By Mike Swan, GWCT Head of Education
We all believe in The Code of Good Shooting Practice, don’t we? Well, we certainly should, because it has been written by our representative organisations as set of principles that any decent sportsman or woman should not just accept, but embrace and promote.
Whenever I ask a group who are out for one of the GWCT’s ever popular summer shoot walks whether they abide by the code, I see nothing but nods of assent. But, when I ask for a show of hands from those who have read it, rather fewer are raised. So, we all stick to the code, but we have not quite got around to reading it yet? Funny that…
On first reading, many people are surprised that it contains more about conservation than they expected. But then one of the main arguments that we make in favour of shooting and game management is the conservation benefit that comes from what we do. So, it should not be a surprise to anyone that the second of the five Golden Rules about which the whole code revolves says “Shoot managers must endeavour to enhance wildlife conservation and the countryside”.
You might think that is stating the obvious, and even that conservation follows shooting as night follows day, but beware. Gamekeeping has a tainted history. For example, to this day some who are involved in shooting are convicted of killing protected predators, much to the detriment of the reputation of the sport. Sadly, the headlines around this sort of thing are apt to overshadow the many good news stories that shooting has to offer. Also, its important to recognise that there can be downsides to game management.
Rats are a good example; feeding pheasants gives them an opportunity, which is bad in itself. Add the fact that rat poisons used by keepers to deal with the problem can find their way into non target wildlife, and then up the food chain to the likes of barn owls and kestrels, and you have a serious issue that all shoots need to understand and address.
So, let's look at some Code clauses, and think about what they mean from the conservation perspective.
1. Cover crops should enhance the habitat and be sympathetically sited
Lets take maize as an example; its great cover for pheasants and redlegs, and easy to grow well in most of the southern half of the country, but does it enhance the habitat? Well, in areas of intensive grass farming, any other crop adds to diversity, but the range of wildlife that benefits from maize is limited, with rats and rooks and rooks at the top of the list. So, while I am keen on blocks of maize as good shoot cover, I prefer situations where other, more conservation friendly crops are grown as well. A wild bird mix containing things such as millet, quinoa, triticale and kale offers food and cover for a much wider range of farmland wildlife.
Maize often brings issues about sympathetic siting too, with its rectangular blocks and regimented rows jarring with the natural curves of most landscapes. Adding some other more permanent habitat to help the cover crop blend in can add to conservation too. Using permanent grassy corners, patches of wild flowers, and clumps of shrubs and bushes really does enhance habitat as well as linking the crop to its landscape.
2. Shoots should follow the GWCT’s Guidelines for Sustainable Gamebird Releasing
One of the big arguments against gamebird releasing is that excessive numbers of birds are damaging to the environment. GWCT has researched this in detail, and shown that there is no evidence of problems if pens are not overstocked. In the case of pheasants, if you follow the normal system of release, and allow a hectare of pen space per thousand birds, there should be no significant damage to the woodland environment. That said, there is a special case for ancient semi natural woodland, that says avoid these areas if you can, and if you need to use them, reduce the density to 700 per hectare.
Most shoots will be doing some woodland habitat improvement such as thinning, coppicing or skylighting in and around the pen, and hopefully more widely across the rest of their woods. This helps a whole range of woodland wildlife, from warblers to butterflies. In this way, the pheasants and their management should bring an overall environmental benefit rather than cause significant harm.
3. Sufficient feed for released birds remaining after the end of the shooting season should be provided…
The clause then explains that this is normally needed till the end of May. There is a whole raft of reasons for this, from not being seen to abandon pheasants and partridges that are heavily dependent on the gamekeeper at a hungry time of year, to improving the physical condition of wild breeders; GWCT research shows that you can expect your pheasants to fledge twice as many young per hen if they are well fed through the spring. They are also much more likely to have another try if their first nest fails.
As the one at GWCT who hears most of the complaints from the public, I also point out that springtime feeding helps to anchor birds on the shoot, rather than have them drift off into the local village gardens to raid the bird tables, and eat the spring flowers. As a keen vegetable grower, I resent the pheasants eating my germinating peas, beans and lettuces too!
A carefully laid out late winter and spring feeding plan will also help seed eating songbirds during the “hungry gap” of late winter and spring. Well-designed feeders leave very little for scavengers like rats and rooks, but still offer a few vital grains to the likes of yellowhammers and chaffinches. Take a look at this video clip to understand more:
4. Shoot managers should be aware of SSSIs and other sensitive habitats on their ground…
This clause goes on to explain the need to prevent damage. Avoiding over stocking of release pens is obvious, and has already been covered, but there are lots of other shoot management activities that might be damaging. Feeding is an obvious example which needs considerable care. We have all seen the bare patch that develops under a feed hopper, and if that happened to be on an orchid colony, it would be a pity at the very least.
Potentially more serious is the use of straw. I am a great advocate of spreading some straw for your birds to scratch in, and chucking on a few handfuls of wheat whenever you go by, but in the wrong place this can swamp native vegetation and bring in weeds like nettles that do not belong there. So, please confine your straw rides to cover crops, and plantation woodlands, and avoid semi-natural vegetation such as permanent pasture and ancient woods.
No matter how well we do the job, there is always room to improve, and one of the things that gives me greatest job satisfaction is helping shoots to a better position in conservation terms. My GWCT advisory department colleagues and I offer a biodiversity assessment service, which aims to give shoots an achievable maintenance and improvement plan, without adding to costs. Indeed, we can quite often find savings that more than justify the cost of the visit. If you think we might be able to help, please contact us here, or ring us on 01425 651013.