August

With the home bred ducks busy with their test flights, and the first autumn migrants arriving, now is the moment to start feeding your flight pond. With luck, some of the families will have mums and dads that visited you last season, so will be only too happy to investigate now. Wouldn’t it be a pity if they found that the cupboard was bare?

After a dismal year regarding COVID-19 the coming season has finally begun to look brighter, game days are sought after, and we can all sigh with relief that normality will hopefully return. Unfortunately, on the other hand the weather has failed to be as bright as hoped, arable crops are still yet to be combined, along with various hay fields making wandering released pheasants a challenge to dog back to the surrounding pens.

A public consultation was launched on Thursday 19th August by NRW, on the approach to regulating the shooting and trapping of wild birds and the destruction of eggs and nests. It includes open questions on their approach and proposals.

We tend to think of grass as rather barren, and even hostile, in terms of its value to game and shooting. But, its not so long ago that our management and use of grass offered a living for a range of birds some of which have all but gone from the modern countryside.

With the gamebird releasing season in full swing, the GWCT is reminding all game managers operating on or within 500m of EU protected sites of the new requirement to inform Natural England the number of gamebirds released and their location Details of any relevant SSSI consent under which the activity is operating is also required.