I think I've had a sense of humour failure as I also couldn't read to the end. When some people are having to use food banks.....

Mice, voles, slowworms....you name it! Pity they didn't have more of a taste for slugs, now that would have been useful in the veg patch!

Good Luck HG, I have racked my brains and done a bit of research and am coming up a complete blank. Obviously these breeders are miles away from you but presumably could send eggs. They were some of the first, if not the first, people to breed them seriously over here for quite a while so the stock ...

I used to, somebody down in Sussex, possibly near the Surrey border, can't quite remember exactly where, or their name, I will have to have a proper think and see if it comes back into my memory! Anyway, they bred champion birds at the Natl or Fed maybe 6 or 7 years ago. Could the breed club help do...

I think its something to do with the frenetic pace of life which engenders a lack of patience. I realise to some extent this is all about choice, but I do remember a time when I was working and commuting and there were never enough hours in the day. I know about country lanes, school runs, danger - ...

We have been lucky with a flock of bee-eaters around here for the past 10 days. At first they were close enough to see the magnificant plumage but more recently they have taken to flying about en masse, making their distinctive calls (which is what alerts me) and then congrating on a tall, dead, tre...

Might be a good idea for light sleeper humans though, thanks Ellen!

And whilst the rest of Europe has record breaking temperatures and excess rain in some places, in Portugal we are experiencing the coolest summer for many many years, and rain in July and August which isn't the norm at all, in fact it hasn't rained here in either month for the past 6 years that we h...

And isn't that a shame? We all know habitat loss is a major factor in the decline of species, of all sorts. I watched a Gardner's World on wild flowers recently, saying that over 90% of meadows have disappeared in the UK. Such a shame, I used to go to the chalk downlands around Lambourn to see vast ...

They are spectacular aren't they, though I've not seen one for a few years now. Yesterday the pair of whatever raptors we have nearby were calling to each other as they wheeled about in the sky, seemingly just for the joy of it. I was doing a bit of light gardening, the sun was out but not scorchio,...