Buzzard shot in co Meath

dodderangler

Was just readin the sun and there's a section about a buzzard found by a local in meath under a lot of stress and struggling to fly so was caught and taken to vets
The bird was xray'd and was found to have a good load of lead shot pellets in its chest and wings
Bird was so badly wounded the vet put it down
Fcukin scumbags shootin a bird of prey
I have a feelin I know the type of person who'd do it won't say on this
I say this as I've had conversations with two dickheads before askin bout my hawk and joked bout shootin a buzzard if they seen one because they are taking their poults
http://ien.ie/2012/buzzard-shot-in-county-meath/

As fellow hunters what are your views on our buzzards
I love seein them just hate when they try attack my Harris hawk

Glensman

Our area is infested with them.
Wouldn't be a fan.

cavan shooter

I have two Buzzards up around me very few grey crows and magpies. I have seven pheasants shot this year, I don't see an issue, you can work around them. I have more worries about foxes.

deeksofdoom

dodderangler wrote: »

As fellow hunters what are your views on our buzzards
I love seein them just hate when they try attack my Harris hawk

The buzzard popuation has exploded over the last couple of years. They are a nuisance and this sort of thing is inevitable. They are a beautiful bird to watch and I don't condone shooting them - but I would prefer if they weren't so plentiful.

gozunda

the same eejits who do so are going to ruin shooting for the rest of us

It's a bit like the mania some gobs have for shooting up road signs and anything else they take a fancy to - no fxcing sense or cop on imo.

Buzzards Are a protected species - end of.

Re: an 'Explosion' in numbers - I reckon this is an exaggeration. There are only an estimated 150 pairs in the republic

http://www.irishtimes.com/timeseye/birds/comeback.htm

They are mainly carion eaters but will also tackle rabbit, small birds and even earthworms.

dodderangler

deeksofdoom wrote: »

The buzzard popuation has exploded over the last couple of years. They are a nuisance and this sort of thing is inevitable. They are a beautiful bird to watch and I don't condone shooting them - but I would prefer if they weren't so plentiful.

They have exploded true enough
But I definately wouldn't be happy with people shooting them

Half-cocked

Mostly they eat earthworms. They also scavenge. If you think they are taking poults, shoot a rabbit or two every couple of days and chuck them out in the open for the buzzards. They'll leave the poults alone if they have rabbit served up. A lot of gamekeepers in the UK do this and it seems to work. Mink and foxes are a much greater threat than buzzards. If idiots start shooting protected birds of prey to protect poults, it'll cause us all problems down the road.

deeksofdoom

Half-cocked wrote: »

If you think they are taking poults, shoot a rabbit or two every couple of days and chuck them out in the open for the buzzards.

Careful what you shoot them with, leaving out a rabbit full of lead pellets will poison a buzzard.

Birdnuts

Incidents like this will only erode public goodwill towards shooting/hunting and put suspecion on decent law abiding hunters as they go about their lawfull business, which isn't good for anyone.Yes buzzard numbers have increased, but given that they were extinct up till recently in the Republic its simply a case of a native species reclaiming its rightfull place in the Irish countryside. Indeed its probably not usefull to talk in terms of % increases given the very low starting base and there are still large areas of the country that have few if any buzzards. Below is a link to info about buzzards and their diet in Scotland, where they are much more common than here. Also includes info from the BASC which shows that buzzards are not a significant threat to pheasant poults

http://www.snh.gov.uk/docs/A253112.pdf

Indeed the vast majority of falconers don't appear to rate their hunting ablities much at all, to the extent that few if any are kept for such purposes.

PS: I see there has been a good response to an appeal for information on this incident on the Meath Crime facebook page. Hopefully some of the info posted will help the gardai bring the culprit to justice.

Birdnuts

deeksofdoom wrote: »

Careful what you shoot them with, leaving out a rabbit full of lead pellets will poison a buzzard.

Ingestion of large quatities of lead shot can be a hazard to certain groups of birds eg.wildfowl - but it is unlikely that an occasional shot rabbit would represent a major hazard in that regard to an individual animal/bird. AFAIK few if any non-wildfowl species have tested positive for signficant levels of bloodstream lead eithier in the UK or Ireland to date. Such tests are regulary carried out on any protected species found dead in suspicious circumstances.

elius

I think its about time man and bird lived in harmony... They have as much right to hunt the land as we do. Sooner everyone realises this the better for everyone. As for the people who shot the bird these aren't proper hunts men there just C*(ts who dont no the forst thing about hunting or nature for that matter..

DBB

This is not the first buzzard to be shot in the area this lad was shot. The vet who put this bird to sleep has treated several injured (shot) buzzards in the past 2-3 years, and quite a few more have been found dead.
Indeed, this buzzard is not the first bird of prey to be shot and killed in this area. There have been 3 dead red kites found shot dead within a couple of miles.
Clearly, there are a group of ignorant yahoos hunting in this area, killing these beautiful creatures, too thick to realise the harm they're doing on many different levels. I really hope they're caught and punished, they should be ashamed of themselves.
There are quite a few buzzards in this part of Meath, but drive just a few more miles inland and you'll rarely see them at all. That they cause excessive damage to pheasant populations is highly debatable: but the slackjaws killing the birds aren't going to let the evidence get in the way of their killing sprees.
The above killings have been reported in greater detail to the relevant authorities.

Cass

Lads & ladies.

This subject comes up every now and then, and is an emotive subject. My first thoughts were to move it out of hunting as no self respecting hunter would be associated with this type of needless killing, and it is not in any way, shape or form hunting.

However after some thought and discussion with the other mods it was decided to leave it here to show that true hunters are as appalled by these acts as everyone else.

On that note please be mindful of the first rule of the site, and forum. To keep things civil. By all means voice your opinion, but let's keep the language, name calling, etc. to an acceptable level.


Thanks.

duckysauce

Glensman wrote: »

Our area is infested with them.
Wouldn't be a fan.

why not , what do they do that you are not a fanboy ?

pintos80

CAVAN SHOOTER

if you have worries about foxes, pm me.
il sort them out for ya lively...........

pintos80

pardon my ignorance,

but is a buzzard the bird with a huge wing span and glids and hovers around slowly?
like a massive crow......

dodderangler

pintos80 wrote: »

pardon my ignorance,

but is a buzzard the bird with a huge wing span and glids and hovers around slowly?
like a massive crow......

Wingspan of bout 5 foot and tends to soar more so than hover
The bird that hovers is kestrel
You'll know when a buzzard is around
1 the crows will be going mental
2 you'll hear them they've a very distinct call look it up on YouTube buzzard call
You'll never forget it once you heard it once

Vizzy

pintos80 wrote: »

pardon my ignorance,

but is a buzzard the bird with a huge wing span and glids and hovers around slowly?
like a massive crow......

Not ignorance at all:)

A buzzard is brown/grey and glides and hovers around,but you could also be referring to a raven(which is actually bigger than a buzzard) and they are jet black and they also glide around.
Best advice is to google both but they are not that similar really.

edit:dodderangler beat me to it

DBB

If you see a large bird of prey hovering, chances are it's a hen harrier, this is the only large bird of prey that truly hovers. Buzzards can hang on the wind, but it's not real, proper hovering! They can't do it without a facing breeze.
And as dodderangler says, the buzzard's cry, called a "mewl", is absolutely distinctive.

dodderangler

Vizzy wrote: »

Not ignorance at all:)


edit:dodderangler beat me to it

Lol
Your right a raven is huge seen two last week in a lads garden think he's breeding them
They are slightly bigger than my female Harris hawk

pintos80

ye looked at you tube.

never saw a buzzard, it was a raven.... can i shoot a raven? im guessing "no".... they are BIG

Birdnuts

pintos80 wrote: »

ye looked at you tube.

never saw a buzzard, it was a raven.... can i shoot a raven? im guessing "no".... they are BIG

NO - they are protected, see the sticky section on this forum on what game/vermin species can be legally shot and when.

dodderangler

pintos80 wrote: »

ye looked at you tube.

never saw a buzzard, it was a raven.... can i shoot a raven? im guessing "no".... they are BIG

Why would you want to shoot a raven?
Ravens are classed as being one of the most intelligent birds in the world

lb1981

Cass wrote: »

Lads & ladies.

This subject comes up every now and then, and is an emotive subject. My first thoughts were to move it out of hunting as no self respecting hunter would be associated with this type of needless killing, and it is not in any way, shape or form hunting.

However after some thought and discussion with the other mods it was decided to leave it here to show that true hunters are as appalled by these acts as everyone else.

On that note please be mindful of the first rule of the site, and forum. To keep things civil. By all means voice your opinion, but let's keep the language, name calling, etc. to an acceptable level.


Thanks.

Your right to leave it up and i don't think many lads on here would take a pot shot at a buzzard,it would be fairly pointless and i dont see what sense of achievement you would get from it ,but sorry i cant help feeling that there is an element of **** stirring going on with this thread and that was the reason it was started.
Nobody on here needs reminding that it is illegal to shoot a bird of prey so why post a story from a rag of a paper about clowns shooting at one ,it draws idiots on to the forum, look at how many views that the thread has got compared to replies,its unnecessary.
In the original post it is mentioned that he knows the type of people who would do such a thing but wont say on here ,what exactly is the point of that statement?
One of the main land owners that we have permission off had his daughters miniature yorkie attacked by a buzzard while it sleep on the back lawn,the dog had to be stitched from head to arse,maybe the buzzard thought it was lying there dead who knows.
That man has told us if he sees one over the garden again he will shoot it..he more than likely wont as he has no gun but he said it ,it is just a figure of speech and you take it with a pinch of salt you don't start a thread on how land owners are now going buzzard shooting .
Plenty of buzzards on our land ,i have seen them take newly released poults but that's no more or less than a car will do on the road so you have to get on with it.
As a club we were accused of trapping them ,we couldn't stop them from going into our ladder trap ,we had to take them down in the end but that story nearly made the gutter press even though it was totally false.
I cant help feel this was started to get at the lads who told him they would shoot a buzzard and i have a feeling that they might be members on here.
A couple of months back the Op posted he took a long range shot at a rabbit but only winged it and it got back to the borrow, now i don't see much difference between a careless shot that and taking a shot at a buzzard ,the two of them are wrong if you are involved in our sport.

TriggerPL

They look lovely .

We have 6 in out area overlooking our duck ponds , over 80 duck un accounted for and several carcasses striped to the bone .

Seen a sparrow hawk ( i think ) take a partridge off the road in front of me one morning to . Was the best thing I ever witnessed . My dad was trying to net it to put back in the pen and then swoop and gone .

A_Sober_Paddy

If I'm correct, the bird as a species isn't endangered, so I don't think its as big a deal as if it was a Red kite(they are threatened here are they?)

gozunda

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

If I'm correct, the bird as a species isn't endangered, so I don't think its as big a deal as if it was a Red kite(they are threatened here are they?)

Estimated 150 pairs only in country
No population in many counties
Protected species

A_Sober_Paddy

gozunda wrote: »

Estimated 150 pairs only in country
No population in many counties
Protected species

My apologies I thought they were a lot more plentiful, I apologize...Then its a disgrace.

TriggerPL

gozunda wrote: »

Estimated 150 pairs only in country
No population in many counties
Protected species

More like guesstimate , there is about 14 in a 6 mile radius of our town, this year I've got to the stage of seeing then nearly 5 times a week .

Going to put out rabbits and see can I get some pic

Cass

This is exactly my point.

Name calling, in fighting, language, etc. Not 45 minutes after i asked for it to be kept civil.

Thread has been cleaned up, and locked. Anyone with an issue with this can contact me via PM.