Swan Injured, Your Comments?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, rightsaidfred said:

Another example of the modern trend of making political gain from a tragedy, some 3 years ago when I phoned both the RSPCA & RSPB regarding an injured Cygnet I got the same response from both they were not interested and told me to find a local rescue source.

Fred

Couldn't agree more Fred , a few yrs ago moored at riverside in Norwich to go shopping Norwich school came rowing down the river at speed straight into s group of 15/20 swans in my view deliberately as there was a cox onboard and a coaching boat present as well , at least 9/10 birds were hit mostly in the neck by the oars as they didn't stop rowing at all , I went straight to yare house and reported it to the then head of ranger services and was told that the RSPB a d the RSPCA wouldn't be interested but a I do know that BA visited the school to voice their concerns .

Regarding fishing apart from the obvious of not leaving hooks n line on the bank etc , but fishing of the surface has a potential harm to birds , I actually hooked a common tren  on surlingham board as it came from nowhere n before I knew it it had the bread flake and hook and back in the air , eventually it got reeled in and the hook retrieved and said bird released back into the air hence i won't fish of the surface if there are any birds what so ever .

[Viking23]

The only hull design that might just submerse a duck or swan might be a cathedral hull design, or one of the twin hulled pontoon boats.

For a normal monohull, a small buoyant object would normally be washed aside.

I am truly saddened to hear of any wildlife that is injured, more especially in the pursuit of our own pleasure and enjoyment.

Richard

[addicted]

This was not the only time I found myself at odds with the RSPCA. An old school friend of mine married a farmer. One day while out riding we went to field that was lying farrow and therefore usually unlikely to be visited for very long time. There she found a large dog tethered to a stake that had been driven into the ground. There was no knowing how long it had been there but it was high Summer and hadn't rained for some time. The dog was pretty wild and neither if us wanted to go near it. We phoned the RSPCA immediately explaining that the dog was very distressed and needed expert handling. 5 hours and numerous calls later still no one. Phoned yet again saying if no one arrived in the next half hour I would phone the press and report the matter. They came 10 minutes later. We never found what happened to the dog, we were never able to get any further information.

 

 

Carole

 

[riyadhcrew]

Fixed it Carole.

[deebee29]

There you go Carole 

[deebee29]

Snap..... must have both edited at the same time Eric 

[johnb]

I suspect that this lady will be taken to one side by her supervisors and given  an explanation why they pay a lot of money for public relations people to make statements to the press on their behalf.  People who know how to word things that do not lose them support!

[addicted]

Thanks guys, I should!d be o.k, for the few days ad I'm going home and will not have to use this horrible wilful tablet

 

 

Carole

[Hylander]

Just now, addicted said:

Thanks guys, I should!d be o.k, for the few days ad I'm going home and will not have to use this horrible wilful tablet

 

 

Carole

Talking tablets for a mo I have one its ok but the sound is awful you can bearly hear it.  Am I doing something wrong,  as far as I can tell it is set to maximum volume.

 

 

 

 

[addicted]

Just now, Hylander said:

Talking tablets for a mo I have one its ok but the sound is awful you can bearly hear it.  Am I doing something wrong,  as far as I can tell it is set to maximum volume.

 

 

 

 

If its anything like mine ,it does as it p!eases regardless of what you set it to do mine is Android I had a smart phone that was the same , I dumped it after 6 months of being made to feel an idiot.

 

 

Carole

[grendel]

I seem to recall my tablet was like that, I had to go in the settings to allow it to override the max volume it set for earphones, can I find the controls I used on my tablet- of course not

[RumPunch]

I bought a cheap Bluetooth speaker for mine so if I'm watching films or I-player on the boat I can have a decent sound level

[Islander]

Hi Rum punch, we have done the same. 

Colin

[C.Ricko]

there is an otter in Wroxham which has been filmed on more than one occasion drowning geese, one was last week.. 

the article states it is such a shame as the swan in a beautiful animal, perhaps it would have been better if it was a heron?

 

[MauriceMynah]

Don't blame the otters Clive, You'll catch hell for that. Otters are wonderful creatures that make friends with all other wildlife, give money to charity and adopt refugee children. Can't say a word against them.

[lurcher]

 

[JennyMorgan]

I have seen an otter take a duck but a swan is a big meal! Perhaps this video should be forwarded to the RSPCA lady.

[Vaughan]

This is seriously worrying, as this is totally out of character for an otter. To behave like this in broad daylight in the middle of Wroxham shows it has little fear of humans. It certainly seems to be an otter, and a big one.

In my opinion this animal has been bred in captivity and has escaped, or been released, from an otter preserve or some such. The problem will be if it now breeds, and breeds this characteristic into its young.

If it were down to me, this animal would be hunted and shot, before it can do any more damage to the balance of nature.

And the RSPCA woman can put that in her pipe.

[Gracie]

Knowing Charlie as I have come to know him over these past couple of years he would have told the RSPCA where to stick their collection box and quite right too

This woman should be asked to give evidence for her claim that a boat injured this poor swan, I bet she can't so therefore should be bought to book and at the very least make a public apology

Boaters and anglers (of which we are both) are blamed for a lot of unsavoury things but I guarantee most are responsible human beings that will do everything to protect the environment in which they fish and cruise, although I do realise there are some characters that shouldn't be allowed at a helm or hold a fishing rod, as in all walks of life and as my Dad says "you always get one"

Grace

[JennyMorgan]

I once watched an otter kill a duck, dismember it and take the body parts into its holt. A neighbour & I both had dove cotts that were well off the ground, both were raided by otters and all our doves killed. Where once there were hundreds of ducks and coots on Oulton Broad you will now be hard pushed to see either. Unfortunately it is in character for otters to kill, whether by raiding nests or attacking in open water. Seemingly not fazed by humans, I've had them swim alongside my boat for many hundreds of yards, seemingly performing for my amusement, the joy of a slow moving sailing boat! It's not the odd otter that is damaging the balance of nature, it is us humans, we re-released the blessed things! It seems that they know humans are not a threat and that fish & wildfowl make for good eating. I have found otter turds and fish bones in the forepeak of a boat moored to a buoy, presumably the otters are not afraid of climbing a mooring rope tied to a buoy and invading a boat!

Much the same can be said of foxes, apart from activities that include swimming. I lost 16 chickens last winter, from a coop only yards from my back door.  For the life of me I couldn't work out how the fox got into the run until the other day. I was walking up the garden and quite inadvertently cornered a young fox. In order to escape it actually ran up a six foot high wire netting fence and over the top. It must have done the same to get at my chickens.

[Vaughan]

This is becoming rather interesting. I am not used to otters as "in my day" the water was polluted by nitrate fertilisers and so there weren't any.

I must say I noticed, in May this year, that there were hardly any coots or moorhens to be seen.

With the present great improvement in water quality, maybe we are seeing a change in the prevalent wildlife of the rivers.

So when I was on Rockland Broad that morning and I saw big fish splashing about in the lilies, were they actually otters playing? I must say I did wonder, but I couldn't see clearly, in the light before dawn. So was that why there weren't any Mallard? There were a large number of grebe though, much more then I have ever seen before and I put this down to there being many more fish in the water.

Maybe the grebe are too quick for the otters? And if the otters also have so many fish (their natural food) to eat, why is at least one of them now killing geese? In the middle of Wroxham?

We had to eradicate the Coypu when they changed the balance of nature and they were first introduced by man. I wonder if we shall soon have to control the otter as well?

Mind you, the Greylag and the Canadas always need culling, but it would be better that "little Johnnie" doesn't have to see that happening before his eyes, from his holiday boat in Wroxham!

I wonder what Philip Wayre would have thought of this?

[MauriceMynah]

Perhaps the swan had been attacked by a mob of killer shrimps (I believe we are allowed to speak out against that species) as lets face it, we all know that the shrimps are protected by the non indigenous mussels that have invaded the broads Mafia style. Oh come on, we all know the method they use. First they send in the signal crays to clear the area of any indigenous pests, then the mussels move in and make a base finally brining in the killer shrimps to rid the area of any other gangs. The swans try to gang up, so the shrimps have them.

I know all this to be fact as I have been told so by a number of those peace loving otters I drink with. (though I have to admit, they only ever join me for a drink when I've already been in the bar for a while.)

[Vaughan]

I say!

This wouldn't be Wildfuzz's beaver, would it??  

[JennyMorgan]

8 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

I say!

This wouldn't be Wildfuzz's beaver, would it??  

Being hand reared it might need very little coaxing before it goes chasing birds.

[Baitrunner]

It's called evolution. They learn to eat different things. Maybe there are more birds than decent sized fish? Require less energy to kill?

just read a story of an otter in the USA atracking, killing and eating a 5ft alligator. I doubt a swan would pose a problem to that otter!!!

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/news/2014/03/140306-otter-alligator-florida-predator-photos-wildlife

unfortunately with no real predators to keep the otter numbers down food will get more scarce for them and they will diversify or go for easier targets. They probably learnt boats = bread=ducks=easy lunch. No swimming around for hours. 

So will the rspb start to cull otters?

yet again some great group of people had a brilliant idea about releasing otters without thinking about the consequences. Man constantly changes the forces of nature and who knows if it's for the good or not. 

I'm not an otter hater, but otter predation will get worse until they do something about the numbers.

They are fearless. Even when confronted they stand their ground against a human and don't all run away. Maybe they have been told we can't harm them?

Now the good news. apparently they will take baby beavers, so if the rumours of beavers on the Broads are true, maybe we have a solution. More killer otters!!!