Wild birds are protected by our wildlife laws. But exemptions are written into the legislation, including a list of quarry species, mostly waders, ducks and geese, that can legally be killed during their respective shooting seasons. For certain gamebirds, a similar legal position is established by the Game Acts. In each case, there is a fixed period starting in late summer or autumn and extending into the winter when these birds can be killed. A ‘close season’ protects them during the rest of the year.
Arguably our most enigmatic wader, the extra-long-beaked, beautifully patterned Woodcock, is killed for sport in huge numbers; up to 160,000 birds are shot every year. It is largely nocturnal, but dogs are used to flush it from the ground as it rests up during the day. The shooting season starts in September (in Scotland) or October, before most of the wintering birds have arrived, and this means that individuals from our declining breeding population will be killed, adding to the Woodcock’s many problems.
The hunting of birds (by shooting and trapping) has a long history in Britain, with a wide range of species killed to provide food. This once included common songbirds (as it still does elsewhere in Europe) but times have changed. Legislation now protects most of our birds throughout the year and we no longer hunt birds like the Skylark, Blackbird and Song Thrush.
Today, much of the killing is done in the name of sport rather than a need to obtain food. The species that can still be hunted, and the seasons when this is legal, are set out in Schedule 2 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act or in the Game Acts, though over the years, the list has been whittled down to protect vulnerable birds. Within the last few decades it has become illegal to hunt the Brent Goose, Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, Redshank and Curlew. As late as 2001, the highly threatened Capercaillie was removed from the quarry list to protect the small population that survives in Scotland. Other declining and threatened species remain, for now, as legal quarry (see below).
For most quarry species the shooting season extends from 1 September through to 31 January (to 20 February on the coast), but this varies between species and, confusingly, for some species even between countries within the UK. The Red Grouse, famously, can be shot from the ‘glorious’ twelfth of August through to 10 December. The Woodcock can be shot from 1 October to 31 January in England and Wales, but in Scotland the season begins on 1 September.
Inappropriate quarry species
If you thought the hunting of birds was limited to a few common gamebirds, ducks and geese, the full list of quarry species might surprise you. It is still perfectly legal to shoot all the following species, among many others, in the open season in one or more countries within the UK: Ptarmigan, Black Grouse, Coot, Moorhen, Snipe, Jack Snipe, Golden Plover, Woodcock, Scaup, Goldeneye, Pintail, Pochard and European White-fronted Goose. What’s more, there is no limit to the numbers that can be killed, and no requirement to report the numbers shot to the authorities. If a bird is ‘in season’ and you have the landowner’s permission, anything goes.
This list of birds includes vulnerable, red-listed species such as the Ptarmigan, Black Grouse, Woodcock, Goldeneye, Pochard, Scaup and White-fronted Goose. Indeed, the Pochard has been assessed by the IUCN to be globally threatened, with unsustainable hunting listed as one of the reasons for its perilous status.
Shooting organisations sometimes encourage voluntary restrictions or even a temporary ‘ban’ on shooting for some of our most vulnerable birds, the Black Grouse for example. But it is left to individual estates and hunters as to whether this is followed. Shooting the last few Ptarmigans remaining on a hill at the edge of their breeding range might not be very conservation friendly. But if you own the land or have permission, there’s nothing to stop you doing it.
Inappropriate shooting seasons
The Woodcock provides an excellent case study of what can go wrong. The British breeding population has declined steeply in the last 20 years. It winters here in far greater numbers, but most of these birds arrive with us from late November onwards. And yet Woodcock can be shot, in unlimited numbers, from 1 September in Scotland and from 1 October elsewhere in the UK. Birds shot before December are much more likely to be British breeding birds, and so shooting could be helping to exacerbate the continued decline in our breeding population.
Shooting organisations have steadfastly opposed any change to the shooting seasons, preferring instead to encourage voluntary restraint early in the season. A quick online search confirms that this approach simply isn’t working, with plenty of advertisements for Woodcock shooting in the early part of the season. Government has promised to review the shooting season but, so far, no action has been taken and so the killing continues.
The Snipe is another bird that faces a similar problem. It can be shot even earlier in the year, from 12 August in England, Wales and Scotland, meaning that birds from the declining, amber-listed British breeding population will be among those targeted.
The presence of several species on the quarry list, and the shooting season for others, is a major cause for concern. Do we really want to allow the continued unlimited killing of the globally threatened Pochard? Should we really be shooting the amber-listed Snipe in the first half of August when the breeding season is barely done with? Could we not help our beleaguered populations of Ptarmigan and Black Grouse by giving them a break from the annual round of shooting?
A comprehensive review of all the birds on Schedule 2 of the Wildlife & Countryside would be very welcome. But there is a particular urgency for the red-listed Woodcock and this is where we have focused our efforts in recent years. We believe it is unacceptable to rely on voluntary restraint to prevent the killing of Woodcock early in the season. If the voluntary approach is working well and shooters are sticking to it, what harm would there be in making it a statutory restriction? And if it is not working well, as we believe, then clearly a change is required to protect this vulnerable bird.
Shooting organisations, including GWCT and BASC, tie themselves in helpless, hopeless knots over this issue. They recommend that Woodcock should not be shot until late November or December while, at the same time, opposing any change in the shooting season that would ensure this actually happens. Or, to put it another way, they believe that Woodcock should not be shot in September-November, but that no-one should be compelled not to shoot them in September-November. The true meaning behind this ‘position’ quickly becomes clear. This is a transparent, disingenuous attempt to be seen to be saying the right thing, while simultaneously allowing early season shooting to continue ‘under the radar’.
Amending the shooting season for a quarry species is not a complicated process. It can be done at the stroke of a pen using existing legislation. What, we ask, is the point of having a close season, if not to prevent shooting at a time of year when just about everyone involved admits that it should not be happening?
We will continue to press for this change, and in the face of obstruction and intransigence from shooting organisations over Woodcock, we will keep an investigative eye on quarry species and shooting seasons more broadly. As alluded to here, we think there are other areas where urgent conservation objectives are being compromised by continued, unregulated shooting.