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So we did, just shows you how much I notice. He must have given up on us. He was here for years taking flak. Not much changes

What a wonderful offer that was. Good man OPP.

'fraid not - but then I am not a fan of pork crackling either. Would rather have moist meat and good gravy.

Will it still crispy up then though? The chicken skin and drumsticks had a deep crunch like pork crackling! Was fab!

Provisionally gone.

i remember the 1960 something "silent spring"..........it was the kick up the **** to the farming industry to stop using DDT based products.............luckerly....DDT became outlawed (not in France tho).....and within a couple of short years..the songbirds recovered Magpies are on the increase....a few years ago me and my mate were walking back from pigeon shooting and passed a large silver birch wood in the marshes.......it was starting to get dark andthe birds were coming into roost.....we have never seen so many magpies in one place...there must have been at least a couple of hundred you can imajine the damage they have done during the nesting season the problem needs to be rectified now not down the road when it is too late..

It is now that I oil finished it it was very plain before that. The newer stock is straighter grained and in the flesh looks a good bit better. Below is a picture of the game stock before I oil finished it. Quite a difference.

Mail sent

Or better still, a humane trap, then a .177

Good result and a good memory for Stuart to log away. You’ll be pleased he managed a fish on his first outing, early success is a great help to encourage going out again. Well done 👍

Thermal spotter sold

You did this animal a favour, it was the correct thing to do 👍

Would it have been any good if the op had used a humane trap and then let the mouse out away for his home ? , I would be afraid that once the repellent wore off then he might be having another mouse problem to deal with. MM

Can we please not drag this into a cat hating thread. I know it hasn’t yet but we will be 👀

Was out last night after muntjac and took a pair of Bushnell infinity for spotting in woodland. Pretty good for the price I paid £0.00. If its a high seat or more open I'd use Leica RF hdb 10x42.

Weekend just gone, I went for a very rare pint in town. Recieving a call from my beloved wife I was swiftly told that there was a rabbit in the house, it had got both daughters in trouble by peeing on the floor (spilt drink initially) and destroying a house plant. It has also pooed all up the stairs and in pretty much every room it could. I sumised the cat brought it home and took it upstairs before he had his usual nap. No doubt to eat it later. The wife, unimpressed (a adult rabbit Vs 11 year old cat is impressive in my books) bravely wrestled said rabbit out from under the sofa and into a box before letting it go in the garden . My task the following day was to clean all the carpets. I didn't argue, pointless exercise as you know, so agreed. The following day I went to the shops for carpet shampoo and found a very rude note on the door when I got back,it pointed out there was another (expletive) rabbit trapped in the porch and to deal with it. 3rd one this week. Quite cute, missing an ear but otherwise fine. It's been like this same time every year since we got him.

I'd have baited it and got the air rifle out. But well done for now. 👍

Not just cats and magpies https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/carnage-on-the-carriageway-millions-of-birds-and-animals-die-each-year-on-britain-s-roads-can-the-death-toll-be-reduced-malcolm-smith-on-the-wildlife-holocaust-1384964.html 30-70million per year by cars (1994). Lots more cars on the roads these days. A newer article suggests 194m across Europe. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/01/weve-covered-huge-swathes-of-the-uk-in-tarmac-how-roads-affect-birds-aoe

Hey everyone, I've got a little story from last weekend that I just have to share. It all started when I came home from a long day at work, and my cat, Whiskers, was on high alert in the living room. She's usually the laziest cat in the world, but that day, she was all up in the corners, sniffing like she'd found her arch-nemesis. And, wouldn't you know it, she had! A mouse darted out from under the couch, sending Whiskers into full predator mode. Cue a lot of noise and me chasing the cat who's chasing the mouse. It was chaos. Fast forward to the next day. I knew I needed to deal with the mouse problem, but I didn't want to use anything that could hurt Whiskers or my dog, Rusty. I'm not a fan of traps, and poison is a big no-no in my house. A friend recommended this AMZ BRAND mouse repellent spray, so I gave it a try. It's all-natural and pet-friendly, which is exactly what I was looking for. I sprayed it around the usual suspect spots—under the couch, along the baseboards, and behind the fridge. The scent is a mix of peppermint and other natural oils, which was a bit strong at first, but it faded quickly. The best part? The spray actually worked. I haven't seen any mice since I started using it. Whiskers still does her patrols, but there's nothing to find, and she's back to her usual napping routine. Rusty, on the other hand, doesn't seem to notice a thing—he just sleeps on his bed as usual. I'm glad I found a solution that doesn't involve any risk to my pets, and I didn't have to deal with any traps or dead mice, which is a huge win in my book. So, if you're dealing with a similar rodent situation, I recommend giving the mouse repellent spray a shot. It saved me from a lot of stress, and I think Whiskers is grateful to be off mouse patrol. Anyone else have pet-friendly solutions that worked for them? I'd love to hear your stories.

Oh don't get me wrong they do kill some ….its what Magpies do to live but nowhere near what the cats do though.

Hello, Just an Update, Well today Stuart and Myself went to Farmoor today Trout Fishing as per my offer, The Weather was reasonable, a few sunny spells in between showers and a nice breeze, Farmoor had changed the Hours with no evening fishing finishing at 5 pm, Hence Stewart bought the 2 Fish Ticket and we started at 11 am, a bit of casting practice on the grass and then on water, Trout were mid water but my W/F 7 Floater and a buzzer did not do well until the trout were surface topping in the wind lane 30/40 ft out, around 2 pm there were rising all over , no long casting needed , hooked and lost a nice fish then Stewart hooked in to another which was duly netted, a 2.5 llb nice Rainbow trout, We hooked into another but that got away, A good day for a first time fishing and Stewart taking home his first fly rod caught trout, cheers

Hello, Ah that is right John, Expensive and heavy, yes my Pyser Binoculars and Hawke Monoculars work great in low light

Cats are as bad as magpies they are killing them all year round adult birds not just chicks and fledglings in spring summer.

Unfortunately we have quite a few rats that climb into the nests and take chicks

Canon certainly did some image stabilised ones. I tried a pair (this was some years ago and I suspect they are much better now) and found that they worked reasonably in stabilising the image .......... but for the price you got a heavy and optically rather limited binocular ........ which was understandable as i suppose much of the cost was in the stabilisation. In my view, the key thing to understand with modern binoculars is that in good light conditions even quite modest binoculars can work very well. The expensive 'famous names' are a bit better at the limits of performance as the light fails and against challenging backgrounds, and are beautifully made and smooth to use - but the average mid priced products work very well under the vast majority of conditions.