I’ve had comments from villagers about the increased number of bird scarers being used around the village this year so I asked Rob, who owns Rectory Farm, if he could give us an update on what’s going on. He confirmed that at least some of the scarers are his and this is what he had to say about them:

We have numerous devices around the farm working at the moment to deter the
pigeons from our oilseed rape crop, this year they are coming in unprecedented numbers and damage is extensive, the likes of which we have not experienced before. We believe all our equipment is working within the laws governing their use as confirmed on Monday by an SCDC local environmental health officer, who visited the farm following a complaint from the village. The scarers operate on a twenty minute cycle as this is the proven time that birds keep returning to fields after they have been disturbed. We hope that it will only be necessary depending on the weather to keep the guns active for another fortnight, we take the decision very seriously to run these devices as they take a lot of time, money and effort to run.

I hope this clears things up. It’s easy to forget that we do live in a village surrounded by agriculture on three sides. Along with its benefits it comes with some disadvantages but as you can see Rob is taking the issue seriously and is keeping it to the minimum necessary.