"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| In most areas, they are THE major pest of brassicas and some other
| crops, and are the main reason that many farmers use those explosive
| machines that cause bangs from dawn to dusk and are audible for
| miles around.
|
| That's on a large scale. They've never affected our brassicae.

They have taken 90% of my sprouting broccoli crop, and have prevented
crops like mizuna from grwoing until I netted them. Many other people
have had the same experiences.

I believe you, I repeat that we've never had problems.

| Your other points are irrelevant to us, therefore in our situation
they're
| not a problem.

Many people grow peas.

| We can't be unique.

You aren't, but you are unusual; the problems with pigeons and collared
doves are widespread in the UK. We need more of the hawks that can
deal with them.

The hawks might also 'deal with' birds you don't want to harm ...


And, to answer your implied question about collared doves, they
taste much better than wood pigeon - less coarse and dry.

We eat a lot of wood pigeon, and have never found it coarse and dry. Perhaps
it depends on how it's prepared and cooked? some people rave about peacock,
I wouldn't bother with it :-)

Where can I buy collar dove to try it? It's not game, is it? I'd have
thought there'd be very little meat on even a brace.

I'll ask at our game dealer tomorrow.

Mary