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Feb 2022
10:19am, 15 Feb 2022
4,086 posts
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J2R
Nice close up view of a yellowhammer yesterday near the top of a very cold and windy Win Green, Wilts.
Otherwise main bird sighting from a weekend in Reading was a ridiculous number of red kites, everywhere. It strikes me that there are just too many - there's something out of kilter for me about there being so many of what should be an apex predator in such a small area. OK, they're mainly carrion eaters but I can't see how there could be enough naturally occurring carrion to feed such a population. I know people in Reading feed the birds, though, and I am a little uncomfortable with the idea of people going to supermarkets to buy chicken to put on their roofs for the birds. I'm no vegan or even vegetarian myself, although I do try to limit meat consumption, so maybe I'm being hypocritical, especially as I put out food in the garden for birds myself (seeds and nuts, though, not meat).
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Feb 2022
2:47pm, 15 Feb 2022
22,220 posts
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Red Squirrel
Male & female blackcap in shrubs by railway station.
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Feb 2022
2:54pm, 15 Feb 2022
24,121 posts
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Rosehip
The skylarks were up and singing yesterday - lots of them 
Starlings don’t seem to mind the rain, I can’t afford to keep providing fatballs at the rate they are eating them today
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Feb 2022
4:28pm, 15 Feb 2022
2,086 posts
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Heinzster
Lots of brightly coloured chaffinches here
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Feb 2022
4:55pm, 15 Feb 2022
1,128 posts
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Dochart
Otherwise main bird sighting from a weekend in Reading was a ridiculous number of red kites, everywhere. It strikes me that there are just too many - there's something out of kilter for me about there being so many of what should be an apex predator in such a small area.
It's suggested that populations of red kite (and buzzard) are being partly sustained by the huge numbers of alien birds released for people to shoot at for fun. Estimates suggest over 60 million pheasants and red-legged partridges are released every year in the UK and most of them aren't eaten by the shooters. The shooting industry doesn't dispute the estimate, but no one knows the real numbers as there is no requirement for shoots to keep records.
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Feb 2022
4:58pm, 15 Feb 2022
24,125 posts
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Rosehip
Round here the kites seem to thrive on rabbit and pheasant roadkill
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Feb 2022
5:09pm, 15 Feb 2022
5,765 posts
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um
I though motorways and dual carriageways were the main food source for red kites, and their spread through UK is more based around road structure than shoots.
I have seen massed kites around tractors ploughing fields - not sure what they were after?
Although I've never seen uncollected pheasants here .. they're all hanging up by the shoot.
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Feb 2022
5:19pm, 15 Feb 2022
3,577 posts
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jacdaw
Kites will eat worms, um.
All the roadkill pheasants resulting from the shoots releasing them by the million increase populations of crows and foxes, etc... which the gamekeepers then have to shoot. And probably buzzards and kites, which they aren't supposed to shoot.
Lots of evidence of shoots dumping dead pheasants in pits after big shoots.
The big pheasant shoots are a disaster for the environment. Rough shoots do little harm, but are probably only worthwhile because of the high pheasant population resulting from the big shoots release.
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Feb 2022
5:25pm, 15 Feb 2022
24,129 posts
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Rosehip
Small farm shoots here, birds sold for over the top price from the farmshop/butchers or for £1 each from the keeper if you don’t mind dressing them yourself
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Feb 2022
11:11pm, 16 Feb 2022
20,390 posts
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flanker
prefer my game pie without added clotheing, no matter how sartorially elegant they may look.
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