Pigeons

Air rifle. Lethal up to 30 meters. Eat pigon breasts poached in cider, or made into pies.

Wasting your time.

Yebut, they can't get back to warn their mates to keep away.

Pigeon breasts have a very unpleasant taste IMHO; a bit like liver.

Out of curiosity, why is it a problem? We have pigeons and magpies visit as well as the smaller stuff - it's just another bird.

I rate it closer to heart actually.

That why you poach em in cider. Draws out the taste somewhat.

BUT a lot depends on what your pigeon has been eating. An undiluted diet of rape does leave then a shade bitter, for example.

In any case they can be given to any cats and dogs, saving on tinned food.

Unpleasant? Liver? What an odd man you are.

Marinade them in lime juice and soy sauce.

Yeah, any mild acid seems to work. White wine and cream is another one I have seen used.

Hare is another rather rank tasting meat if its not marinaded.

Wild rabbit too has an odour of sweaty socks, till its been suitably treated.

As does wild venison.

But if you DO do the work, it completely disappears.

Rabbit or hare vindaloo, with mustard and vinegar, is peerless!

Comeing out of Watford running parallel to the canal I got straffed by a skein of geese just taking off and, presumably, shedding load before gaining altitude.

Shame I had the sun-roof out at the time - they were flying at about the same speed I was driving.

Oops!

Actually I meant by the cat, but hey...

and no - though for some reason hunting ortolans seems familiar.

A small lark in France. Illegal to do it though Mitterand was allowed to eat some as he died. You have eat the whole thing, feathers and guts, and you wear a hood rather like a Ku Klux Klan barbecue. Or Dixie Pixies as Tom Lehrer described them.

Yeah - I know that, but I'm trying to remember /why/ I knew it. Perhaps a Gerald Durrell, or somesuch - I certainly remember reading a description of ortolan hunting and scoffing. Might have been on the radio, though.

It was on the box. For the life of me can't remember what the programme was though.

Got it. The Spectator December 2008 by: Simon Hoggart

"My favourite programme last week was France on a Plate (BBC4, Sunday) in which Dr Andrew Hussey investigated the link between gastronomy and la gloire; French glory and destiny. He began with a recreation of François Mitterrand?s last meal, which climaxed with the illegal consumption of ortolans, an endangered songbird which is blinded then boiled in Armagnac. Yum! As you crunch the creature whole, its tiny head dangling from your lips, you wear a napkin over your head which keeps the flavour in, and emphasises the sacerdotal significance of the act. Just as pre-revolutionary kings ate vast banquets while the peasants starved largely to prove they could, so Mitterrand feasted on a protected species because he too was the chef de l?état, and did as he pleased, especially when days from death."

Just pretend it's a pigeon

Peter Scott

At this point, the coincidence of your name becomes overwhelming.

Jeremy Clarkson ate them on his European tour.

See

to teach fine upstanding British children that - she didn't see the funny side at all.

Yes. Sussed. Its a new type of cloud computing called ectoplasmanet. I find it easier than a ouija board.