drinksloe

Does no one find beech very hard to split green/wet? The limbs are fine just the butts got a lot of discs cut about 18"-2ft thick and 2-4ft daimaeter are a real pain when green, my splitting axe just bounces off them hardly arking them, yet 4-8 months later just after being left out to weather split a lot easier. Sometimes u can see the grain drying out and spliing Just treated myself to a Fiskars X27, only had a wee play with it a logs were frozen together so just splitting them as they lay but definately seems a good tool

Been wanting to find some for a while too, always used to get them from Chieftain Forge before he retired

While i'm sure altering them will ruin any kite marks and may affect there performance. Ur only cutting the bottom couple of inches so any loss in performance probably doesn't matter as much as ur boots will be protecting ur feet anyway. Could u not turn them up inside (possibly make them to bulky) or outside and sow the seem so doesnae fill with sawdust, so in theory not cut anything

I don't think we're that far apart OSM, must admit i tend to think the lack of habitat/environmental change excuse is the easy 1 all the birders like to pull out the hat when they don't know wot to blame, or face the truth u have to manage predators. They can't point the finger at old grammies cats as they donate to them and scared to upset them Bit like 'global warming' chestnut Obviously it could be site specific, but in my local area the local farming has not really changed that much, almost all the old hedgrows are still where they were when i was a boy and infaact more have been planted. When i was a boy we used to collect eggs (granted won't have helped matters) now hardly ever see a wader in this area, yet go 20miles up the road to almost identical farmland and the place is literally teaming with waders and all fledging chicks succesfully. The only difference is got a decent keeper up there (as gwct study at otterburn proved scientifically, as only thing they changed was predator numbers) Even some rspb resrve they manged to significantly increase wader numbers by predator control but keep it all quiet so not to upset members, now spending fortunes fencing nesting areas, money would be far better killing the things there fencing out so a far greater area will benefit from safer nesting. That nature resere is a prime example, always around the 50ish resident mallard, yet there has not been a succesfull brood there for years, that nature reserve is not self sustaining and needs duck from elswhere to come in to keep it stable. Had a pair of little glebe's for years 1 year had 4 nests never got a chick off, 1 was killed by a stoat last year so other is just on its own. This year they are finally allowing me to do limited crow control at nesting time, prob killing 2-3 pairs of carrion crows is all it will take to give nesting birds a chance Yet has plentiful Reds squirrels as have no predators so feed/habitat works well I'm sure if u google the Langholm moor it wil come up, got a fancy website for it the now and it will probably give u the history of it, quite intresting wot they're doing but the sheer number of buzzards up there has ruined it. Do u think the stoats are no longer there? I'd be surprised if there not, it's just ur not seeing them. Most owl species are stable rising so must be not to bad for mice/vole numbers

I have the complete oppisate view, predators by their definations should be rare, ur basic ecological principles of boimsss or population pyramids also state u have to have far fewer predators than prey. OSM wot ur saying does no entirely make sense, if u think there is a problem further down the food chain why is there more predators than ever before in recorded history?? And that is my argument/point predators and prey are not really linked in this totally man made environment we all live in There is no doubt that waders, song, LBJ (little brown jobs) are generally in massive decline some at over 80-90% in last 30 years. If predators were totally relying on them they shouldnot be in such high numbers. If u look into Langholm moor, big study ongoing the now (looking like going to be a total failure after £10mil) the 1st study up there Hen harriers bred so well ate almost every living thing on the moor and did eat themselves to starvation, numbers dropped from 28ish pair to 2, before the study was always about 4 pair breeding successfully and 5 keepers had FT jobs and a bit ofseasonal work for locals, after HH explosion no jobs up there. The new study is going the exact same way the way its looking at minute althou this time HH numbers never go so high due the the high number of buzzards that were absent in 1st study. Have a look on the Song bird Survival website, they're a proper bird charity doing a lot of good work who actually care more about birds than just chasing funds. Another really good site is the GWCT, they have done numerous predator studies over the years. 2 relevent to this are the work they have done at Otterburn, basically a big bit of hill ground, divided it into 4 big chunks and studied wader breeding and predator control. They found on the 'control' areas where things were left to get on the birds were producing less chicks than they needed to survive every year. As soon as u inroduced predator control the breeding success of waders shot up by about 3X the chicks fledging. The other real intresting long term study is ot there doig at Allerton, basiclly they were inherited an small estate/farm for research/study. They at 1 point stopped feeding and predator control and bird number plummetted on the farm, started feeding and numbers rose a bit but when started predator control again numbers really shot up. Nothing there doing is really rocket science, basically ur 3 legged stool, provide habitat feed and predator conrol, if ur only doing habitat and feed ur probably doing more harm than good attracting a higher density of birds into an area making it even easier for predators. In an ideal natural ecosystem predator numbers should inicate a good healthy ecosystem, but in the broken man made systems that does not seem to b the case, when numbers of birds are declining by 80-90% something is far wrong (possibly predation is not the 'main' problem) but it can be the final nail in coffin. Even putting bells on cats collars would help massively. Obviously these are only my opinions, but if u look on some of thoose sites research does tend to be backed up by wot i see after living the last 40 years in same village and spreaking to old fsarmers/shepherds/keepers who have also lived/worked on the same farms for a long time. The view u are given from countryfiile/autumn watch etc is a very skewed highly edited view and not really true, they believe everything will just get on if u leave it to it, which just does not happen in practice

But thats the problem almost every species thriving is a predator and usually an oportunist predator at that, so has no links if a prey species becomes less common. With more stable predator/prey reltionships predators will rise fall 1/2 years after the prey species numbers rise and fall. In this country the predator will munch on the easiest prey and just switch to the next easiest Look at the BTO census syrveys almost every prey species is in decline some and very sevre decline and the vast majority of predators are increasing rapidly. That is not a healthy place to be with only predators thriving, at some point everything will crash as no prey left. Plenty of scientifi studies out there that prove in a lot of areas things are being ate quickier than they can breed. My point about the rabbits is that if something has succesful as rabbits can be kept in check by predators other things have no chance. I can think of quite a few farms where i used to shoot 100 rabbits in a night 10ish years ago and not even dent the population, now hardly a rabbit, and plenty of other places that have never had many rabbits quite unusaul to see 1 now, can't think the last time i seen a rabbit on my shoot and not shot one for 5+ years Sort of got veered of topic but no matter how good the PM is at kiling greys the last thing u want to be doing is enouraging another predator in ecosystems already satrated by predators. I'm sure the idea will work initally for 5,10 or 20 years but at some point as PM numbers rise and grey numbers fall it will be easier for the PM to eat other things and thats when u will have a massive problem as protected (once protected always protected in this country no matter how much damage they cause) so u just have to sit back and watch our wildlife get eaten.

Also in most parts corvids (crows, magpies), sparrowhawks, goshawks, and perrie's are all doing really well +badgers are all increasing population and range. In fact the only BoP not doing well is the once common Kestral as being bullied by buzzards, hardly see a kestral now in my area I can think of a few places where its not unusual to see 10+ buzzards playing in thermals. Rabbits are a fairly staple diet for buzzards, so even if each buzzard eats 1 rabbit a day and u have 10 buzzards in an area they were rare 10-15 years ago, thats 3500+ rabbits a year, in a good year with high populations probably not a problem but when numbers at a low point due to disease its too much to allow them to build and can keep them low or actually lead to local extinctions.

But surely if a species has been here around 2000ish year it has a bit of squaters rights?? If ur going to class everything that came over from roman times on as non native/invasive they're will be a lot of very familar species in that group. My point with the rabbits if something as resilient and able to breed to almost plauge proportions is struggling and almost extinct in a few local areas where it used to be plentiful, many other animals are going to struggle that are not such prolific breeders. Disease is mainly responsible for the rabbits but now when they are at the lowest they are struggling to build up population again because of predation. rabbits have always been boom/bust since mixi arrived, usually just had to wait a few years for them to recover and survivors tended to be more resistant to the next bout of disease To turn it on its head wot species would u say are thriving and really doing well, increasing populations and ranges?

i done some harvest/tractor work a few hours inland from there, but that was about Oct/Nov time. There is fruit picking up there too but not sure wot time of year. Would not fancy doing any tree work in OZ toooo many snakes and spiders about, and esp so when u get further north. Lot of browns in that inland area On that farm i killed over 60 Red backs in an hour or so, was sent up to get a load of old empty gas canisters in an area that looked heaven for snakes, drove the 7.5Tonner round and round in a circle beepin ghe horn round the cannisters to try and scare any snakes away. Bloody s*****ing myself. When i got back to yard the welder/fitter who looked after me gave the boss a real bollacking for sending me up there myself

Like the above says, just cut the strings with a penknife and u can take as many leafs as u need quite easily, just watch if a big square heston baler, have heard of a few farmers being knocked over/falling off things by the force they can spring out at (in a confined hay loft) If big round bales, i roll them next to a pallet, flip it onto its end and just unwind the straw into a trailer or big tote bags etc, bit of a pITA to handle but means u can easily cover the bale to keep it watertight. U can just roll them out but then u have to pick al the straw up thats scattered everywhere.

While i dinae agree with the widespread pioson drops i just can't see how in some areas u could do it any other way. Assuming the possums and others are causing so much damage, i don't know enough to know if they could be left un culled or if that would rape ur forrests? Last time i was kucky enough to be out we heli'd in to foirdland to do some white baiting i done some 'tramping'. The size and scale of that place blew my mind with just how remote it is. The cabin we were at was meant to be a 4 day walk only 1 way in/out and nothing else for hundreds of miles. I've cut in soime big commercial forrests and driving 10 or even 20 miles in to a job is not unusual, and generally if something happened ur not that far of a track or to the nearest house. Over there there really is absolutely nothing To be fair they were poisoning and trapping that area with hoppers but still seen plenty sign of deer and pigs and next group in had some pig dogs with them. Done the routeburn and greenstone tracks too, lot of trapping going on there for stoats

Do u walk about with ur eyes shut? I'm not that old but in my lifetime the local area has changed massively, once common birds are now almost exticnt locally. Actualy quite rare to see any waders now and definately no succesfully breeding pairs. Look on the BTO site and see the ammount of birds species declines by over 70% in last 30 years. Wild Grey partrdige used to be the staple bird for shooting and if u look at the game returns were shooting hundreds of thousands if not millins every year nationwide, Black grouse used to be present in every english county now only left on grouse moors The nature reserve i'm on committee for refuses to kill any predators, yet we have only fledged 1 mallard duckiling this year and none the previous 4 years. (prob got 50ish resident mallard possibly 4 nest attempts at 10+ eggs each, thats a massive failure rate) Wildlife comes to our reserve to die or be eaten. Probably like most reserves actually doing far more harm than good by attracting higher prey densities in only to make it easy for vermin. The only good thing we have is lots of red squirrels, quite famous for them, sometimes 15+ around the feeders, yet catching greys all around now and a few on the committee are also against killing the greys :banghead: U've also got ur hedgehogs in a massive decline. bumble bees, even in this area hardly ant rabbits nowaays either due to mixi (which in latter years wasnae really affecting them that much) or VHD or predation. If u look at ur trees look at the diseases we've imported SOD in oaks, Ash dieback, PR in larch (my area is going to be a larch free area soon) most due to poor bio security. Not really a glass half empty type person but as far as i can see our wildlife is on way out, and most of the 'conservation charties' are doing more harm than good by caring more for donations than the birds

Has the PTS changed? Been a few years since i've done it but in those days had to be sponsored by a company first so couldnae just go and do it. Nowadays the work is all naionalised and a company from anywhere could be doing the work there. Quite likely teams will be travelling hundreds of miles in to de veg, while u travel miles to where they came from passing on the mway. Think story rail have a lot on slighly further north.

But wot other options are there? Or are the possoms, deer and stoats not really causing that mutch damage to the native flora and fauna? Done some hunting out there, mates out there are mad keen and obviously anti 1080. But i do wish this countries government had the balls to stand up and make difficult hoices that will upset folk to preserve our wildlife which is totally screwed in this country. Not really agreeing with the use of 1080, but if possums etc are causing problems i can't see any other vaible means to control them, athou u could probably say 1080 isnae working either as populations not decreasing Ps about the resistance i was refering to Australia, forget the name of the posion now, think it began with an R, long time since i've been in oZ

Aye been throu some areas a few years after drops and been in a few areas where got a lot of land based feed stations. Got mixed views on it, on 1 hand think its great that NZ gov/DoC are trying to look after there native fuana after we have made such a mess of it. Really is an amzing place that i'd hate to see destroyed, by all the stupid thing we released. But i do feel bad for the animals die like that, but in fairness in NZ (almost) any mammal thats eats it is invasive and non native. Can't see any other real alternative as country is so vast and in accessable. When i was out in OZ they 'claimed' most native animals had some resistance to it as it was derived from the flame retardant in tree bark, so most predators have evolved a restistance to it over the years where cats and foxes don't.

While i agree with u it would be nice i fear the price u'd pay would also be next to no song birds. When u look at the BTO red/amber list at all the once common garden birds that have declined 60,70, or 90% in last 30 or so years, i doubt such a ferocious and able hunter like the PM would be the deathnell for a lot of species There is hardly a natural part of the uk, all is managed land so expecting nature to find a natural balance is fairly naive

Grey squirrels are hardly hard to catch infact 1 of the easist animals to trap. My poiint about the rabbit catchers was that was the days pre mixi and definately pre VHD, and whole regions worked together to keep rabbits at a sustainable level. These boys were taking phenominal nuumbers of rabbits every day. It would be possibly but to many bunny huggers wouldnae allow it, and would get upset by it.

Not a lot of scientific evidence in praise of them on that thread thou. U talk about there acrobatics etc, the reds are even more nimble and acrobatic when u watch them, just most folk have forgot as been so long sonce seen a red. Greys don't have to be here to stay in there was a genuine motivation to cull them region/natioon wide. It would not be as hard as u think if the will was there, they wiped out the coypu years ago 80's?, have the Uists free of mink, which is the most ideal mink habitat u could have, and a nightmare for access for humans. if possible to do that there u can do it anywhere. Plenty of rivers/catchment areas now are mink free trying to bring back the water vole, and mink are pretty common. Even on the islands getting a few clear of hedgehogs now Go down the old fashioned route of a bounty on there tail, used to be bounty's on all sorts of things, even 2-5 quid a tail would definately make it worth while for many to set a few traps on a daily dog walk, or for keepers/farmers feeding birds/stock. and cheaper than some of the madcap/useless schemes that government will dream up. In the old days u had parish rabbit catchers and the ministry (MAFF) had and exercised there right to enter folks land to control rabbits/weeds if they were not doing it well enough. That right will still exist wether it would ever be used to enter some bunny huggers ground to kill squirells is something else thou Compared to many other countries we're pretty rubish at looking out for our native flora and fuana. Wether its boisecurity (diseases) or letting other plants become established (JKW or him balsalm etc) even in scotish mainland hardly a 100% pure bred red der left, as sika so widespread which hybridise with them. Both NZ and OZ routinely air drop poisoned baits to kill non natives, while that would never work here i wish some folk would grow a pair and make some harsh choices to protect wot's left

Meant to add i think on both angelsy and Isle of wight are now considered grey free. Lot of hard work but it can be done. Some areas of cumbria and NE are getting their act together and reds are coming back I know an estate near me where 5 years ago only had a few reds left and catching around 100 greys, used some grant money to employ a trapper and now have lots of reds, reckoned to be well over 100 now and climbing rapidly. They're still catching a lot of greys but it is moves moving in and caught fairly quickly. Also the reds in this area do seem to becoming a bit more resilent to squirrel pox now which the english greys carry not the scottish (yet) But greys are not caught in small numbers all throu the district now, where 10 years ago would be almost none

Most people/conservationists/charities believe the oppisate that greys are more canivorous than reds . Thats the 1st time i've ever heard that. Generally greys tend to live at 6-10 times the density of reds, so even if they are less canivorous they'd have to be 6-10 times less canivourous to make any diference. Most reeasrch/best practice also points to grey squirrel control to help song bird populations. Pretty sure Songbird Survival (a very good bird charity) have proved this and are carrying out more studies on this As for the article, the man's a complete idiot and lives with his head is some fantastical disneyfied world. While it is true PM's will actively target greys and in quite a few places in scotland are noticing reds coming back as PM become far more common, not really that rare in some parts now, infact quite common. Assuming we go do the intro PM route, wot happens in 10,20,30 years time if they are so succesfull and PM have bred to such numbers to wipe out greys and see reds spread back into new areas. Wot will all these PM now eat? Will they just lie back, job done and starve? Or will they turn thier attention to anything else they can catch (any ground nesting birds, song birds or rabbits). PM will happyily raid hen houss etc and are tremendous predators and very clever If u look on the BTO list there is an awful lot of amber and red listed species that used to be pretty common, while everyone like to blame nasty farmers/foresters for habitat destruction in the past 30 yrs when the biggest decline has happened they're has been very little habitat loss as farmers are so tied up with CAP/SFP schemes, and in many cases habitat has improved in that time but birds still declining rapidly. The 1 thing that has increased massively in that 30 years is pedattion wether from corvids, badgers BoP or cats, introing another predator to strained ecosystems is not a good idea long term. Bit like the cane toads in OZ, solved a problem but created a far bigger problem

Could it be some sort of stand? Like a wire birly/fence wire spinner? Althou being square not ideal, just looks like some sort of collar half way up and u put the chisel bit into the ground up to the other bit that sticks out so always the same hieght?? Used to get a slightly similatr old tool like that for pulling thistle roots out but had a forked end and no collar.

Never heard of that before, ur always learning. Wot do u do if u cannae get ur jimny into to the area (to wet or strainer tight in a hadge etc)

If u look at the photo's it looks like it has chain link growing into the bark. Wouldnae be putting my chain throu that. Also will it even be his tree to cut? Lokks almost on the pavement so possibly a council tree.

But how do u tension/pull ur clamp? Tractor?? Most fencers will use a clamp with 2 sets of pullers

How do u do normal tensioning? Wire pullers are great bits of kit, pulled a few quads out with them. and some light trees over before i had winches A few local new/young fencers and farmers pull wire with the tractor but i'd use a set of pullers every time, esp if got 2 clamps and pulling net to the middle, can pull some long streches in a oner. One old school boy i worked with had welded extra long handles on his heads and usually had a pipe to give u that wee bit extra, was mental the pressure he put on his fences, to tight really. Hayes or drivall are the best, be easy enough to weld a rough copy but as was mentioned if puting so much pressure on old rusty wire a very high change of it breaking. Lost count of the times i've snapped line wires when patching old 5/6 strand fences and thats with all wire above ground U could somehow attach a butterfly/raddassuier to ur hook and place wire throu, couple of turns with a spanner and 4" nail and u've secured ur wire, be cheaper