[RubyR3d]

While picking and eating wild food is a fun thing to do please remember you can eat other stuff but to wildlife it is a matter of life or death.After a couple of really bad winters the wildlife has suffered huge losses and hunting for meagre offerings while trying to keep warm is a step too far for many and they die trying.Please don't pick too much from any one tree or bush and only pick what you will use not just for the sake of it.Taking stuff then wondering what to do with it afterwards seems wrong to me.Its been a wonderful spring and summer with numbers of birds ,butterflies and small mammals on the up.Let's leave plenty of wild food on plenty of trees to help them through what could be another hard winter.

[gypsy]

While picking and eating wild food is a fun thing to do please remember you can eat other stuff but to wildlife it is a matter of life or death.After a couple of really bad winters the wildlife has suffered huge losses and hunting for meagre offerings while trying to keep warm is a step too far for many and they die trying.Please don't pick too much from any one tree or bush and only pick what you will use not just for the sake of it.Taking stuff then wondering what to do with it afterwards seems wrong to me.Its been a wonderful spring and summer with numbers of birds ,butterflies and small mammals on the up.Let's leave plenty of wild food on plenty of trees to help them through what could be another hard winter.

Well said, I agree with you.

[arugula]

Thanks both for reminding us. We've had regular responsible posts throughout, but for anyone who hasn't read through all the pages a reminder is handy.

[diospyros]

In a bush in my garden is a pigeon nest at head height, despite my best efforts to discourage them.  There are now two chicks. They look like dodos.  So do I/should I have them for tea in about four weeks time as per John Seymour's instructions for domestic pigeons?  Is this actually legal seeing as pigeons are game/pests, or is it still illegal to disturb them on the nest and I should wait until they leave it and then nab them straight away??

[RubyR3d]

  Can't you just leave them alone. It seems very cruel to take them from the nest knowing the parents will be distressed. Live and let live

[Madame Cholet]

I'm vegetarian but pigeons and rabbits are fair game if you are prepared to wring their necks.

[Sparkyrog]

No comment would get slapped by the Mod's 

[compostqueen]

I had pigeons nesting in my allotment hedge and I watched the mother feeding the squabs; a happening I have never witnessed before or since.  Most people never get to see a squab. I've not seen one since and I'm glad I let them be. I'm not that starving that I have to eat squabs. With an allotment full of veg it would be hard to justify

 

[diospyros]

I could always eat the parents as well... and if I don't the sparrowhawk which treats my hawthorn as a drive-in will probably have them.  Oh OK, I give in.  The children are threatening dire consequences anyway!

[ANHBUC]

I could always eat the parents as well... and if I don't the sparrowhawk which treats my hawthorn as a drive-in will probably have them.  Oh OK, I give in.  The children are threatening dire consequences anyway!

You are welcome to some from my garden, they really are a pest.  In the winter they steal the food I put out for smaller birds despite being in feeders they should not be able to feed from.  I have also had to treat one of my hens for scaly leg mite, as I hatched her from an egg and none of my other birds had it I think they must have come from the wood pigeons.   I counted 17 on the lawn last winter so there is no shortage here.   

[surbie100]

We have lots here too, and I'd have no objection to eating them either! Thankfully, and unlike the crows, they haven't figured out that I have a window-feeder.

On something completely different, are other people seeing a bumper crop of sloes this year? The hedgerows near my Mum's are completely covered in fruit.

[Sparkyrog]

We have lots here too, and I'd have no objection to eating them either! Thankfully, and unlike the crows, they haven't figured out that I have a window-feeder.

On something completely different, are other people seeing a bumper crop of sloes this year? The hedgerows near my Mum's are completely covered in fruit.

No the sloe's are dodo round here some idiot went out with a hedge trimmer ! cousin and I have had words  Re wood pigeons lovely flavour but beware of eating  too many as in bulk they are meant to be poisonous 

[Ema]

Been out collecting walnut and chestnuts recently

[BigPaddy]

Sloes have been really big. Odd thing is I don't know where to collect the around here. Stompy started this, any suggestions? I got all min in the Lake District,.

Paddy

[Nobbie]

Sloes have been really big. Odd thing is I don't know where to collect the around here. Stompy started this, any suggestions? I got all min in the Lake District,.

Paddy

No sloes around here . Went on a special journey a few weeks back to a supposedly good spot and loads of sloe bushes, but no fruit. Not seen a hint of one locally and I do a loat of running around trails keeping an eye out. Loads of rosehips though so I've made some rosehip jelly which is really nice, although I'm not sure what the rosehip taste is or if I'm just tasting the lemon and orange which goes in with the rosehips