Gas Gun Bird Scarers

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PeterNatt

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This is the time of year when landowners/farmers deploy Gas Gun Bird Scarers so as to protect their crops from pests. (We have had them exploding since November (including Christmas Day).

We had an incident when a young horse was being ridden along a bridleway and a Gas Gun Bird Scarer went off 3 times in quick succession causing the horse to throw it's rider and the horse bolted off on to a main road where it was hit by a car. The horse sadly had to be destroyed. The horse rider did not know that the bird scarer was there.

It is absolutely essential that if you know of a Gas Gun Bird Scarer that is situated near to a public right of way, public highway or route used by horses that you report it to the Access Department of your local County Council so that they can contact the landowner concerned and ask them to take appropriate action to prevent an accident.

The NFU (National Farmers Union) have produced a leaflet: Bird Scarers - Code of Practice which all landowners, farmers and their employees are asked to comply with so as to avoid any accidents.

http://www.nfuonline.com/News/Download-our-bird-scarer-guide/
 
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I livery on a working farm which uses bird scarers. The annoying thing is that they seem to move positions on a regular basis and that we have no idea when they are going to go off (would be so useful if they could give us times and locations so we know to avoid), It's quite hard when planning hacking routes as you have to guestimate when its going off.

I can't really be of as any help as I don't know the exact locations of them as they are constantly changing but I know how annoying and dangerous they can be :(
 
Thank you for highlighting this, it is a bone of contention with me as I did get bolted with a few years ago from one too close to the lane, but knew the farmer involved and asked nicely to move it and he duly did. More recently we have been disturbed every Sunday since November and also through the night on three occasions by another farmer who refuse to acknowledge it was his until I rang him from the banger as it was going off....he then sorted the problem but another farmer further away still has one going off through the night and I have no idea in this case who the landowner is.

The root of the problem is that farmers are working with a Code of Practice which is not as I understand it obligatory, merely advisory, and therefore worth not a lot.

Just wondered, Peter, if there is any way of highlighting this further to legalise the restricted use of bird scarers?
 
I absolutely hate the blinking things :(. I'm on a farm where they are positioned about and go off randomly. I don't get told where they are, when they are due to go off, when they start using them and when they finish :(

So what happens is, as soon as I hear the first one I no longer hack out until the crops are growing

I could inform them of the location of the farm but not of the positions of the bird scarers

Poor girl, poor driver and even sadder for the poor horse :(
 
You might have seen my post earlier today when my horse was being long reined and got scared by amongst other things bird scarers. Thing is - they are on the YO's farm land and its the one of only three ways off the farm. Given his history of putting farming before horses no point even in mentioning what happened.
They are really close to public footpaths and I know dogs are often scared by them going off.
 
Hate the blinking things, even scarier is the flaming rockets the stupid idiot farmer up the road uses to scare the pigeons. These are manually set off and you never know when and where. I understand farmers have to protect their crops but I do wish there was a law that they had to put a sign up warning there are scarers. Idiot farmer up the road used to put beside a bridleway gate!!! until someone had a mishap he reluctantly moved. His reason to put by roadside is its easier to get to in his truck.
 
this year they seem to be particularly bad round here...they are very loud, go off 3 times and seem to be all over the place.....my dog now hates going for a walk locally , just wants to run home so i have to put her on the lead as she is so scared..this is the first year they have been so bad , ive not had problems before and i now drive to a local park EVERY day just so my dog has a nice walk off the lead!!!!!!

they also have been affecting my horse this year and im really fed up, they are sooooo loud.....they make me jump as well..
 
We have had one going off the other side of the village hill, it is really annoying, luckily we dont jse the bridlepath that runs through the land during the winter due to the wet mud. 7 Horrible things and should be banned, if i lived near that i would go bollistic with it going off 3 times every 10 mins! Thanks for posting that.
 
Thanks for this, I feel rather strongly on the subject since my friend and I had nasty falls while out hacking due to one of these gas guns. The farmers do now put up signs but as these have been left out all year round they are useless except to deter riders using from the permissive bridleways that said farmers are receiving large payments for to allow (indeed encourage public access). To me a bird scarer on a permissive bridleway is akin to a bull in a field with a public footpath. I also wish that the BHS would add bird scarers to their list of accident causes on the website.
 
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