Animals in your garden

[Sheal]

If we had pigeons we would be eating free meat for dinner. I have a pellet rifle with a scope I can shoot a penny at 100 ft.

We're not allowed to keep firearms at home in Britain @gary350. They have to be licenced and kept at a firing range. The only exceptions I believe are farmers.

 

[redback]

The pigeons get eaten here. Apart from humans who say they have a couple of nice breast fillets - the Kites, Brown Eagles, Wedgetail Eagles, Kestrels and the neighbor's cat all like them because they are slow compared to all the other birds.
Ours are 'diamond doves', 'crested pigeons' and 'top knot pigeons'. There are so many of them they sell at the local auction for about $2 each. People keep them for racing pigeons. They cause no garden damage at all, but eat some of the chicken food each morning, which I don't mind.
Crows steal the chook eggs - sneaky thieves.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

If we had pigeons we would be eating free meat for dinner. I have a pellet rifle with a scope I can shoot a penny at 100 ft.

You need to get them in the right place, hit the wing and it will bounce off the quills. Cromwell's 'Gentleman in a buff coat' took advantage of this by wearing a leather jacket stuffed with feathers, they would turn musket fire, though you would 'See the feathers fly'.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

We're not allowed to keep firearms at home in Britain @gary350. They have to be licenced and kept at a firing range. The only exceptions I believe are farmers.

It's not actually quite that strict, people who are licenced can keep them at home in a secure firearms cabinet, but licences are not given easily. One of the accepted reasons for getting a shotgun licence is if you are a farmer, but we had a friend who was coach to the national pistol shooting team and held other weapons at home,

 

[gary350]

It's not actually quite that strict, people who are licenced can keep them at home in a secure firearms cabinet, but licences are not given easily. One of the accepted reasons for getting a shotgun licence is if you are a farmer, but we had a friend who was coach to the national pistol shooting team and held other weapons at home,

Pellet rifle is an air rifle not a firearm.

 

[skinyea]

We're not allowed to keep firearms at home in Britain @gary350. They have to be licenced and kept at a firing range. The only exceptions I believe are farmers.

Are you serious? No way! you cannot arm yourself?

 

[Logan]

I copied and pasted this.

In the United Kingdom, access by the general public to firearms is subject to some of the strictest control measures in the world. Subject to licensing, members of the public may own rifles and shotguns. However, most handguns have been banned in Great Britain since the Dunblane school massacre in 1996.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Are you serious? No way! you cannot arm yourself?

Absolutely serious, and a lot fewer people die. There are still murders of course, but they are mostly personal, and individuals, not random groups. Of course, nobody else is either, which reduces the 'need'. Police carry firearms more frequently nowadays, when I was a kid they only ever had an ebony truncheon. Now you get armed response units that carry guns in a sealed box in their vehicle.

Pellet rifle is an air rifle not a firearm.

Air rifles are allowed up to a degree, the powerful ones are restricted.

 

[Logan]

Have 2 of these in the garden for a few months now, the other one chases the other one away.

 

[Sheal]

There's also restrictions on knives here.

 

[skinyea]

Absolutely serious, and a lot fewer people die. There are still murders of course, but they are mostly personal, and individuals, not random groups. Of course, nobody else is either, which reduces the 'need'. Police carry firearms more frequently nowadays, when I was a kid they only ever had an ebony truncheon. Now you get armed response units that carry guns in a sealed box in their vehicle.


Air rifles are allowed up to a degree, the powerful ones are restricted.

such a different world. not better or worse. just different

 

[redback]

This is a 'purple crowned lorikeet'. It has noticed the figs are ripe.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

There's also restrictions on knives here.

Times change, at one time there was actually a requirement for Englishmen to posses a suitable sword or large blade they could bring if summoned in time of war. More recently , when |I was a boy one of the reasons boys wanted to join the scouts was to get a sheath knife on their belt.

I commented about there being a lot fewer killings here, it is not just access to guns, it is a matter of attitude as well. Switzerland is one of those countries where almost all adults are part of the army reserve and almost everyone has access to a gun in the home, but it has one of the lowest murder rates going.

 

[redback]

It's a Rainbow Lorikeet - my apologies.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

It's a Rainbow Lorikeet - my apologies.

It's okay, wouldn't know, we don't get them, but there are now thousands of ring necked paraquets in London, a few pets escaped and found it suited them, and the flocks are spreading.