OT Hare coursing

Round here they are welcomed for all the pigeons they eat. Not sure they do in many pheasants.

That actually depends on two things

Round here the farmers cut all the roadside verges and clear all the adjoining ditches. I *think the council pays them.

My neighbour ain't a grain baron. Its a small farm of about 70 acres in total I think.

Run by effectively one man with contractors now and then.

Hares do not do damage like bunnies. They don't burrow and they don't breed so heavily.

Not sure if they eat young plants tho. Probably

And frankly they dont taste up to much either. very 'jock strap' flavour when I tried one.

No. for bunnies, subsonic and a silencer. one bunny falls over. next door bunny looks up, can't fathom it, goes on eating..ten brown bunnies, eating on the bank...

And bunnies are decent when curried or made into pies.

If he bulldozed rather than ploughed, chances are the bulbs are still there

Also it's a fantastic chance - fresh ground - to plant an acre of opium poppies. They love freshly mangled soil.

Or snowdrops.

The highway authority does not have to own the underlying subsoil to have effective control of the highway including the carriageway and verges. This confuses people whose house deeds show them owning up to the middle of the road outside their house when they realise the council effectively own it and they have no say in its use.

That is of course possible. I can't imagine why, though. Half the length of the road is too narrow to remove anything without moving their field boundaries anyway, and has near-vertical banks.

Same here. I am sure they will be continuing to receive pay for cutting it even though it is now bare subsoil and slate.

miles better than a (legal) spring-and-piston air rifle which is barely accurate at 30 meters

Its amazing what people can get away with if they just act as if they had every right.

I brought an entire autobahn to a standstill by waving my arms authoritatively in front of a couple of lorries, so my sister could clear the remains of the picnic table that had fallen of her camper...

At least one sett spelling Tim) here, and hedgehogs also vanished..

Now I like hedgehogs AND badgers and neither do me personally any harm, so there is a dilemma as yes, badgers by the side of the road - several each year - Frisbee style hedgehogs? None.

And the agricultural pattern really hasn't changed that much. In short its likely that there are too many badgers and the hedghogs just gave up.

• 1

In message snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>, Roger Hayter snipped-for-privacy@hayter.org writes

The surface is *vested* in the Highway Authority. This may amount to one spit down or more depending on the usage.

Indeed. Gaia is not a hypothesis. It is merely an observation on the interconnectedness of ecosystems

House sparrows are in decline because of modern building regs. Other species are in decline because we no longer graze horses extensively. Garden birds proliferate because we have gardens. Prior to that they only existed in clearings in woods in very small numbers Everything has *some* impact.

I studied ornithology briefly once. Birds breed massively fast. Most die young - very young. populations of some species - e.g. wrens - varies up to 10:1 year on year. have half a dozen mild winters in a row and the insect eating wrens will grow to match the food,. one hard winter will kill 90% of them.

I've seen a big rise in woodpeckers in the last ten years - not just green ones, but the spotted ones too.. No idea why. And we have barns that barn owls like nearby as well.

My understanding is different, I believe that the council dies not

However when I looked into developing a friends back garden it was clear that the verge beyond the hedge DID belong to the county council and their permissions would be needed in order to punch an access road acrosss.

Perhaps he was then in fact doing what my old fen landlord once did. I saw him knocking the concrete kerb and steel parapet of the small drain bridge that gave access to his farm and my rented cottage, and adding new pipe and backfilling it with hard core 'Why're you doing that Bill?" "It's me new combine, its too wide for this 'ere bridge'

I planted his backfill with scrap soil, opium poppies, and daffodils.

Well if he can 'doze it you can plant it.

My garden is full of pirated snowdrops from a derelict house in a wood near here. And that wood used to be (prolly still is) full of bluebells some of which ended up here as well.

I bought ~150 daffodils and planted em up as well - cost less than 20 quid

My point being what will he do if it is ablaze with spring bulbs and summer poppies next year?

Sod all - he will mow it once a year and otherwise not give a f*ck.

Oops!

We are not helping by controlling slugs and closely fencing our gardens.

No you didn't. As I pointed out I was replying to Tim Streater.

Which isn't what Tim Streater was saying is it ?

Without being a mind reader I would imagine Tim's concern about hedgehogs is as much to do with the number of slugs he's finding in his garden as anything else. So nowadays he's now having to fork out for "wildlife friendly" slug pellets. Which cost a bit more than the normal ones I think you'll find,

Slugs probably make up a large component in a hedgehog's diet. Nobody particularly wants slugs on their land quite possibly they're harmful to all sorts of crops beyond the obvious lettuces and cabbages. So the slugs are got rid of by one means or another. So whether hedgehogs are being poisonsed by eating slugs killed by cheaper chemicals or are simply being starved to death is a moot poot.

Whereas all of a sudden Tim Streater has suddenly discovered what nasty little creatures badgers are, just as his Tory Govt are announcing further totally uneccessary but hugely unpopular badger culls, as the behest of their mates in the beef industry.

No Tim, you didn't say any if that.

michael adams

...

Quite so. No assumption is safe. The presumption is that ownership goes with the frontage of the property but that can be displaced. And whatever the ownership, the verge may or may not be part of the highway.

It was you that referred to hypersonic :P I rather think that was a moment of brain fade.

It's almost impossible to get a licence for a .22 for rough shooting. I've used one once under supervision - I was a better shot than the landowner. You do need to think _a lot_ about where a miss might go.

Andy

In message <rrql1k$no9$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, michael adams snipped-for-privacy@ukonline.co.uk> writes

Major snippage.

The real solution is to stop growing Hostas!

I don't think they are quite a *nice* as the TV shots of gambolling cubs would have us believe. However, I do not support their persecution. Upthread, I pointed out that Hertfordshire is on a 4 year testing regime and considered low risk for TB in cattle from whatever source.

Culling to control disease harmful to humans is a matter for government to decide and for TB has been in their hands since 1950 or so. Routine testing and culling of reacting cattle together with compensation for loss has continued with both shades of Govt.

Attempting to move the goalposts by removing one known disease vector is as yet an unproven and certainly expensive solution. Not having susceptible animals of any sort might be an alternative. However, TB is not restricted to cattle and Badgers.

Far too many Tims!

I do neither.

That was for deer. subsonic 22 hasn't the stopping power, and you only get one shot at deer usually