Billhook
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Everything posted by Billhook
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Copperhead, Easypeasy! Poisonous too
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Cog nitive malfunction!
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Could well be the problem. I have not done anything about tackling the problem again as I have been too busy. Crud does develop in the slot as you say and it becomes compressed to become so solid that it needs a hammer and chisel to remove it. It will do no harm at all to give the old Palax a good clean and oil when the weather improves, will let you know the result.
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Meetings with remarkable trees, the Arbtalk version
Billhook replied to Steve Bullman's topic in Picture Forum
I have burnt some in the stove, found it burns well even straight off the tree but does not last long. This Winter I had some big bonfires of brash and the wind took some embers to a Sycamore some distance away. The Sycamore had some dead ivy hanging off it which we had killed a couple of years ago. It went up like a Roman candle, but surprisingly did not seem to harm the tree. -
Meetings with remarkable trees, the Arbtalk version
Billhook replied to Steve Bullman's topic in Picture Forum
Not quite sure if this comes under the heading of a remarkable tree, but it certainly is a remarkable bit of ivy at 9 inch diameter
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Very large flock of Redwings and Fieldfares in the grass field yesterday, several hundred and today joined by a smaller flock of Starlings. Definitely a “ murmuring “ judging by the noise! Yesterday all the Redwings and Fieldfares settled in the mature Ash trees in the lane making a lot of noise in the sunshine, must be something to do with the Full Moon! Do not know what the collective noun is for Redwings and Fieldfares but I suggest a “Twittering” if it has not been used already!
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Goldfinches have abandoned my dedicated niger seed feeder in preference to sunflower hearts, which they clumsily or deliberately drop onto the ground below to feed wood pigeon, pheasants, and other small ground feeders who cannot cope with the hanging feeders.
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Jack Sprat could eat no fat, His wife could eat no lean. And so between them both, you see, They licked the platter clean. I am sure we could come to some arrangement! What size are your hands, mine are XL, but I would have XXL if they made them
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I am totally left handed, so you would expect that when I remove a glove to perform a delicate operation, it would be from my dominant left hand. But I keep ending up with single left hand gloves and not a right handed in sight!
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Bit more zoom! Taken an hour ago
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Just had our Miscanthus cut with a monster 600 hp Claas and the driver loaded his Ford up a very steep ramp. I really thought that he would bottom out especially with the weight of the tank in the back but it went up easypeasy
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I have been trying to get my oats orgasmic all my life!
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Lucas Mill Sunset
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And as for the price of petrol and diesel! Being only a simple soul, I cannot quite understand that if it was Putin’s war that put up the prices, surely the oil companies would be having to pay more for it so would be making less profit which does not tally with their record profits this year i have just received a massive bill for some fertiliser and the price of wheat has dropped so I am not expecting much profit this year. I will be like Clarkson’s Farm and making Diddly Squat!
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I actually believe that you do not need to put a drug in sugar, just say that you have!
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You are right Mick and they need my perfect solution which is to place an infertility drug into all artificial sugar. I think you must advertise that it is in there. This might clear a few beds in the NHS as I would bet that obesity would be the cause of half the patients from heart disease to hips and knees, to diabetes
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I am not sure about the demise of the general bird population caused by DDT. It certainly nailed the raptors and crows and magpies and the result was lawns with thrushes and other birds out in the middle of the lawns listening for worms, unmolested by Sparrow Hawks, hedges full of nesting birds unmolested by crows and Jays and Magpies. Not saying go back to DDT but just making the point that the current demise in all these garden birds is usually put down to modern farming methods when really I think it is due to the banning of DDT which has resulted in the gradual return of raptors. What chance has a bird to raise a family against, not only all these I have just mentioned but also domestic cats.
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do not think it was the peanuts a there are literally dozens of tits, hedge sparrows, robins, jays, blackbirds and squirrels on the feeders each day I suspect the water bowl and me not cleaning it daily, Many birds landing on it and pooping in it during the day. Both the birds in the picture were found right next to it
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Good advice from you both, thank you
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Do you think I should suggest the same to my wife to improve things down under?
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Just had a huge Claas forage harvester cutting the dense Miscanthus today. The driver has cut several farms and I asked him what wildlife he has seen running out of it. He said plenty of Muntjac, few rabbits, quite a few pheasants but no foxes, not seen one since he started and there we’re always quite a few in the past I find this very worrying as we always had a stable population around here Seen quite a few dead badgers on the roadside still no rats though, mind you I am not missing them!
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So you would think that if it was disease they would look thin and ragged surely? Have you or anyone seen a victim of bird flu? A quick google doesn’t seem to show that garden birds are particularly susceptible but swollen heads and sudden deaths are mentioned. They do not seem to have the swollen head but the deaths were sudden and both next to each other by the water bowl which I have cleaned Infection with avian influenza viruses among songbirds, including many common backyard birds, appears to be rare.14 Jul 2022
