Monday, October 01, 2007
Dead Tawny, mystery solved
I had thought that the dead tawny owl I found last week with the "hollowed" out head had been the victim of a collision with an overhead power line as I found its body near to such a power line. Talking with a couple of local women this afternoon down the canal, they mentioned that last week they had seen an owl attacked in a tree by a mink. Seemingly the owl was roosting in a dead tree when it was attacked by the mink which had climbed the tree and attacked it. The owl was dragged towards the canal towpath by the mink grabbing its throat, they intervened and drove off the mink but sadly it was too late for the owl which died or was dead by the time they reached it. I think the mink (or rats) must have returned after they left and started to eat the owl from the head, which is when I found it. I have never heard of mink attacking birds in trees before and would never have thought one would tackle a Tawny Owl ? I feel even happier now that the 27 Mink I have trapped and shot so far in the vicinity this year has removed yet another threat to our declining bird population. I shall continue with my mink culling program through the winter. All we need now are some humane traps to get rid of the huge grey squirrel population which also must be creating havoc with woodland nesting birds locally.
14 comments:
Well done paul.Lets get some squirrel traps up and running,I am overrun with them at Northowram.
Here here! (or is it hear hear! I have never known), either way the sentiment's the same.
but their cute and cuddly
oh well lets get rid of the lot
little owls,pheasants,mute swans,golden pheasants etc,and everything else that we dont like.
but where do you stop? rip down house martins nests because they really should live on cliffs? kill all barn owls that live in barns they should live in tree stumps.
lets not stop there
fill in every reservoir in calderdale and the gravel pits all man made.
environmental fascism
live and let live
What a strange attitude to take Darrel. In many parts of the world non indigenous forms of animal are controlled to prevent the destruction of native fauna. Rats which kill flightless birds, Cane Toads which kill anything, Feral Cats, Feral Dogs, etc.There are plenty of sensible control policies from around the world designed to save native species from extermination by non native life forms released by man (usually). The canal used to have a large population of Water Voles and Water Shrews up to the 1970's, all now gone to mink predation from feral mink which in some cases were released by idiots who profess to love wildlife !
By the way, as a long standing member of the Anti Nazi league and as someone who was beaten and stabbed with knives and left for dead by real fascists in Elland not many years ago, I object to being the term Fascists being used in such a glib unthinking way.
Well said Paul,Darrel ......dear o dear.Think before you go off on another one....................
Have to agree with Darrell on this one.Most trappers and shooters say they are doing nature a favour and not getting any self pleasure out of it.To take this attitude we would have to wipe out most creatures including raptors to try keep birds safe. The biggest threat to nature is man but you can,t trap and shoot them.
I cant believe any nature lover could kill a wild animal or bird, and anyone that does should be in a shooters club ,not a nature group. Lets just leave it to nature to sort out.
To illustrate the point yet again about mink, though with all the published data I cannot understand why we still need this discussion. The fishing lake at Elland Gravel pits had 91 (NINETY ONE) Mink trapped and killed earlier this year in 12 months of trapping. Can you imagine the sheer amount of native wildlife this lot would have killed had they not been trapped ! I suppose if we left them alone eventually they would simply run out of other animals to kill and then starve to death anyway. I prefer the first alternative of removing them from the food chain that is not adapted to cope with them in the first place.
I volunteered to trap and kill the mink on the towpath because I knew that if it was left to others the mink would be thrown into the canal trapped in a cage to drown. I felt this was barbaric and offered to trap to make sure the mink got a swift clean death though being shot.
If you ever wondered why moorhens are not around in any great numbers on the canal or gravel pits just read the water vole survey carried out by Peter Bowler in which found numerous sets of waterhen feet left behind after mink had got them all along the canal.
im sorry paul,
but where do you draw the line?
destroy everything that does not belong here? or just what 'we' do not like?
the rspb the so called protector of the nations birds kills corvids(and gulls i belive) to stop taking tern eggs,but would we advocate the killing of merlins that take little ringed plover chicks?both protected! catch22.
do 'moth'ers' stop feeding birds because they eat all the moths in the traps?
darrell
by the way my comments were about squirrels not mink.
trapping,cages,shooting i think you may be more suited to gamekeeping,they love that stuff.
at the end of the day killings killing,right or wrong its still a death sentence for the poor living creature you have in your sights.
you may go down a storm in the dark peak area of the peak distict
I for one am fed up with this site being used to attack people on a personal level. Debate is fine and in deed an important part of any democratic society.
However to accuse someone of being a facist is outrageous and to continue to attack someone's character without apology given Paul's objection to the use of the word is unthinkable.
As for your comments about letting things live I assume that you have never killed anything and are a practising vegan.
At the moment in this country Paul has a right to take the action he is doing and which he believes is right and for the better good.
I suggest that anyone who wants to comment refrain from personal attacks upon his character and stick to facts and intelligent debate.
Darrel
You seem to be completely missing the point. Man has introduced an alien predator into a balanced eco-system. None of our wildlife has a chance against a mink. The mink is a superb creature which I admire greatly as a top predator in its own right. Its simply that its a superb creature put in the wrong place by mans greed and stupidity.
I take no pleasure in killing them, in fact I find it distressing to do so but someone from the angling club would be doing this if I did not. At least they are only caught in cage over night and then killed quickly with one shot to the head.
All the mink I have killed so far have been young mink bred in the area or moving into it. These would probably be killed by the resident dog mink at some point (if males) if he caught them or move into another area to try and displace a less dominant male. I have the trap placed outside what I think is the dominant males patch but have caught and released him on one occasion. I let him go because as long as he is in residence in this one area (round Rawson's Pool)he will kill or drive out any other mink nearby. I also let him go it has to be said because I did not have the heart to kill him. I have watched this mink for four winters now since he first appeared. He is a huge black mink and impossible to mistake due to his size. I know exactly where he lives and have no intention of revealing this to others who might do him harm.
All the other animals ( I have ignored the silly mention of house martin nests or gravel pits as they are irrelevant to the discussion)you mention in your posts are resident or not predators and thus have not seriously affected the balance of our eco system. As far as I am aware only two animals that have been introduced by man have done serious damage to our existing ecosystem, Mink & Grey Squirrels ? Even then I don't think its all down to them why we have almost lost the water vole and red squirrel. I think they have simply accelerated the loss started by habitat degradation and fragmentation. The problem is they are the final nail in the coffin for both species unless something is done by the species that started this,man. You don't need to take my word for the damage to native wildlife they cause as there are many papers and articles online one can read about this.
The killing of anything should be an emotive issue (perhaps if more people had to see factory farmed animals killed they might see they were less brutally treated whilst alive)and is going to inflame passions whatever view you hold. But personal attack on those who hold differing views is neither needed or helpful to the discussion or to win others to your own point of view. This is a public forum open to viewing by many other people on the internet and as such should be used to win others to your point of view not to name call people with differing views to your own.
paul
i get the point of your original post,
and my use of the phrase
'environmental fascism' was not meant to be a personnel attack on you,but a general comment on the view that man can pick and chooses what lives and dies.
andy
i have never killed anything knowingly!as for meat well until i lose my sharp pointy teeth that evolution gave me i will continue to eat it.
though last night i was eating quorn.
oh well another bunch of people i wont be getting cards off this christmas
Darrel
You are indeed correct in your guess you will not be on my Xmas card this, but thats because no one is. I don't do cards for any occasion as I view them a pure and simple rip off playing on peoples guilt. They also destroy the environment by using resources best used for other things. On the other hand I have been told I don't do cards because I am a tight yorkshire git with short arms and deep pockets, I think I prefer the environmental reason myself :-))
You might also like to know that I spotted the big dog mink that lives near Rawsons pool this morning and he looks in fine fettle. He did his usual swan dive into the canal at my approach and by following the air bubbles on the surface of the canal I could see he was nipping back to his home in the wall.
ive only ever seen 1 mink at the gravel pits in over 20 years of birding there.
i also dont do xmas cards but i am tight and a scrooge
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