In response to yesterday’s blog where I wrote about the latest reported incident of the illegal fly-tipping of shot gamebirds (pheasants in Gloucestershire – here), blog reader Paul Bray posted the following image on Twitter:
These are shot Woodcock that were found dumped in Crowton, Cheshire two weeks ago by Paul and his colleagues in the group Cheshire Against Blood Sports as they sabbed the Cheshire Forest Hunt.
Woodcock, although red listed on the UK Birds of Conservation Concern, are still classed as ‘gamebirds’ and they can be shot between 1st October (1st September in Scotland) and 31st January, although Wild Justice has been campaigning to shorten this to protect the declining resident population (see here).
It’s contemptible that introduced, non-native pheasants and red-legged partridge are shot and then dumped but to do that to Woodcock seems even more obscene.
What was the point of shooting these Woodcock if they were then going to be thrown away?
Raptor Persecution UK 
I just can’t imagine who would even consider shooting such extraordinary creatures as woodcock, let alone in such quantities that they can be dumped.
Totally agree , there is no reason for shooting a Woodcock, other than the pathetic feather on the hat , pandering to the well done old boy crew 🤬
I’m not against blood sports I take pheasant and partridge along with most game from local shoots and friends that shoot deer,but even I find this disgusting
Okay, the dumped woodcock is appalling, but you might also like to consider the ecological impact of the mega numbers of pheasant released into areas for the so called fun of the shooters.
Two pheasant breasts being sold for £1.99 in a local butchers indicates that there is a total glut. And that’s even before we talk about the control of ‘predators’ to protect those precious gamebirds for the shoots.
Hi Andy.
I totally agree.
Shooting mallard ducks and pheasants is not so bad as they can be easily reproduced. However woodcock snipe and Teal etc is an absolute criminal waste.
Regards John
Shooting woodcock is the same as Shooting swans,nobody would dream of it ,I Hope!!.isnt their a law protecting them,surely.
[Ed: Tom, it’s currently legal to shoot Woodcock in the UK between 1st October (1st Sept in Scotland) to 31 January]
It’s the dumping of good food that sickens me!!!! How many meals would all these woodcock, pheasants, partridge etc make for
people struggling to buy food.
I know a game keeper of a small shoot who gives all the surplus birds to local food bank and soup kitchen who are really happy to receive them .
Shoots should only be allowed to take so many birds each season like deer hunters in USA .
The trouble is you’re then feeding lead shot to the vulnerable, which is highly toxic.
Seen a lot of pheasant shot the breast meat cut out and the rest dumped in a similar way. ( Does not look like these woodcock have had their breasts cut )
This has gone well past the ‘Old boy crew”, even though they’ll have their earner in on it. This sounds to me, more like a private shoot where they’re just dumping their poor little bodies after their bit of fun. All in the name of a ‘good old shoot”. Cheshire’s my old stomping ground xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx From a Cheshire hunt Sabatier. x 🥺
We live in Scotland and foreign shooters come every year to shoot Snipe etc. Mainly Italians here at the moment. They pay the local landowner for shooting on their land. It’s despicable, there are so few birds even before they start shooting.
ßq
I can.There are people who just enjoy
People who shoot have no qualms about many things. They often belong to polo and hunting circles. They’re also sadistic towards any one not only opposing them but thise..as I do..who passively resist them by refusing them use of their own land for peaceful means. There are a few exceptions to this however it attracts a criminal element at grass roots level who will stoop to anything. I could write a book about my attempts to stand my ground. Truly nobody would believe it ir the attempts that have been made to paint me as a local crazy lady. Why they get government grants and payments fir putting ponds in etc. Is beyond me. And they have teams of flying monkeys installed in all sectors including parish councils…which they use.
“Obscene” definitely, and also arrogant!
If anymore evidence was needed of how the killing industry needs to be closed down its the relentkess persecution of birds of prey and red listed species. These pathetic morons do not have a soul.
Stop shooting Woodcock, Snipe, English Partridge, even just for alternate seasons to start with ie. shoot every other year to increase their chances.
Absolutely appalling. I wouldn’t be surprised if the pin feathers had been removed to display in a hatband or similar as a trophy to demonstrate the skill of the shooter. I’ll wager that many game shooters will be highly embarrassed to see this.
Adrian, It’s not just shooting Grey(English) Partidge, that is causing their decline, it’s the fact that they are being outcompeted by masses of released red-legged partridges & pheasants, from disease ridden pens.
Woodcock are such beautiful birds. Why kill beauty and dump it?
Last week, on a private nature reserve in Argyll three Continental tourist shooters intruded with shotguns to blast Woodcocks. A local farmer ordered them off his land,and that of the private nature reserve. Their armaments had been given to them by their host, without warning them of offending local landowners, who were anti-game bird shooting. The territory involved also hosts Hen Harriers and other protected species, in season. I share the disgust shown by this exposure of dead Woodcock in Cheshire, as another example of the casualness of those who find killing wildlife for sport. Such people are not beyond redemption, as there are examples of people who were so inclined, who recanted by denouncing their former lust to kill wildlife and introduced game birds. Did Peter Scott not sell his prized fowling pieces when he was employed by the RSPB? Many a butterfly collector has become a conservationist, and was Fauna and Flora International not founded by the Penitent Butchers, former African big game hunters, who had felt ashamed over their killing of Elephants, Rhinos, Lions etc? Former whaling countries, as Scotland once was, have become active as protectors of cetaceans.
So sad to see these rare birds still shot as game they under pressure throughout their range should immediately be given protection from the victorian attitude towards wildlife
Not rare at all, our commonest wintering wader, there are more woodcock than mallard on these isles during the winter. They have a contricting UK breeding range, but tremendous numbers still cross the North Sea to us every winter.
But can you tell the difference between one of our native , declining breeding stock and a wintering bird from elsewhere across the north sea, of course you can`t, you`ll happily shoot every last one because it`s legal to with no thought for the future. As seen on this blog some halfwits having shot some then dump them illegally. Sporting and sustainable, I don`t think so, look what happened to the passenger pigeon.
Woodcock have been shot as a quarry species for something like 200 years, and netted for food for no doubt millennia before that. We still have lots of woodcock. In modern times very few population declines in the UK can be attributed to excessive hunting – I can think of one, which no one seems to recognise or car about – Icelandic Greylag which winter in the UK. But geese are not a glamour bird.
“We still have lots of woodcock”
The UK Woodcock was Red Listed in 2015. UK breeding population estimated at 55,000 pairs.
200 years ago they may of been an important food source, but today ? !. Yes there are numerous probable`s for their decline. Last summer the BTO organised a national survey of woodcock, this would determine our breeding population, lets see what the results are. I surveyed three wooded areas, which were chosen as they appeared suitable for woodcock, total number seen, zero. I assume the attitude is, well as long as they keep coming here for the winter, and we are allowed to, lets keep banging away at them, it does`nt matter if they don`t breed here.
Nothing else to say well said. I hope that these people . I hope that these people that inflict pain on defenseless animals get what’s coming to them. I’m sorry but I hope in this life or if there’s another life. xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx I’m sorry I’m so wound up… xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
probably a clay pigeon is too much off a challenge to their low IQ ratio to money. I lived in Dalkeith surrounded by woods and a nice golf course, nice river the Esk I spent a lot of afternoons skipping school over the woods always heard the woodcock especially later at night at dusk but never managed to see one. How can anyone shoot a bird like that it beggers belief.
Is it likely that the litter lout was someone’s guest at an organised shoot and was handed these to take away? Not being interested or able to pluck and prepare them, the guest dumped them on their way home?
That might explain the blue cabletie?
With local publicity, the shoot will recognise the tie. And probably say nowt.
The cynical truth is that they have served their purpose. If you poke about among the shooting media and well known websites that advertise shooting, you will get what I mean. If a shoot operating as a business, as most are, can offer chance of woodcock or some evening flighting of wild ducks, etc then they stand out a bit among their rival shoots that just offer the usual boring reared pheasant, red-legs, mallard. If your ground holds woodcock (usually by sheer luck) you are offering a little bit more than the norm, and will fill your bookings earlier, and run a better business. What happens to the dead birds worth barely a couple of quid if that, is not really a worry in business terms. Sad but true.
I fully agree with John Martin’s comment above, What I cannot comprehend is the mental state of someone who shoots Woodcock in the full knowledge that they are either part of the declining UK population or winter visitors to these shores. Either way, these prized targets should be treated with more respect than being randomly dumped. It’s high time that the shooting for fun of threatened species such as Woodcock, Common Snipe and Grey Partridge was banned.
A perfect example of the state of shooting in the UK today, this is your voluntary restraint on shooting Woodcock BASC, Ian Coghill why Don,t you do a write up on Scribehound ” what the Conservation societies really think” about this subject then? To be fair I imagine the majority of real shooting people will be just as sick at this as the conservationists are, the louts who did this probably didn’t fancy Woodcock on toast, threw them out the window and went for a Maccy D,s on the way home. The shooting industry needs to sort itself out quickly and stop criticising anyone and everyone
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Why don’t they simply shoot them with a camera, I know this is more difficult, so maybe this is why,John ,Cumbria
I live in Norfolk and many of our “sportsmen” leave the birds they shoot in the field. This includes woodcock. Apparently we don’t understand country ways by considering it a waste of life.
Xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxxx imagine being like that or living with someone like that,these heartless backward morons with no value for life. It’s all antiquated bollocks ,people starving in wartorn counties and they shoot for fun not even using things disguarding them just says it all . They used to burn the carcasses where I live you would smell it what is the point in all this ??
This is so depressing and shameful. I cannot understand why anyone would want to shoot any bird and to shoot these beautiful wild native birds, already rare, is shocking.
Shameful behaviour, there should be an immediate ban on the shooting of Woodcock and Snipe, it’s just repulsive.
I’d love to see a woodcock (I never have) while these shy, quiet birds were murdered and dumped. It’s very upsetting
To go off on a bit of a tangent it really bothers me that the people responsible for this sort of thing have commandeered the words “sport” and “sportsmen” to mean only what they want it to mean. I thought sport was a contest between equals?
T’other way round. Games have commandeered the word sport. Hunting and shooting g etc were the original ‘sports’, the activities involving balls etc were and are games.
Maybe, maybe not. It’s splitting hairs to me. But people were certainly engaged in games or sports involving ball-like objects, wrestling, running and chasing one another competitively way back in time, BC years anyway. But blokes (mainly) standing in lines on a peg (often with two guns / assisted by a loader) to shoot driven commercially reared birds like pheasants & red-legs by the score – as well as knocking off the occasional red-listed=declining wader i.e. the woodcock, if one appears, is by comparison a very recent phenomenon.
Spot on
No wonder Britain is the most wildlife depleted country in the world. This killing for fun must stop. We are supposed to be a civilised country yet vile people take great pleasure in killing OUR beautiful creatures.🥵🥵🥵