Invisible Canada Geese

[MartinClark]

I can only tell you this now as it was embargoed until midnight....

 

Each year BW publishes the result of its annual wildlife survey, and each year the same thing happens - no-one sees any Canada Geese.

 

Now, I don't know what it's like where you do your boating, but round these parts you can't move for the buggers. And when you step off your boat onto a paved wharf or towpath you'd better take care or you will slip on the Canada Goose poo and go ar*e over t*ts!

 

The Top 20 wildlife species seen on our waterways (and the numbers spotted) are reported to be:

1 Mallard 385

2 Swan 381

3 Moorhen 311

4 Coot 274

5 Heron 267

6 Frog 234

7 Dragonfly 207

7 Bumblebee 207

9 Fox 162

10 Damselfly 147

11 Kingfisher 138

12 Bat 104

13 Toad 76

14 Mink 46

15 Water vole 43

16 Grass snake 30

17 Otter 27

18 Badger 26

19 Terrapin 18

20 Cormorant 0

 

But where are the Canada Geese? The same thing happens with this survey every year! It makes a nonsense of the whole thing!

 

What is going on? Are people only conducting the survey in areas where there are no Canada Geese? Do the people doing the survey think Canada Geese are mallards when they see them? Do Canada Geese have a secret way of turning invisible when someone with a clipboard comes along?

 

I think someone from BW should explain!

 

Please enjoy the photo below, which shows a grassy canalside bank, which is completely deserted apart from a log.

[gaggle]

and it says no cormorants which i have seen at different locations.

[alan_fincher]

Please enjoy the photo below, which shows a grassy canalside bank, which is completely deserted apart from a log.

 

I always thought they were moorhens

[Natalie Graham]

Please enjoy the photo below, which shows a grassy canalside bank, which is completely deserted apart from a log.

I thought I could make out a bird of some sort there in the grass, probably some kind of duck.

 

20 cormorant 0

 

Shouldn't that be 20= along with zebra 0, koala 0, three-toed sloth 0, dodo 0 etc. Why pick cormorant as the one nobody has seen to go in 20th place?

 

Natalie.

[gaggle]

one less duck around tonight anyway because i had duck for tea.

[cotswoldsman]

Looks like there are also a lot of Invisible Rats.

[Athy]

That cormorant statistic worries me, too. Was it hyped into the charts by its manager?

[cotswoldsman]

1 Mallard 385

2 Swan 381

3 Moorhen 311

4 Coot 274

 

When is the play off?

[Bones]

who conducts the survey? Is it one person in BW?

[Timleech]

Looks like there are also a lot of Invisible Rats.

 

Disguised as water voles, methinks.

 

Tim

[cotswoldsman]

Disguised as water voles, methinks.

 

Tim

 

Those rats are so clever!!

[alan_fincher]

Are we sure that there is not a senior BW manager who has amongst his (or her) performance targets one to maximise the number of Mallards on the system and to eradicate Canada Geese ?

 

Someone high up will come up with a requirement to label each too, in case we can't identify them without.

 

Edited for spelling, although I rather liked "eraficate"!

Edited November 26, 2008 by alan_fincher

[Roger Gunkel]

Has anybody thought that maybe, as this is a survey involving wildlife, there is some sort of funding available to BW for providing the results. Is it not also possible that the 'survey' involves getting last years's report out of the file and jiggling it slightly over a mug of tea. Has anybody actually seen inspectors with binoculars eagerly noting wildlife details, or have any of us been asked to contribute to the survey in some way.

 

Roger

[Allan(nb Albert)]

Are we sure that there is not a senior BW manager who has amongst his (or her) performance targets one to maximise the number of Mallards on the system and to eraficate Canada Geese ?

 

Someone high up will come up with a requirement to label each too, in case we can't identify them without.

 

I believe that Robin Evans has this set as a specific target. I have already used the foi act to request all his performance targets since he started and will let everyone know :-)

[grahoom]

these numbers are meaningless.

[churchward]

But where are the Canada Geese? The same thing happens with this survey every year! It makes a nonsense of the whole thing!

 

What is going on? Are people only conducting the survey in areas where there are no Canada Geese? Do the people doing the survey think Canada Geese are mallards when they see them? Do Canada Geese have a secret way of turning invisible when someone with a clipboard comes along?

 

I think someone from BW should explain!

 

Please enjoy the photo below, which shows a grassy canalside bank, which is completely deserted apart from a log.

 

Nice picture but where are the Canada Geese of which you speak? Are they hiding behind the fallen tree perhaps?.

 

Interesting. Oh yes, still no Cormorants. They are the little grey ones, right?

 

Yours, Quentin Ramsbottom (BW Bird counting Dept)

[Dorlan]

Has anybody thought that maybe, as this is a survey involving wildlife, there is some sort of funding available to BW for providing the results. Is it not also possible that the 'survey' involves getting last years's report out of the file and jiggling it slightly over a mug of tea. Has anybody actually seen inspectors with binoculars eagerly noting wildlife details, or have any of us been asked to contribute to the survey in some way.

 

Roger

From the report on Waterscape....

Despite a year of unusually wet weather, more than 3,000 sightings of wildlife were recorded by visitors to Britain's canals, rivers, docks and reservoirs.

 

This year's survey, supported by the British Dragonfly Society, focused on dragonflies and damselflies and more than 350 were spotted across the country, particularly in the North West.

I've seen report cards that can be filled in and posted to BW.

[blackrose]

What's the point of an annual wildlife survey exactly?

[jeb]

What's the point of an annual wildlife survey exactly?

 

Well its more of a stock take really so they know what speicies to buy in and which ones to get rid of. One more mallard for a start cause Gaggles just eaten it.

[alan_fincher]

One more mallard for a start cause Gaggles just eaten it.

Well with a name like "Gaggle" he's probably not going to eat the geese, is he ?

[carlt]

Is Simon Salem's bonus dependent on a "satisfactory outcome" of this survey?

[gaggle]

Has anybody thought that maybe, as this is a survey involving wildlife, there is some sort of funding available to BW for providing the results. Is it not also possible that the 'survey' involves getting last years's report out of the file and jiggling it slightly over a mug of tea. Has anybody actually seen inspectors with binoculars eagerly noting wildlife details, or have any of us been asked to contribute to the survey in some way.

 

Roger

think the sooty man was talking to a bw employee about this wildlife counting on one of locks and quays.

[Sir Eustace Missenden]

What's the point of an annual wildlife survey exactly?

 

 

To misinform

[starman]

As far as I know the survey is done by canal visitors/users which means it ought to be more wide-ranging than anything done by a small number of binocular wielding bureaucrats. Why no canada geese? Perhaps for the same reason there are no rats included -- there are so many of the damned things that people no longer regard them as wildlife but as pests.

 

 

Is a wildlife survey of any use? Of course it is. How else would you get any semblance of a picture of species increase or decrease and be able to do something to adjust things to improve matters. How do we know, for example, that the population of sparrows has dropped alarming across Britain? Only because of survey results which then lead on to further, in-depth investigation. On top of that it's a way of getting school children etc etc interested in their local waterways.

 

 

There are plenty of things to have a pop at BW about but a wildlife survey really isn't one of them.

[Sir Nibble]

Spotters note:

Geese can be recognised 'cos they go "Honk". Canada geese can be recognised 'cos they go "Honk! eeeeeeh?"