Topic: Trapping birds for bird food

[sawfish]

Hi there all you Moral high grounders,

to be honest I reckon if I walked past a trap and saw magpies trapped in it I'd find it hard not to release them, much as I hate magpies and would love to watch one getting killed and eaten by a hawk.

I know it is an absolute fact that crows take the eyes out young animals as my father in laws a farmer and he had a calf in that predicament last year but I dont think magpies would be able. However I have watched them hacking at baby birds in a nest with their horrible beaks (and yes I know this is 'nature' but I still dislike it).

At the end of the day I'm not too bothered about what happens to one or two of the the huge amount of magpies we have around now because magpies PECK AT MY VEG, and that is punishable by DEATH!!

[OllieC]

magpies PECK AT MY VEG, and that is punishable by DEATH!!

Do they? And there was me thinking they'd be eating the squirrels... Well, that's me put them back on the "please die a quick and natural death" list...

I've been thinking about this a bit more, and know I said I'd shut up but well, this is me...

Isn't there something a little bit neanderthal about enjoying killing animals? It may or may not be a necessity - and that is where this discussion started. But to go out doing killing at the weekend for fun, justified because it's natural & we've done it for ages (a bit like rape and child abuse, I suppose)? Does it make the hunter feel all big & strong? Or perhaps gives them a little taste of how god must feel?

A little ramble from me on a Monday morning... sorry if I've upset any sex offenders.

[sawfish]

A bit weird perhaps.

So your saying thet a fisherman on the banks of a river is basically the same as Gary Glitter?

[kenkew]

Chalk and cheese there. GG stirs up anger and emotion...I can't see either in sitting on a wet bank wasting my life staring at a cork bobbing up and down!

[sawfish]

some people just dont get fishing. I love the tension and unpredictability, life isn't always about an end result.

[Mr Smith]

Can't stand it when people have to reply in Capitals,  big letters big mouth the Essex way.

[OllieC]

some people just dont get fishing. I love the tension and unpredictability, life isn't always about an end result.

I love fishing and therefore it's completely different (and also, they have a completely different concept of pain, as we all know!)!! I'm more referring to people who choose a gardening forum to post about the fun of killing animals.

[Hyacinth]

some people just dont get fishing. I love the tension and unpredictability, life isn't always about an end result.

I love fishing and therefore it's completely different (and also, they have a completely different concept of pain, as we all know!)!! I'm more referring to people who choose a gardening forum to post about the fun of killing animals.

But this is the Wildlife sub-forum, Ol :-[ - if only gardening matters should be posted over all the sections here, then Sam's OP would be out of order too? :-\

[keef]

Can't stand it when people have to reply in Capitals,  big letters big mouth the Essex way.

I think you used a capital at the start of "Captials" when you did'nt need to.

[OllieC]

some people just dont get fishing. I love the tension and unpredictability, life isn't always about an end result.

I love fishing and therefore it's completely different (and also, they have a completely different concept of pain, as we all know!)!! I'm more referring to people who choose a gardening forum to post about the fun of killing animals.

But this is the Wildlife sub-forum, Ol :-[ - if only gardening matters should be posted over all the sections here, then Sam's OP would be out of order too? :-\

Nooo, I mean that posting about killing wildlife & how much fun it is might perhaps be more suited to a hunting forum... I wouldn't have much to add if we stuck to just gardening!

And the other thing I was saying about appealing to the inner neanderthal, is just that I think sometimes our morals haven't caught up with our abilities... Society has very strong views on the morality of some things, whilst others are "each to their own". More an observation than anything else! Personally I don't mind if someone goes shooting for fun, but I wouldn't enjoy it myself.

[Froglegs]

What's difference between trapping and killing Magpies and say trapping and killing a mouse, drowning slugs & snails in beer or squashing caterpillars,all not a nice ways to go....are they, but all a necessity in protecting your crops or income.

[Borlotti]

Good point, we all like birds and it is a shame to see them trapped and I hate cruelty to people or animals but do admit that I stamp on flying ants, hate rats and snakes.  Birds are OK but don't like it when they arrive in a gang and strip the fruit off my fig tree.  Getting slightly away from the subject saw a flock of green birds, paraqueets, someone said, at the allotment eating the sunflower seeds.  I didn't think they were wild birds.  They looked lovely, anyone else seen them.  We also have a ringed pigeon on the allotment that doesn't seem to want to fly home, he eats the chicken food and seems to have moved in to their outside pen, although they do chase him away.  Perhaps he is just having a rest as he got lost and is building up his strength to fly home.

[Barnowl]

We see flocks green parakeets the whole time in SW London. Fun, but they're noisy blighters and,  I gather, rather territorial.

[Froglegs]

and opening a door without breaking a lock can hardly be classed as vandalism.[/color]

Well it is on my allotment  :o

[ceres]

"We see flocks green parakeets the whole time in SW London."

They're also voracious feeders.  We have them on our site.  I've been watching them the last couple of weeks on the horse chestnut trees at the back of my plot.  They swoop in just before dusk and gorge themselves on the conkers.  Have had a lot more damage on fruit trees this year from them.  There was talk of an official cull last year, don't know if it happened.

[lorna]

Borlotti (I am a bit of thread) if you are able to catch the ringed pigeon there will probably be a phone number on the underneath of a wing. I am sure there is a pigeon fancier who will be glad to know what happened to his bird (I did lose quite a few when we raced pigeons).  It may well be that after a good rest and feed it will fly home.

[OllieC]

Borlotti (I am a bit of thread) if you are able to catch the ringed pigeon there will probably be a phone number on the underneath of a wing. I am sure there is a pigeon fancier who will be glad to know what happened to his bird (I did lose quite a few when we raced pigeons).  It may well be that after a good rest and feed it will fly home.

We used to get quite a few on Hayling Island - they would see our local rough n' ready pigeons & decide to settle down with them. The grateful owners would always send an Amtrak courier to collect them... I could never figure out why they wanted a pigeon that got lost!!!

[lorna]

Olliec To give them a second chance :). As we owned a haulage company we used one of our small vehicles to train pigeons for the club members. We once released some 200 pigeons on a training trip and only about 50 got home. All sorts of things can happen. Never did find out what happened to them

[Mr Smith]

Pigeons tend to give up through bad weather when they get tired but will stay around if they have a source of food, if you do manage to find a phone number stamped on his wing and you do phone up the fancier in some cases he might tell you to pull it's neck unless it is a pigeon from a really good blood line,

[Borlotti]

We did try to catch it with a net but it flew off into the high trees, then came back later. It seemed OK perhaps just needed a rest or liked the allotment better than its home.  Don't want to send it back if it is going to get its neck rung.  Anyhow the chicken man (at the allotment who knows about birds) will monitor the situation and if he manages to catch it will certainly ring the owner and either send it back or let it take it chances on the allotment.  It didn't seem to be injured but just having a good holiday and enjoying life.