Sunday, January 28, 2007

28th January

 
 
Ryburn late afternoon, 2 drake Mandarins, 2 Tufted Ducks, 2 Grey Herons and 3 Cormorants.

Elland GP early afternoon, 6 Goldeneye, 1 Pochard, 11 Tufted Duck, 25 Teal, 11 Goosanders, 6 GCGrebes, 1 Little Grebe, 3 Cormorants, Grey Heron, 8 Coot, 3 Moorhens, 3 Stock Dove, 1 Grey Wagtail, 6 Redpoll, 2 Bullfinch etc. (probably 7 Goldeneye present 4 males today and 3 females yesterday).
We also had an encounter with 3 idiots with an air riffle, who were seen to shoot dead a Mallard from the canal path. I made it known in no uncertain terms that we had seen them and approached to confront them, but they dissapeared and were seen speeding off in thier car towards Brighouse. Does anyone no where we stand in the future towards the law and air riffles ?? Posted by Picasa

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Apart from the age law,18, no air rifle or any other gun must be taken out of its case within ,I think its 50yds, of a public footpath. Hopefully, you,ve scared them off although they,ll do this where ever they go. If you got a reg. number it wants reporting. BS

Andrew Huyton said...

Besides the age and having the rifle out of it's case in public does the shooting of the duck not represent an offence? Definately report the incident to PC Roman Soltan regardless of car reg. I myself have concerns regarding the low numbers of cormorants this year given they were only allowed to shoot 2.

Alastair said...

The non-emergency number for West Yorkshire Police is 0845 6060606. Their web page is http://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/section-item.asp?sid=2&iid=161
You could contact Steve Downing for further advice but I would use this number rather than 999 for this sort of incident. If the air rifle was used to shoot protected species (and you hadn't chased the beggars off) or was putting members of the public in danger you should phone 999.