In Canada, it’s moose that are the biggest danger. A friend had one bolt into their path and it came over the hood, crushing the windshield. All four passengers were lucky to escape with minor injuries seen to at Emerg. The moose not so much.
Absolutely a badger. Low to the ground but belting it. Saw it in the headlights and then saw it trembling in the bushes at the side of the road, looking at us. White stripe on muzzle and all.
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I posted here whie the humour thread is taking a rather dark turn
Yesterday at the vet a man appeared with a little hedgehog in a blanket. Poor wee thing he had seen trying to drink from his pool and fell in. The vet said it’s not the only one lately. The wild animals are thisty 
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I won’t tell you about the Badger that I ‘met’ driving my lorry early morning in the dark forest then, But once in the car on the autoroute a pigeon tried to cross my path then, realised the danger and turned right thinking to outrun me.
I pulled into the next service area and inspected the grill. The poor thing was lodged in the grill looking for all the world like the bowsprit on an old sailing ship. I thought it might appreciate its heroic end but removed it anyway.
That is a sad tale 
My husband and I used to live in the midst of perhaps the largest pheasant shoot in England. Pheasants everywhere like pigeons.
We used to stop the car to let them slowly cross the road. Invariably, they waddle over and star pecking the wheel! I would get out to shoo them away but they’d just look at me and go back to pecking.
Poor creatures were only born to a shirt life ending in being frightened from the ground by dogs then shot out of the air. I never called it sport, and won’t until birds can shoot back.
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Our Airedale Clara used to run round the garden with a hedgehog in her mouth. The first few times it happened I worried about the hedgehog. As she dripped blood from her mouth onto the kitchen floor while I extracted the spines, I got to the stage where I worried more about her. She never leant. The hedgehogs were always ok as I rescued them and took them somewhere safe. They always came back. 
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There’s a regular shoot near us, most of the meat goes to waste. We’ve become a bit of a haven for the pheasants now, we planted lots of natural hedging, they like to hide in the undergrowth and I’d like to think they escape the guns.
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There was the most appalling article in the Obs at the weekend about rich industrialists having fenced off huge estates for private shoots, with tge animals having no chance of escape. I’ve copied the intro as it’s subscription
Chez les ultra-riches, on aime cultiver la discrétion. Olivier Bouygues, bientôt 76 ans, fils de Francis, le fondateur éponyme du puissant groupe familial (construction, médias et télécoms), et aujourd’hui administrateur du groupe Bouygues et de Bouygues Telecom, n’y fait pas exception. L’immense domaine de Fontenaille qu’il a acquis en 2002 à La Ferté-Saint-Aubin (Loiret), au sud d’Orléans, est bardé de clôtures de plus de 2 mètres de haut et de caméras de vidéosurveillance. La majestueuse propriété, qui s’étend sur 600 hectares (l’équivalent du 19e arrondissement de Paris) et compte une douzaine d’étangs, a tout du paradis pour chasseurs souhaitant s’adonner au plaisir simple de la gâchette, à l’abri des regards.
Le domaine et son célèbre propriétaire se retrouvent pourtant aujourd’hui en pleine lumière. Alors que les auteurs de délits environnementaux sont encore peu poursuivis en France), un procès inédit par son ampleur s’ouvre ce lundi 7 septembre à Orléans pour des faits de braconnage. Six prévenus, dont le milliardaire, vont comparaître pour « destruction d’espèces protégées en bande organisée » – ils encourent jusqu’à sept ans d’emprisonnement et 750 000 euros d’amende. Derrière les grilles qui entourent le domaine, les enquêteurs ont fait, en 2025, de macabres découvertes, dont la mise à jour d’un charnier d’animaux morts recouvert de chaux et d’un lourd arsenal.
Très attendue par les associations de défense de l’environnement et du bien-être animal – dix-huit associations se sont constituées parties civiles –, le procès, prévu pour durer deux jours, l’est aussi de Solognots de plus en plus écœurés par les pratiques de chasse dans certains domaines privés de la région, où l’on considère la nature comme un immense terrain de jeu, souvent au mépris du droit.
Le 4 juin, une quinzaine d’agents de l’OFB et 29 gendarmes débarquent à la Ferté-Saint-Aubin pour passer le domaine au peigne fin. Un tel déploiement d’uniformes, c’est du jamais-vu dans la région. La perquisition, qui s’étale sur une journée entière, se révèle fructueuse. Elle confirme l’existence d’une fosse, dans laquelle des restes de plusieurs espèces protégées sont retrouvés – des rémiges de hérons, des plumes de buses variables, le bec d’un héron cendré, le crâne et le croupion d’un grand cormoran. Des faucons crécerelles, des grandes aigrettes et des busards sont également identifiés.
Et ce n’est pas tout. Aux domiciles des trois gardes-chasses et du régisseur du domaine, eux aussi perquisitionnés, une cinquantaine de pièges à mâchoire, un fusil semi-automatique (dont l’usage est pourtant interdit pour la chasse), des lunettes à vision thermique et des produits phytopharmaceutiques toxiques, prohibés en France, sont découverts. Un écureuil roux est aussi retrouvé dans l’un des frigos. Mais la saisie la plus importante du jour n’est pas la plus impressionnante : au fil de leurs recherches, gendarmes et agents de l’OFB mettent la main sur des carnets de chasse recensant les animaux à abattre avec, pour chaque animal supprimé, une prime en liquide correspondante.
No excuse for killing them but they do seem to be very stupid birds. I have seen them standing at the side of the road and then head across just before I get there. Happily I am ready for them (a bit like seeing one deer cross, another almost always follows) and haven’t hit one yet. 
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We’ve had a pair of collared doves in a nest in the wisteria that twists around one of the pergolas.
It’s been sitting on the nest 
for some time and yesterday we noticed that the eggs have hatched 
so in about 15 days time, the young birds will fledge - wonder where they will go ? 
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They’re not the brightest but highly entertaining birds, I always look forward to watching them, they’ll be making their autumnal appearance soon.
Belated promised update pictures. This one shows the work around I did with no longer needed bits of wood due to my altering (enforced) the original plans. The orange stuff is in preparation for the paint spraying sometime this week. A bolt was replaced by a wooden slider, the gap above it is so I can operate it from inside, don’t want some crazed loon locking me in.
And this is another workaround. The screws supplied were either too short or too long and I had to use the latter. This meant that in some cases sharp and therefore dangerous points stick out in some places. I first tried to cut them off but still left a little bit showing. I spent a long time trying to come up with something and at first, as I have a lot of small offcuts from the floorboards available (every single one was 8 cms too long ), I thought of glueing them over the spikes. Trouble is, working alone, I can’t reach all the way round to secure them accurately and then another possibility emerged. I had mentioned to friend Eddie that I had ordered some soft edge protections for the transparent roof it will now have, and he gave me 3 long tubes of foam no longer of use to him. So, choosing the lime green from the yellow and the pink I decided to cut off some bits and glue them over the exposed points. Not sure if they would hang 'till the glue hardened I had a brilliant idea, why not screw in a long screw to each one until the glue is set, then retrieve it for other use? 
So I did, what do you think? 
Hmm, perhaps it’s blue not green
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Coming along nicely. You have been far me productive than me of late.
The screw protect should do the job.
It has been suggested from time to time that I belong in a fully padded room.
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Personally, I would have bought the right length screws. The pointy bits sticking through the wood would be really annoying , as would the bits of foam.
Quite surprising they didn’t supply the right length though, but there again it sounds like there were a few things not quite right
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There were lots not right but much of my difficulty was working with a live building, wood can warp or bend often almost imperceptibly and, while it is not always easy, it can be worked around. However, apart from my first complaint to them which wasn’t answered for 2 weeks because my email went to a different department, I have built up a good rapport with the ‘Team’ and will not give them a dud review at the end of it.
In fact they have become interested in the use to which I intend to put it and have asked for pictures when it is finished. Also I have a 2nd, similar project in mind but due to its location, no need for floor or roof, and smaller size, should not produce any problems. Also I will have wood left over from Hide 1 to use if needed and 6 heavy duty roof panels which, due to my change to a transparent one, have not been needed.
The 4 open panels on each side of No. 1 to view the wildlife through were due to have wooden drop down or lift up panels, so that while I keep only one open at a time my subjects will not easily see inside. I have done some tests with the fittings but the little screws needed to avoid dangerous stick outs were way too fiddly for one person to handle while keeping the plank steady and drilling a hole. Thus I have decided to use left over black sheets from a quite different project kept in place by velcro, and able to be lifted up or down as well as blocking.
I am not a natural handyman but perhaps picked up some of the brains that my Dad, who was an engineer, used to great advantage when I was young. Once, after failing to catch any sticklebacks at age 8, I was given a couple by a young girl I fancied and Dad made a triangular aquarium to fit on a corner shelf in the lounge. They and their offspring lived there for many years.
foam will fall apart and drop off wth one summer’s UV or less
So might I, I have got used to the idea of not looking too far ahead, but if it does, I’ll put it back, now I know how. 
Not a lot of sun in amongst summer trees though.
Stuart saw a kingfisher at the lake yesterday but when he showed me the entry on the Merlin Bird App we noticed that it had registered ‘home’ instead of at the lake. How do we change the location on the app, please.
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We saw a kingfisher 3 times at our pond this evening! Can’t help with the app though.
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