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Post by bennachie on Oct 7, 2018 20:18:51 GMT
something we should be worried about perhaps..seems tree huggers Packham and monboit are all out to get grouse shooting banned kill off the Deer for tree planting for this rewilding pissh but will they stop there or start on fishing.
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Post by Willie Gunn on Oct 8, 2018 7:56:42 GMT
Perhaps they could start by re-wilding London.
Usual ill thought out rubbish. When Graham and I were fishing on Loch Dionard we had a crofter as our gillie, he was telling us about the sea eagles. They have no natural predators and are protected, so are very successful. He said the young form flocks before they pair up and likened them to teenage gangs, roaming the area looking for trouble. He thought it would not be long before they started to push the golden eagles away.
Capercallie large ground nesting birds, require protecting from vermin. The re wilders seem to forget that at times man needs to intervene to rid the areas of foxes and pine martins.
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burnie
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Post by burnie on Oct 8, 2018 10:10:42 GMT
Nothing wrong with repairing the damage that man has done, how it is managed is of course, another thing, you can't do things "by committee" but getting the views from all parties is the sensible way forwards.
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Post by sinkingtip on Oct 8, 2018 15:28:28 GMT
Never mind wolve's, lynx etc, what about beavers ? It's not even the damage they may / may not do the 'eco-system', it's the fact that I dinna want what are basically huge rats flegging me at dead of night during the sea trout season.
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burnie
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Post by burnie on Oct 8, 2018 15:58:58 GMT
Still not seen a Beaver in Scotland yet Andy
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Post by bennachie on Oct 8, 2018 16:57:50 GMT
ave see some pics on tweeter of the damage beavers have done to some fine looking trees on the Tay yet you never hear the tree huggers mention it but if its Deer eating a few saplings they want them culled.
They have also been found out killing mountain hares where they have planted trees yet complain when game keepers do it.
Strange how city folk think they know best when it comes to country matters .
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Post by earnfisher on Oct 9, 2018 8:24:02 GMT
If you want to see beaver damage come up the Earn before the leaves are out. Beavers felled an oak tree that was over 260 years old 2 weeks ago. The woods along the A9 before Perth were full of capercallie not that many years ago and there are none now. Woods full of foxes and pine martins. Any roosting pheasants have had it. Time these animal "experts" were asked to prove the rubbish they talk. One thing you notice that the persons that talk about this rewilding rubbish have usually no property of there own. Quicker persons realised that the countryside is not a big playpark but a large open air factory for producing food and for others pleasure. Bob.
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burnie
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Post by burnie on Oct 9, 2018 10:56:26 GMT
Predators are part of the balance of nature, managing them is only required where man interferes in the natural balance, total wipeout of native wild species is not something that is desirable, but a balance does have to be maintained, but based on science not Victorian attitudes. Beavers in Britain don't have any predators, so their numbers would have to be maintained, possibly the same may apply to Otters in the future too. If the Mountain Hare had enough natural predators, there would be no need to shoot them in culls, but man is clearly still killing and disturbing the balance of nature.
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Post by earnfisher on Oct 11, 2018 16:13:25 GMT
Balance of nature belongs to Packham and his thinking. The human is the top predator and is the only predator that breeds without considering its food supply. More mountain hares have been lost with government grants to clear ground and reseeding it than were ever killed by guns. Science tells us that the fish farmers are doing a great job. Our eyes tell us that sea lice are killing fish which is killing rivers. Beavers would need to be maintained to survive you must be kidding. We are over run with them and this has happened in the last 10 years. The Tay Beaver Study Group a few years ago were counting the numbers and since then there numbers have exploded. A grouse moor near Eaglesham that I shot on for many years had loads of harriers /owls/hares/curlew/lapwings etc because the ground was looked after. Bob.
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burnie
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Post by burnie on Oct 12, 2018 20:34:16 GMT
As I understand it, we need bio diversity and in places we have wild equivalents of farming mono culture, nothing will survive on it's own, life evolved to work in harmony, only man has failed to understand that. The hills were cleared of it's trees and wildlife for sheep at the time of the clearances, Victorian landowners perpetuated the rape of our countryside and added to the problem by removing native species and introducing aliens. To do nothing to redress the imbalance is a recipe for disaster and we are seeing signs of that disaster already happening around us. Re wilding or what ever you wish to call it is only part of the solution, redressing the balance of nature needs more than that. Removal of alien species and the maintenance of our countryside is going to be a long haul job, it has after all taken us over a hundred years to trash the rivers and adjoining countryside, it will probably take at least that long to return to something like what we would all like to see. Catch and release won't fill our river with salmon again, but it's a start and stopping shooting grouse for a bit in certain areas might just help get numbers back up, trouble is everyone wants to make loads of money out of the countryside and that will always lead to conflict of interests.
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Post by earnfisher on Oct 13, 2018 13:17:23 GMT
Our river rises and falls in days now were 40 and less years ago it was much slower. When you look at the river banks the white grass fields have been ploughed and have barley etc. now so the water runs off the fields faster and the banks get washed out. We need the food so you are not going to get the fields back. What I find sad is the number of bird species that have disappeared. Common birds like redshank/greenshank/terns/dippers/teal/widgeon/harriers/barn owls/long eared owls/willow warblers/ringed plovers have all gone and others like oystercatchers/skylark/various tits and finches/kingfishers are scarce. Beavers/goosanders/jackdaws/magpies and some others are all doing well Fishing the Tummel last year in the low water there was a lot of blanket weed about. [Sewage]? Bob.
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Post by earnfisher on Oct 13, 2018 13:18:08 GMT
Our river rises and falls in days now were 40 and less years ago it was much slower. When you look at the river banks the white grass fields have been ploughed and have barley etc. now so the water runs off the fields faster and the banks get washed out. We need the food so you are not going to get the fields back. What I find sad is the number of bird species that have disappeared. Common birds like redshank/greenshank/terns/dippers/teal/widgeon/harriers/barn owls/long eared owls/willow warblers/ringed plovers have all gone and others like oystercatchers/skylark/various tits and finches/kingfishers are scarce. Beavers/goosanders/jackdaws/magpies and some others are all doing well Fishing the Tummel last year in the low water there was a lot of blanket weed about. [Sewage]? Bob.
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burnie
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Post by burnie on Oct 13, 2018 13:48:10 GMT
I guess Angus and the bottom of the Cairngorm National park are bucking the trend just now, we have had a great summer for birds, only the Peregrines failed to raise a brood this year. The farmers round here are involved with the RSPB planting flowers/seed species round the field edges, so species are doing well, we have good numbers of Corn Buntings in the Arbroath area of national importance so I was told. Only places where the birds are thinner on the ground is on the hills that are heavily managed, they were burning in late spring for some mad reason, but even here we are getting more Raptors, with Golden and White Tailed eagles here(not breeding though due to nest disturbance), Red Kites and Kestrels are making a comeback. We have Tawny and Barn Owls breeding and a very few Long Eared Owls, I saw no Short Eared Owls in the hills this summer and no Peregrines away from the coast. Lapwings, Curlews and Redshanks seem to have bred well, there's a lot on the Montrose basin along with good numbers of water fowl. The weed problem is also quite bad here too, when I first fished these rivers they were proper bare spate rivers, some now have weed growth not unlike English rivers, the Luther that flows into the North Esk is full of Ranunculus and looks like a chalk stream, all due to fertilizer run off I am told.
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mows
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Post by mows on Oct 14, 2018 10:32:56 GMT
Burnie, what have the RSPB, done 're the corn buntings. It's been a success here, due to the farmers leaving food for them, but I've not seen anything actually done or spent by the rspb, but plenty credit taken.
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burnie
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Post by burnie on Oct 14, 2018 17:32:17 GMT
Burnie, what have the RSPB, done 're the corn buntings. It's been a success here, due to the farmers leaving food for them, but I've not seen anything actually done or spent by the rspb, but plenty credit taken. There's a nice shiny notice board on the back road from Auchmithie to Inverkeilor telling all and sundry about a joint venture with the RSPB and a local farmer, no idea if the RSPB have contributed anything other than advice, but there's lots of flowers with seed heads planted all round our village this year.
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Post by sinkingtip on Oct 14, 2018 20:30:28 GMT
Still not seen a Beaver in Scotland yet Andy You need to be up and about early or late. There is clear evidence on most waterways of tree gnawing. I'm starting to carry a big pointy stick.
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Post by earnfisher on Oct 17, 2018 9:40:04 GMT
Seen very few beavers. Most times it is just a head crossing the water and easy to tell the difference between beaver/otter/deer etc. BUT the banks are littered with the trees knawed to a point. Bare trees/branches with the bark stripped off. Burrows into the flood banks. Slides from the banking to the water which after a lot of use end up as ditches. Bob.
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Post by bennachie on Oct 19, 2018 12:14:34 GMT
i managed to get a photo oh this wee thing on the summit oh Ben Macdui a few weeks back. I never knew what it was but someone of better knowledge informed me it was a snow bunting . Any way clearly hardy wee things and great to see it in fact i would rather see a few more wee burds about the Cairngorms rather than the birds oh prey. But all have there place of course.
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Post by Willie Gunn on Oct 19, 2018 21:09:50 GMT
i managed to get a photo oh this wee thing on the summit oh Ben Macdui a few weeks back. I never knew what it was but someone of better knowledge informed me it was a snow bunting . Any way clearly hardy wee things and great to see it in fact i would rather see a few more wee burds about the Cairngorms rather than the birds oh prey. But all have there place of course. Has it flown away?
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Post by bennachie on Oct 20, 2018 7:21:59 GMT
i managed to get a photo oh this wee thing on the summit oh Ben Macdui a few weeks back. I never knew what it was but someone of better knowledge informed me it was a snow bunting . Any way clearly hardy wee things and great to see it in fact i would rather see a few more wee burds about the Cairngorms rather than the birds oh prey. But all have there place of course. Has it flown away? Seems if you upload it then delete it from Imgur it also deletes it from the sites you post it on . fixed now a think .
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