"Modern farming practices" are often blamed for the decline of farmland birds - I wonder if Pheasant release is comparable in damage. It's reported that the biomass of released Pheasants & RL Partridges exceeds the total biomass of all other UK species combined. And only a fraction of this is actually hunted, and a tiny fraction of that is for the table. It's for "fun" it seems
I've also seen (N of LW Moss) enclosures of Grey Partridge being acclimatised before release
Wild Justice has a strong opinion on gamebird release too
No wonder farmland birds are declining. I was down Rindle Road this afternoon and in 3 recently harvested cereal fields which aren't particularly big I counted over 500 pheasants which presumably have been recently released hoovering up ever last bit of spilt grain. Food which in the past would have helped to keep the Yellowhammers etc in food over the winter. It's about time this practise was banned,it must have a massive negative effect on our farmland birds.
