spandit

We made medlar jelly this year but neither of my mulberry trees are doing much.

I take some comfort from the fact that my boy went down very quickly and we didn't have to watch him deteriorate over a long period. It's been nearly a year and I miss him terribly but the puppy arriving on Friday will help make new memories. Sorry for your loss, don't be ashamed to cry and don't feel guilty if you want to get another dog - they leave a huge void...

We had an underground wasps nest (German wasps, I think) in the field. My mother in law was stung. I like wasps She had them killed.

I think we are in agreement here to some extent. One needs cold hard proof showing correlations between corvid numbers and songbird populations over an extended period. I, for one, don't like the noise they make (magpies) and there are many around where I live but I haven't monitored what effect they have on other wildlife.

Excellent. I'm trying to be impartial here and I will agree that since 1970, magpie numbers have gone up (by 100% I think). Over nearly 50 years. Not over 3 weeks. Gathering data takes time and we may have to be diligent and patient because the likes of CP and NJ are well funded and persuasive. If a decline in songbirds, for example, is measured without emotion or hyperbole and proven to be due to increased predation by corvids then it will be necessary to control them by legal means

Prove it. Show me the data.

I don't doubt your conviction but we are discussing a legal situation here and "I use my eyes" is not going to cut it. Maybe due to your trapping over previous years the numbers have been artificially low compared to a sustainable balanced population?

Argue all you like but unless you can provide documented proof showing numbers compared to previous years your arguments are baseless. I'm sorry if I'm coming across as an anti - perhaps I am playing Devil's advocate - but there are intelligent minds on NJ's side and it will take more than a comment on here to persuade them and the general public that there is a case for killing birds.

My lifetime is over 40 years. The GL ban is a matter of weeks old. Was the corvid shooting local to Jason that effective prior to the ban? We are not going to fight this with anecdote and conjecture. We need evidence that is properly supported with statistical data. These BTO statistics you mention may provide some proof for our cause but I very much doubt they'd show an effect that quickly. Happy to be proven wrong, with emphasis on the proven.

I, for one, find this highly suspect that you would notice an effect in such a short space of time. Please publish your data. The GL had long been misinterpreted. I remember as a youth knowing the 13 "unlucky" species you could shoot, as listed by the popular air gun magazines. It was never clarified that it wasn't a blanket excuse to shoot on sight. Until this issue was brought to the fore by recent events, I'd wager that many of us were not complying with the GL anyway. Much as the sight of a magpie targeting songbirds is abhorrent to our eyes, is this not something they've done for hundreds of thousands of years? Nature red in tooth and claw? The actions of the cuckoo are pretty despicable but I'd hope nobody is advocating shooting them.

Leaves don't look quite right but it's not a great picture so can't be sure

Bet a very cocky son of a mate that he couldn't eat a tablespoon of flour. That kept him quiet for a while. Also http://www3.telus.net/bc_triumph_registry/smoke.htm,

If the old computer still works get them both connected to the network and you should be able to share files between them using SMB or similar. 28gb is a big file - might take a while but just leave it running and go and put the kettle on

Thank you. I hope so

Sorry to hear that. We said goodbye to our boy in the vets last June. It was the right decision but miss him terribly. The little bundle in the photo is called Luna and we pick her up in 3 weeks...