Gas guns

[Pedro]

I listened to this whilst pussy footing round the M25 this morning.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/farmingtoday/

 

They had a local "expert" on who was suggesting that the guns going off is frightening other birds nearby. He couldn't produce a scrap of evidence to back up his claim though.

 

The posts under the main article are mildly amusing and seem to come from mainly townies.

 

P.

[Baldrick]

Oxygen-thieving scrotes. Gas guns are here to stay, end of story.

 

A local farmer has the misfortune of having a member of the cast of 'The Archers' living on his boundary. She complains regularly about the use of gas guns, citing environmental damage, pollution, nuisance, subsidence and hearing damage. She's an actress on a programme about the rural community, but shows no understanding of the countryside.

[shootnfish]

they dont even scare the pigeons where i shoot ihave even had a shot at a flock n got one only to have the same flock fly round the field and come in to have another go this has happend a couple of times.some people have nothing better to do in thier lives other than winge about naff all.

[MerseaDavid]

We have got quite abit of rape and we have had to put nearly 3 gas guns on each field to try and keep them off and it has worked well on a few of them but some it has not.

 

The locals round here dont seem to mind them, I did have one come round and ask if I could turn it off for a day because they were having a party, but that is all.

[Cranfield]

Very few of my permissions seem to bother with them now, as has been said the birds get use to them.

Apart from some fields being flagged, its the bird scarer rocket that is in vogue.

Fire one of these high over the field and it explodes rattling windows for miles, they certainly shift the birds, but they eventually come back.

 

Some of the fields I shoot are very close to Army Ranges, where there is live firing every day and some very loud bangs indeed.

The pigeons ignore these noises completely and in the Autumn they are on the Ranges feeding on hawthorn and ivy berries.

[Warlock]

I shoot on some land where they farmer puts banger ropes down to keep the birds moving where we are shooting, trouble is the rope goes off they fly away then come back, fire a shotgun and they fly off never to be seen again. Typical.

[lampa]

Obviously a bloke with too much time on his hands, I'll bet he'd have a totally different view if he was the farmer who was losing a lot of money through crop damage.

 

Whats the difference?, you fit an alarm system to your house,business or car with a annoying siren to keep the unsavouries away, what happens if your not there to deactivate if if it goes off? It annoys the hell out of your neighbours, hence causing a nuisance, enviromental polution blah blah blah.

 

But NO,the poor farmer isn't allowed to protect his crop assets because it distrupts their "Ideal World of country living" but they dont mind buying or eating the produce that results from said crops. No wonder this country is on its ****, if they had their way everything we buy and eat would be imported so they wouldn't have to endure major upset they claim to have encountered caused from things such as gas guns.

 

Get a life "Mr Bamford" has it never occurred to you that if intelligent birds like pigeons can get used to the noise and ignore it then surely others can too? and if they cant, they'll simply move on to pastures new, it does'nt mean they are in decline, or maybe its due to feeling threatened by the do gooding people like yourself trapesing through the countryside with your binoculars,action slacks and hush puppies who wont leave them alone and disturbing their natural habitat.

 

Rant Over B)

Edited February 4, 2009 by lampa

[anser2]

Things are never black or white. Gas guns can cause problems with wildlife. I had a farmer set one up on the boundary of my reserve last spring on rape ( where i had been shooting during the winter ). I tollorated it until late April until it was obvious it was effecting the nesting birds. There was no hassle when he removed it and anyway the rape getting quite tall. Within a week the population of breeding song birds shot up from 60 pairs to 134 pairs ... the average level.

 

As for birds moving to pastures new , it dose not always work like that. In this country most of the suitable bird breeding habitat is occupied , if there is a vacant space there is a reason why its vacant , disturbance \ no food \ no nest sites ect. I can illistrate this with moorhens. I used to work as warden in one of the biggest duck collections in the UK. We had problems with moorhens taking the duck eggs so we used to trap them. But as soon as we removed one pair ( moorhens are very territorial on small ponds and will not share them with others in spring ) they were replaced by another and sometimes we would remove up 10 pairs from each pond. So where did all these other moorhens come from ? There must be a large part of the population that had nowhere to breed .... that was until we removed one of our pairs of moorhens ...... and as soon as the pond was vacant one of this floating population of moorhens moved in.

 

We also have gas guns on the wheat fields to scare off the brent at the back of a saltmarsh where I shoot. This is a recent pratice and its ruined a day time duck roost where frequently a thousand duck used to spend the day.

 

Gas guns are a neccessary bane , but when you have one going off every 10 mins 100 yards from where you live they wear a bit thin after a few months.

Edited February 4, 2009 by anser2