NatureBoy

As they dislike/refuse/twist any debate on anything that challenges them and dose not fit with there views or agenda maybe we and our orgs should attend the Hen Harrier Day 19 that they are hosting!? It at Carsington Water Derbyshire on Sunday PM 11th August for any folk living that way. Even if it was to just help/open the eyes of some of those attending understand that we are not the ignorant monied casual killers they continue to portray us to be and that a lot of us are as knowledgeable and passionate about all things nature as any of them! Not just getting angry shouty and negative but actually making a difference doing real conservation where it matters! NB

Spot on PC! Very true! I have Watched it! Partly Because of great footage and a lifetime love of all things nature! Now mainly because it 's like know thy enemy! !!! He may have a massive knowledge of all tings nature but comes across as very being very uncomfortable and so so fake! Can see it in the other presenters working with him and that is in a heavily scripted and edited program ! NB

Since when has the collared dove been on the red list? Any ref to that 243? They listed in the most top 10 common birds in uk. Big prob in a lot of places and one of the biggest spreaders of tracy desease. Loads my way and they certainly don't get on with and compete with the turtle doves we have got around here. NB Apart from wood pigeon!

Great band! Singer James Hetfield a hunter. Some tried to stop them Headlining Glasto a while back after he shot an posed with a bear! I heard he's found god these days? Check em out with Lemmy and Motorhead. NB

Well said JD!!! NB

Give or barter mine so haven't used them but you could be thinking of the Wild Meat Company? They at Blaxhall near Woodbridge Suffolk. (01728) 687627. They top payers round here . Were paying 60p. They sell pigeon £5.95 for 4 fillets. NB

Painter & decorator. But wanted to be keeper, conservationist or artist when i left school in 81. Ended up doing old school 3yr city and guilds apprenticeship. Got made redundant twice after. Self employed at 21. Sub contracting, contracting now mainly domestics. Working mainly on/restoring/looking after period properties. Varied jobs from. Churches to new builds, boats, Mansions, living wagons, museums and get to do a few murals. Get to combine work with shooting, fishing and conservation on some of the big properties. Hard work! But ya get out what ya put in. NB

Hoopoe's and golden oreals used to turn up on local estate in Suffolk when it was heavily keepered in the 70/80's Both had very distinctive calls. Red backed shrike to for a few years. Found one of their larders they make on a barb wire fence when i was a kid. NB

Motorhead and girlschool (please don't touch)! Lemmey in a suit even! . . .Siouxsie and the banshees (peek a boo)! PiL (Rise)! All about eve (martha's harbour}! AC/AC (big balls).

Interesting that habitat is holding both then. I didn't think they got on? Also lot more song thrushes about this year. Seen a few young about to. NB

Did he get all corvids? Does it cover him for all of England? It Should cover you to mate?. . Falconers have any trapped corvids at mo. Another fella has wings and tails for fly tieing. Don't having the hounds through this time of year disturb breeding birds. nests and young? Mink and otter everywhere my way. Clearing out fish but water voles holding up. NB

Do you and others in village feed JDog? Do the tree sparrows come to feeders? Great to see them. One of my customers has had a small colony of tree sparrows for over 30 years. they never seem to leave her orchard, farm yard and garden. or grow in number. Noticing a few more tree creepers and reed buntings about. NB

You right there mate! Tricho hit greenfinches hard! Ges it what happens when numbers get so high. Found lot of dead and dieing birds when it happened. Think sparrow numbers really struggle. Nest in the ivy and roof at mine but i think gene pool to small and local for them to build strong numbers up. Lot of nests fail and others seem to produce some weak looking youngsters. I put woodie feathers out to. Not long going. Used to empty tumble dryer filter out to but being a lot of micro plastic in it probably not good. Saw jackdaw drop down and bang a young dunnock in head yesterday. Grab some grub from feeders and fly off as it's mate grabbed dunnock and followed. I have seen crows clear out buzzard nest in past. 1 killed but didn't eat chicks. Attacked and threw 3 out of nest in seconds while mate sat near by. Buzzards always chance it buzzing the rookery opposite mine. Tell by the different noise when they about. Barn owls busy last night and this morning. they know bad weather on the way. NB

This also might be of interest to folk? Hen harrier day 2019 is coming up! Hosted this year by Wild Justice and Severn Trent Water at Carsington Water Derbyshire on Sunday 11th August. Maybe worth a visit to hear what they have got to say. Especially after there challenge to stop the brood management scheme failed and the RSPB having pulled out. Shame they will never let our orgs speak. But we may be able to engage with and help educate those attending. NB

Labours new report " Land For The Many" (george monbiot) makes interesting reading. So does a new book Avery has been promoting since the start of there GL challange, "Who Owns England?" ( Guy Shrubsole ). All these lot promo and support each other. Along with CPs Manifesto For Wildlife. Just saying! NB

Greenfinches been slow to recover from virus that knocked them back few years ago. Several about this year. Few more bullfinches and linnets to. They ringing record numbers of yellow hammers on the farm. Shows populations can expand with a bit of help, the right habitat, wildlife corridors and pest control! Think that the same farm being in RBAPS trials help birds and loads of insects this year! Birds still using feeders hard this tie of year shows they still need our help. Jackdaws still hitting birds daily in a lot of gardens in village. Hopefully now we have had some rain they will lay off the birds. 80% of young songbirds don't make the year. NB

Saw farmer and more cam footage. Swifts actually fought to the death of one of them. He removed it after pair left box. Ringer recon it 3rd year bird but couldn't sex it as it odd size. Pair back in box already. Got ringed male green and gold finches nesting in my garden. Farmer saw and got a pic of stone curlew other day on drilled cover. Very rare in our part of Suffolk. Hope they hang about. Jackdaws still battering the young birds! Only one of the young black birds still about. Wrens fledged yesterday morning. bouncing of every thing. NB

Cheers Twenty! Just gota keep on doing what we do and keep banging the drum! Great you doing it with your boy mate! BTO ant all bad! No point in slinging mud! Packham , Avery and co choose to dismiss all what we do and any good science our orgs have done to show the need for pest control and the real need to control ALL corvids! Might be worth you putting in for license for corvids with what you do with BTO and having red list species. 2 of the farms did and got all corvids! So we back controlling and trapping them. Both got license quick to, Both shoots as well. Having turtle doves, grey partridge other red listers and having BTO on helped. Jackdaws biggest problem this year. Being able to really get the corvid numbers down last year made a big noticable differance! Numbers of grey partridge ( seen two broods) and turtle doves well up, More song thrushes in the area and plenty of whitethroat about, Public support and interest been good since this mess kicked off! Only been other shooters that have questioned why i am still shooting. . . .Has all kicked off in swift box up farm with cam on it! Another bird came in attacked the pair. big fight to exhaustion and all eggs destroyed. Nest now empty, Plenty of bees and a lot more insects about again today and saw first pair of spotted flycatchers of the year. NB

All the swift box's up one farm are occupied and nesting now. Cam shows one lot sitting on 5 eggs. Saw swallows over and sitting on new drill last week. They and house martins get mud for nesting round the new flood prevention resivior. Little egrets turn up there to. Never found where they nest. Lot more insects my way this spring. Big hatches after rain. Got 8 turtle doves paired up on same farm to. BTO ringer managed to get large male and ring it. Kingfisher to. Got several pairs on other farms and in village. Purrring opposite my house. I think the fact we got on top of the growing number of corvids last spring and this helped. As it was so dry they a real problem in the piggery, poultry and live stock units in big numbers. I am glad the rooks have left the rookery near mine. They were the first to start calling at first light. Real noisy. Two pairs of hobbys nesting local and kestrels doing well in boxes this year. Less buzzards and sparrow hawks this year and haven't seen the ravens that were about for a while. See goldcrests regularly and more treecreepers. Less woodpeckers! Got some young black rabbits on one farm and some white on another. these seem to come thro when numbers are low. Never see mixed colours. Plenty of hares doing well. Got 9 different species of birds nesting in my garden. Dunnocks and blackbirds on second broods. Sparrow hawk got some young blackbirds and jackdaws had the pigeons nest. Blackbirds nest on my porch will fledged tonight or in morning i hope. Got some of the growing number of birds ringed on farm/shoot coming to my feeders. they expanding out thro corridors of proper hedge and habitat management! So we must be doing something right! Record numbers of yellow hammers. They even ringed a crow last month. Not bad for a bunch of "casual killers and wildlife vandals" without an oglogy or letters after our name! NB

If only! Countrybile has very big viewing figures and is only way some folk get to find out whats happening or how the countryside works how ever biased they may report it. It's up to us to expand on educate folk to the bigger picture of topics on the show that may have got peoples interest. WJ may only be a lobby a lobbying croup now and should only remain so but they have bigger plans. Read manifesto for wildlife! What they have done with the challenge om GL has got attention and the public interested. A lot i have spoke to are interested and favour what we do, our views and the real conservation we do and can show them. NB

The bit on nionics rape and flea beetle was interesting. Just thought strange they had rope bangers crows and hawk kite in it.NB

Talking of paranoia! 😉 Anyone else watching countrybile tonight notice during the piece on pesticides they happened to show rope bangers scaring off crows twice and hawk kite over rape?. Maybe i care to much! NB

That directorate make good interesting reading! If only more folk would read and abide by it or care. While Packham and co have a go at us because it's part of there bigger agenda there's far to much habitat and nest destruction go on in/unintentionally by various bodies orgs and individuals! Dioceses having tree work done recently in two churchyards near me. Disturbing breeding red list birds, distroying nests and bat roosts. When i spoke to church folk they didn't seem to know or botherd!

A local farm to me in Suffolk uses and spread hundreds of tons of "recycled composted"" garden waste on his fields. Has been doing it for years. We were looking at a load of the same stuff that had been delivered to another farm where i shoot the other day. In no time 3 of us picked hand fulls of just the various clearly visible shredded plastics off the pile. We were amazed at the amount and that this stuff gets supplied by county waste handlers. The amount of micro plastics in that stuff must be huge! And we bother and worry about the amount of litter plastic wads and carts cause! Another thing that amazed us was the amount of heat there was in the recently delivered small heap of about 10 tons. Farmer not going to use it or have any more and look in to it! NB