UK rural areas noiser than cities thanks to gas guns in use
Jun 20th, 2015, 09:03 AM
#1
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UK rural areas noiser than cities thanks to gas guns in use
Not so bad being woken by sheep or rooster out in rural areas but the gas guns in English countryside are maddening. Farmers blast them from sunrise to sunset to scare birds off crops. And some can be LOUD - like having rockets going off for 16 hours. If there are several planted fields near your hotel or B&B, and you are a light sleeper, or just don't fancy gunfire all day, you'll need earplugs or a white noise app. Be sure to ask before you book what the local area is like.
Jun 20th, 2015, 09:13 AM
#2
That's a pretty wide statement, ziplocbag, for your first post here. [welcome, BTW].
which part/s of the UK were you staying in? I can tell you that here in rural Cornwall I've never knowingly heard one of these "gas guns" and I can't remember coming across one anywhere else either.
which part/s of the UK were you staying in? I can tell you that here in rural Cornwall I've never knowingly heard one of these "gas guns" and I can't remember coming across one anywhere else either.
Jun 20th, 2015, 09:23 AM
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I've never heard one.
Dawn chorus (all day), church clock, rustling trees, cows, nursing ewes, cocks: they all add up to more noise than I ever had to deal with in cities - but bird scarers? Not round here.
What the poster is describing (using audible bird scarers with earshot of domestic premises) is in breach of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act, and where I live we'd have an order imposed on the farmer within seconds of the thing going off. It's regularly invoked in less socially-minded areas than round here.
It beggars belief that any hotel would take this lying down, and the tone of the post strikes me as preposterously exaggerated. What did the hotel say?
For future reference: http://www.nfuonline.com/assets/4662
Dawn chorus (all day), church clock, rustling trees, cows, nursing ewes, cocks: they all add up to more noise than I ever had to deal with in cities - but bird scarers? Not round here.
What the poster is describing (using audible bird scarers with earshot of domestic premises) is in breach of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act, and where I live we'd have an order imposed on the farmer within seconds of the thing going off. It's regularly invoked in less socially-minded areas than round here.
It beggars belief that any hotel would take this lying down, and the tone of the post strikes me as preposterously exaggerated. What did the hotel say?
For future reference: http://www.nfuonline.com/assets/4662
Jun 20th, 2015, 10:23 AM
#5
The original poster doesn't actually say he or she stayed in such a hotel, just warns us off of them.
I am curious whether you had this experience, Ziplocbag, or whether it is something you are talking about for some other reason.
I am curious whether you had this experience, Ziplocbag, or whether it is something you are talking about for some other reason.
)
Jun 20th, 2015, 01:14 PM
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I've lived in the Scottish and English countryside for 46 years. Never heard any farmer use these, although wildfowling and grouse/pheasant shoots can cause an annoyance in some areas.
I've always thought that the sound of shooting on a misty Autumn morning is one of the most atmospheric experiences in the world.
I've always thought that the sound of shooting on a misty Autumn morning is one of the most atmospheric experiences in the world.
Jun 20th, 2015, 08:16 PM
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"can we both be wrong, flanner?"
I mis-phrased my answer.
I occasionally hear bird scarers when walking through deep countryside: even in the middle of England there are places an hour's walk, or sometimes even longer, from the nearest pub - and the "thud...thud" background can sometimes be louder than the birds. It's not particularly rare -or anything like a rocket.
What I've never encountered is a bird scarer that's audible from home or from a pub or hotel - and it's often surprising how small an area they are audible in.
The law's quite strict and widely enforced, and every district council EPO in rural England knows about it. At this time of year, birds start destroying crops around 0330 and whatever anti-bird techniques a farmer uses have to be operating by then. So if a farmer uses an bird scarer near houses there'll be complaints on the EPO's phone before she arrives at work, and an order served on the farmer the same morning.
So any farmer with vulnerable crops near inhabited areas has to use a different technique, or find a different crop. It's one of those constraints farmers grumble about - but, like all the moans on Farming Today, constraints they either learn to live with or get out of farming because of.
It isn't something local corruption finds a way to ignore. Few people have full double glazing, we all keep our bedroom windows open and people these days are a lot noisier about noise than they were 50 years ago.
However: one allied phenomenon is the noise-obsessive who claims to hear things no-one else can. My suspicion is that the poster's one of them.
I mis-phrased my answer.
I occasionally hear bird scarers when walking through deep countryside: even in the middle of England there are places an hour's walk, or sometimes even longer, from the nearest pub - and the "thud...thud" background can sometimes be louder than the birds. It's not particularly rare -or anything like a rocket.
What I've never encountered is a bird scarer that's audible from home or from a pub or hotel - and it's often surprising how small an area they are audible in.
The law's quite strict and widely enforced, and every district council EPO in rural England knows about it. At this time of year, birds start destroying crops around 0330 and whatever anti-bird techniques a farmer uses have to be operating by then. So if a farmer uses an bird scarer near houses there'll be complaints on the EPO's phone before she arrives at work, and an order served on the farmer the same morning.
So any farmer with vulnerable crops near inhabited areas has to use a different technique, or find a different crop. It's one of those constraints farmers grumble about - but, like all the moans on Farming Today, constraints they either learn to live with or get out of farming because of.
It isn't something local corruption finds a way to ignore. Few people have full double glazing, we all keep our bedroom windows open and people these days are a lot noisier about noise than they were 50 years ago.
However: one allied phenomenon is the noise-obsessive who claims to hear things no-one else can. My suspicion is that the poster's one of them.
Jun 21st, 2015, 01:24 AM
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I have heard them but only when I have been on country walks,in fact one went off pretty near the path we were on and I just about needed to change my underwear.
It is really only at certain times of year and in the area I live in it is usually after they have sowed the winter barley an essential ingredient for making whisky.
It is really only at certain times of year and in the area I live in it is usually after they have sowed the winter barley an essential ingredient for making whisky.
Jun 21st, 2015, 05:28 AM
#19
well, not for the first time he's right on the money as the OP was talking ba..s as anyone who lives in or has even visited the british countryside would know full well.
[thank you for the translation, dotheballshall, but the only person here worthy of the term is the one who started the thread].
[thank you for the translation, dotheballshall, but the only person here worthy of the term is the one who started the thread].
