I looked for Kim Jong-il’s name listed on the editorial board of Modern Gamekeeping and was surprised not to find it nestled between the names of Peter Carr and James Marchington. I thought he might have been a guest editor in the final weeks before his death. It seems a reasonable explanation for what looks to be obviously editorial-led comments from their four guest gamekeepers in the January issue.
Each month, Modern Gamekeeping invites guest keepers from across Britain to comment about what has kept them busy during the previous month. In the latest issue, keepers from Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and North Yorkshire all discuss suspiciously similar topics – Is it a coincidence that three of the four keepers mention ‘fox-dumping’ in their articles (a subject prominently covered on the front page of this month’s Modern Gamekeeping), even though all of them admit it’s not a current problem for them? As it seems to have absolutely nothing to do with what has kept them busy during December, why would three of the four keepers mention it at all, unless they’d been ‘influenced’ by the editorial team?
Predictably, all four of the keepers also write about what they perceive to be ‘the raptor problem’. Is this also a coincidence, or have they taken direction from the editorial staff, given that the magazine’s January editorial is all about how raptors need to be [legally] culled (see here)?
Here’s what the keepers had to say about ‘the raptor problem’:
Keeper on Ashby St Ledgers shoot: “The vermin haven’t really been a problem as we stay on top of them, but the buzzards and sparrowhawks are getting out of hand, they’re everywhere, and are a real worry“.
Keeper on Ozleworth Park: “We have a lot of buzzards that give us some problems early on in the season when birds go to pen. They are also sometimes a bother when we want to move pheasants across the valley when they show themselves and the birds flush the wrong way. Thankfully we don’t get goshawks very often, and when we do they seem to move on quickly, which is good as they could be a real problem“.
Keeper on Shortwood Estate: “Sparrowhawks and buzzards are out of control. Eight years ago you were lucky to see a pair of buzzards round here, now it’s a bad day if you don’t see five circling over your woods. There are far too many, and we also had a pair of goshawks this year that have caused me no end of trouble with the partridges“.
Keeper on Spaunton Moor: “The biggest threat to game management has to be increasing numbers of birds of prey. The North York Moors in particular have massive blocks of forestry and unkeepered farmland, and every week we’re seeing more and more of every raptor species. What people forget is that 20 years ago, there wasn’t a buzzard, red kite or goshawk up here. Now there are plenty of all of them, and they’ve got to eat something. So the biggest threat, I think, is the increasing number of birds of prey and not being able to address that increase“.
Perhaps I’m being unfair. Perhaps these keepers have not been indoctrinated at all and they all genuinely believe that raptors in their areas are ‘out of control’. Although if that’s the case, their claims are difficult to understand given that they also all wrote about how well their seasons have gone this year!! So, either keepers have been illegally killing raptors to get the fantastic bags that have been reported this year, or, raptors don’t actually have such a high impact on bags as the shooting industry would have us believe. If we believe certain organisations, it’s ‘only a few rogues’ that illegally kill raptors, so logically then, the latter explanation must be accurate. Therefore, there’s no need for licences to be issued to legally cull raptors. Sorted.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Another example of gamekeepers shooting themselves in the foot (not literally, unfortunately). As a birder of 30+ years I’ve never seen a Buzzard kill a game bird, I saw a pair kill a young Magpie but that’s not the what the landowners want to hear is it. I’ve seen plenty eating dead rabbits and road-kill squirrels, strange that they use laced rabbits to illegally kill raptors when all they’re supposedly eat are game birds!
“What people forget is that 20 years ago, there wasn’t a buzzard, red kite or goshawk up here.”
Not too good an area for biodiversity then?
A very telling line…I wonder why that was?…maybe its global warming?….maybe theyre being dumped by “saboteurs”…or maybe its not quite so easy to get away with killing them?
…one point of order on the previous comment…raptors do kill game birds..and eat plenty of winged ones [and the many which run into cars on the road] – the amount of that can be argued about but no doubt varies widely depending on the environment and how many of these tame birds are released……
There have been many occasions where dead pheasants, partridges and grouse have been used as poison baits – pointing even more clearly, of course, as to which particular minority interest in the countryside is responsible.
Apologies, I’m not saying they don’t or won’t eat game birds. Buzzards and Red Kites are more often scavengers and will take an easy meal if it’s presented to them. Where the balance of nature is so far tipped to have thousands [Editor: millions!] of introduced, non-native game birds running around any raptor worth its salt will take advantage of the free lunch. The percentage though is often greatly exaggerated to fit the story. A Sparrowhawk is just as likely to kill a fully grown Pheasant as a Sea Eagle is to carry off a toddler from its pram, i.e. not likely at all. As for Tawny & Little Owls being a threat – don’t they know anything?
As somebody who has actually birded on the North York Moors I find it strange that a keeper from the area should be complaining about raptors out of control, as away from the large forestry blocks it is an area renown for its dearth of raptors. but then lets not let the truth get in the way of propaganda. Goshawks are quite widespread in the forests and breed well every year yet where do the young go, the population is stable and elsewhere in the county the bird remains rare? One has a very good idea, particularly in relation to moving on, is this the same moving on the entire English harrier population is doing?