Mystery of dead birds.

[Dan Salter]

Originally Posted by Gill Catton

I meant as an event it might be worth reporting - incase it happens again perhaps

Oh yes i agree with that

[demicav]

After all this time the mystery may be solved. Today in a waiting room I picked up an old 2005 RSPB magazine. Inside was an article about a shift in government policy to make it easier for fisheries owners to get a licence to cull Cormorants. I know we agreed that the bird in my photos was probably a Shag but reading this article made me wonder if such moves were affecting other bird species as well. The article goes on to say that 17,000 Cormorants spend the winter in England but around 2,900 pairs stay to nest. At the time the RSPB were concerned that up to 3000 would be killed that year. It certainly gave me something to think about.

[SheffieldPete]

It all depends if the people doing the culling actually know the difference between a cormorant and a shag, I suppose. That's a problem with giving licenses to cull "pest" species - how many shags get killed with cormorants, stock doves with woodpigeons, etc.

[demicav]

Originally Posted by SheffieldPete

It all depends if the people doing the culling actually know the difference between a cormorant and a shag, I suppose. That's a problem with giving licenses to cull "pest" species - how many shags get killed with cormorants, stock doves with woodpigeons, etc.

Yes I quite agree. I'm due to go back to the same area in March, to photograph Adders. It will be very interesting to see if there are many dead birds around again.