Archive for July 19th, 2006
ic NorthWales, UK - Jun 23, 2006
Jun 23 2006
Daily Post
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A CARING youngster took a chick under his wing after yobs carried out a sickening attack on a swallows’ nest..
Horrified pupil, 10-year-old Tony Jones, saw a group of young thugs rip down the nest before stamping on chicks outside Maesincla School in Caernarfon.
He grabbed three of the eight helpless chicks and fled home with them.
Two of the three later died from shock at his father’s home on the Maesincla estate. But the remaining one has survived and is now being cared for by the youngster.
The swallows were nesting in guttering in the single-storey building and the parent birds regularly return to the same spot each year.
Police officers were at Ysgol Maesincla yesterday carrying out inquiries and headmistress Mrs Elizabeth Roberts has vowed to conduct a full investigation.
Tony mounted a vigil at the side of the swallow chick, which he has nicknamed Lucky.
Mum Vicky Jones said she was very proud of Tony and disgusted at the savagery of the gang of children who carried out the attack.
“Tony was on his way to visit his grandmother’s house and he had to pass Maesincla School. He heard a noise and saw some children smashing up a bird’s nest,” she said..
“Tony ran in to see what was going on and saw the kids had got a swallow’s nest with eight chicks in it.
“They were killing the chicks by stamping on them. There were four or five boys and a girl.
“Tony went over and found out what was going on and there was a bit of a ruction and he managed to get three of the chicks off those boys.”
Tony’s parents rang the RSPCA for advice and the boy is now rearing Lucky, the sole survivor, by hand under their guidance.
“The chick is doing fine. I am feeding it maggots and bread and dog food and he’s started to eat scrambled egg,” said Tony. Tony’s dad, Paul, said he was “dis-gusted” by the actions of the cruel children.
Ysgol Maesincla head Mrs Elizabeth Roberts has handed over CCTV footage of the incident which took place last Friday afternoon to police.
“I am taking the correct measures to deal with this matter and am working with the community police officers and the school liaison officer,” she said..
Mrs Roberts added it was being treated very seriously and did not wish to comment further until a full investigation had been completed.
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July 19th, 2006
BBC News, UK - Jul 6, 2006
A quarry owner who killed up to 40 young sand martins by bulldozing their whole colony has been fined £400.
In the first case of its kind, Andrew Jackson admitted destroying the nests at Braco, in Perthshire.
Perth Sheriff Court was told birdwatchers had warned Jackson that the colony, which had 300 nests, should be left standing until September.
He moved in with a bulldozer in August, but a sheriff said his actions had been ill-advised rather than wicked.
Jackson, 59, knocked down the colony on 11 August last year, while the protected birds were in their breeding season.
The court was told that Jackson had completed his contract for quarrying sand at Orchil Quarry and planned to restore it to a pond and agricultural land.
Fiscal depute Dawn Samson said: “A witness visited on 4 August and he estimated there were approximately 10 pairs still using the nest holes.
“He returned on 11 August and at that time he noted the two faces which contained the nesting colonies had been flattened and landscaped.
“Potentially each nest hole might have contained four chicks. Potentially we are talking about the death of 40 chicks.”
Jackson, of South Orchil, Braco, admitted intentionally or recklessly damaging, destroying or interfering with the sand martin nests while they were in use.
‘Declining population’
His solicitor John Buchan said Jackson, who at one stage built a hide on the site for photographers and had encouraged the bird colony, believed the breeding season had ended.
Sheriff Michael Fletcher said Jackson had “intentionally destroyed the nests at a time when it was too early to do so, because the birds were still using them”.
He said Jackson’s behaviour had been “ill-advised” rather than “wicked”.
Following the verdict, sand martin expert Edward Cowley said the birds, the smallest member of the swallow family, were finding it more and more difficult to get breeding spaces.
He said: “There is pressure on these birds. The sand martin population is in decline.”
 North Wales
July 19th, 2006
Albany Times Union, NY - Jun 16, 2006
Scotia proposes donating doomed Collins Lake birds to food pantries; some say it’s a recipe for bad taste
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By DAN HIGGINS, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Friday, June 16, 2006
How do you cook this goose? There are a few ways to roast the wild bird, but it’s tough.
Very tough, said Paul Parker, the owner and executive chef of Chez Sophie Bistro in Saratoga Springs. And that’s the problem. The wild variety aren’t nearly as fat and tender as their farm-raised cousins, he said Parker offered several possible solutions to cooking the meat. The village of Scotia said this week it wished to donate it to local food pantries after a roundup of the birds set for later this month.
Village officials said they are responding in part to public concern over the original plan to send the birds to a landfill after they are killed. The geese will be suffocated with carbon dioxide.
Still, the details on how the geese around Collins Lake will eventually make it to the tables of needy families are elusive.
First, the birds aren’t all that easy to prepare, said Parker.
“You’re going to want to confit the thigh meat, or cook it in its own fat, with a lot of salt on it,” Parker said.
“You could grill or sear the breast, but not more than medium rare or it will be just too tough,” he said.
In other words, giving the meat to needy families won’t be an easy solution and not just because the birds could prove difficult to prepare.
Local food pantries offered reactions on Thursday that ranged from cautiously open to the idea to downright skeptical.
“We’ve had some people who said they would never accept it,” said Janice Cooper, who runs a busy emergency food pantry twice a week out of the First Baptist Church of Scotia on Mohawk Avenue. The pantry serves 200 village families each month.
“And I’m not so sure we’d want it,” she said. But she noted that she’d give the idea a chance for others to offer their opinion. She worried about the quality of the meat.
Lynda Schuyler, executive director of the Food Pantries of the Capital District, which oversees 42 food pantries in Albany and Rensselaer counties, said she supports any plan that doesn’t waste food.
“If they can get it to work and get the food in a manner that’s usable to our clients, I’d be interested,” she said.
She noted many people who need emergency food pantries often don’t have advanced cooking skills because many work such long days they don’t have the time.
Scotia officials said the plans are still being worked out, but they promised the meat would be inspected by the proper authorities, including the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
A spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Agriculture and Markets said licensed slaughterhouses can properly test the meat and legally give it away.
“Our main concern is that people are getting a quality product,” said spokeswoman Jessica Chittenden.
The idea is not without precedent, said Mark Quandt, the executive director of the Food Bank of Northeastern New York, based in Latham.
Each year, he said, hunters donate thousands of pounds of venison that goes to needy families around the region.
As for whether the goose idea will fly, Quandt declined to comment.
“If they actually contact us, we would then have a decision to make, but until then I’ll reserve judgment,” he said.
Animal activists remain determined to stop the goose cull. They said the village hasn’t tried enough nonlethal methods before deciding to kill the birds. The group Save the Geese has been attempting to scare away the birds from Collins Park and the lake for nearly two weeks, in the hopes that few birds will remain when the cull begins.
Higgins can be reached at 454-5523 or by e-mail at dhiggins@timesunion.com.
July 19th, 2006