on the lower circle and below the RSPB buildings.

[Fellside]

2 hours ago, stuartyboy said:

No one will listen to the shooting organisations though unless they have solid proof and more importantly, the media runs with it. 

At the moment,  the shooting organisations should be all over social media and the mainstream press condemning this and offering a substantial reward for any information that leads to an arrest. Even then, the damage is done. Shooting sports has been badly damaged by this act. If it does turn out to be a legitimate killing under licence or a 'set up ', this should be broadcast from the rooftops. But it won't be. The media won't carry the story as it doesn't fit their agenda and BASC for all their communication centre and money, rarely communicate to the non fieldsports public.

I agree the org’s should be be more media savvy and proactive - especially re social. However the print press will run the story if it can be proven as fake. Their main agenda is to sell salacious headlines - they are more desperate than ever for ‘attention grabbers’. I suppose what we are all mostly acknowledging - if we can agree - is that there is a strong smell of rat in this PR attack. As to the eventual outcome - my crystal ball is a little hazy. 

[Teal]

I looked up the postcode (ME3 8DR) and there is very little woodland in the area, looks like mostly cereal ground, except the rspb reserve to east and SSSI to south. There is an unusual 'crop' I didn't recognise from the satellite view, but a google of David Long suggests it's pears. 

I don't believe that raptor persecution is widespread within shooting community. The RSPB often level the accusation at gamekeepers, and of course grouse moors, but the ground doesn't look at all suitable for game-shooting. So it doesn't exactly fit with their narrative.

No doubt in my mind though that a buzzard has been shot, and whoever this person is I hope gets the full force of the law, the police must have spoken to them. If there is some idiot shooting whatever flies over them, then they need their certificates taken off them. And hopefully a prosecution will be forthcoming, and perhaps there is additional recording or information not published. Timing is convenient, but although rare, unfortunately there are sufficient alleged incidents in the UK for the sporadic release at suitable intervals. Whether that's a tracker failing or something else. 

For the record, I don't think the RSPB are hiring hitmen to go on third party land and shoot birds of prey. And I don't think this one is 'fake news'.  It is possible the photo of the dead buzzard on their page is of a different bird, it's quite normal for 'library' pictures to be used, although in this instance it would be misleading with the text attached, I don't think sufficient to discard the above comments.

[ehb102]

Kent Police make no mention in their appeals that I can find. Anyone want to ring their press officer and find out what their official position is? Anyone got press credentials?

[Fellside]

Yes agree - we need some ‘official response’ on this. The RSPB and eco-woke extremists (one and the same really) seem to be the main ones cycling and recycling this story - but without evidence or an arrest to prove their case. As yet we have no circumstantial context. 
 

As much as several aspects of this story look very dodgy - I would still hope they throw the book at anyone proven guilty. 

[Cranfield]

I was born within a mile of the site, it is definitely as marked on JKD's Google map.
The Norwood Reserve has been there for over 70 years, although it has expanded slightly during that time.
The area on the map shown as "Wildlife Sanctuary" is the main and original area.
It is heavily wooded and surrounded by shrubland and rough ground.
Once the area was predominately fruit orchards, but there is now a good mix of arable.
Contrary to an earlier opinion, this is an excellent area for all birds of prey, including Buzzards.

Its not obvious , but the whole reserve area borders the North Kent marshes, stretching out to the River Thames.
This is prime grazing marshes, with loads of fleets and bodies of water.
There has been active organised shooting in this area for many years.

For what its worth, I think it is a buzzard and I think it fell like a winged bird.

Rather than hunt conspiracy theories, I suggest we just express our distaste at the event.

 

[clangerman]

34 minutes ago, Cranfield said:

 

For what its worth, I think it is a buzzard and I think it fell like a winged bird.

Rather than hunt conspiracy theories, I suggest we just express our distaste at the event.

 

thats what the buzzard shown so fresh it could fly is supposed to make you think anyone who can prove the video is anything but a BIRD of some description being shot kent police are all ears 

[JKD]

2 hours ago, Cranfield said:

I was born within a mile of the site, it is definitely as marked on JKD's Google map.
The Norwood Reserve has been there for over 70 years, although it has expanded slightly during that time.
The area on the map shown as "Wildlife Sanctuary" is the main and original area.
It is heavily wooded and surrounded by shrubland and rough ground.
Once the area was predominately fruit orchards, but there is now a good mix of arable.
Contrary to an earlier opinion, this is an excellent area for all birds of prey, including Buzzards.

Its not obvious , but the whole reserve area borders the North Kent marshes, stretching out to the River Thames.
This is prime grazing marshes, with loads of fleets and bodies of water.
There has been active organised shooting in this area for many years.

For what its worth, I think it is a buzzard and I think it fell like a winged bird.

Rather than hunt conspiracy theories, I suggest we just express our distaste at the event.

 

Many thanks for your insight and information regarding that area. I personally do know the lay of the land in that area, and visit infrequently as I said, but don't remember ever seeing any buzzards. But I bow to your more local knowledge,,,, and agree with your sentiments.

[WalkedUp]

2 hours ago, Cranfield said:

I was born within a mile of the site, it is definitely as marked on JKD's Google map.
The Norwood Reserve has been there for over 70 years, although it has expanded slightly during that time.
The area on the map shown as "Wildlife Sanctuary" is the main and original area.
It is heavily wooded and surrounded by shrubland and rough ground.
Once the area was predominately fruit orchards, but there is now a good mix of arable.
Contrary to an earlier opinion, this is an excellent area for all birds of prey, including Buzzards.

Its not obvious , but the whole reserve area borders the North Kent marshes, stretching out to the River Thames.
This is prime grazing marshes, with loads of fleets and bodies of water.
There has been active organised shooting in this area for many years.

For what its worth, I think it is a buzzard and I think it fell like a winged bird.

Rather than hunt conspiracy theories, I suggest we just express our distaste at the event.

 

Good detailed post and summary.