"Rusty_Hinge" wrote in message

into the pond.

Right opposite me the fields seem to rotate around wheat, sugar beet,
fodder beans and barley. My crops from there tend to be rabbits, wood
pigeons and the occasional squirrel. I've been eyeing the rookery too,
but last year they were culled right back, so I shall leave them alone.

We should be seeing the first problems with the woodies anytime, after
the horrendous weather the rst of the fields dried enough to be ploughed
and drilled so wheat sprouts are likely to be high on the diet list for the
woodies and woody pie on mine!

.. You might be surprised at some of the things that go on my
plate - try http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/fungi/dinner4a.jpg
(About 25 KB - there's a better pic in the same directory - dinner4.jpg
- about 175 KB) I 'weed' the farmer's beet and/or beans and come away
with fat hen and various oraches, and black nightshade berries (from
which I make a sort-of blueberry pie filling - nightshade pie, anyone?)

Got to say I'm impressed I get a few puffballs and field shrooms on the
plate
but thats a veritable smorgasbord we had a lot of birch blown down a
combination
of the moss being sodden and gales and I have a pack of shittake spawn and a
drill
so we stand a chance of a crop come autumn

Common Koi and Grass Carp do eat duckweed and I did a little
research and
found freshwater shrimp also do .

The shrimp will eat anything, but you'd need a lot of them.

More the merrier ready for introducing fish the invertebrate levels are
quite good I wouldn't mind adding in mayfly
but as the PH is very low( Mossland) I doubt they would thrive

Don't they prefer running water?
Yep they grow in high densities on running but they do thrive in spring
fed ponds as well, always found a goodly number in blanket weed
along with boatmen froglets fish fry and nymphs


If you have bog myrtle amongst the moss, it makes a very good green tea
- only don't use too much - much less of it than you would use
tealeaves. It's supposed to be good for the nerves.

I 'll have to have a look see I could do with calming down a touch.

We only seem to have mallard here. The odd skein of geese passes over,
but I've never known them to visit. The Guns get terribly excited about
the duck, but not very many of them have clue. In my youth I used to go
wildfowling on the Blackwater Estuary, though more time was spent in
conservation of nesting areas than with the artillery. (9-Bore Joe
Manton SB percussion)

Cristamighty I hope you had a tin hat to go with a cannon like that
I'll stick with my trusty Beretta 302 12 b more than enough lead
(er I mean non-toxic shot occifer) for me I've had the priviledge
of letting off a few bigger bore blackpowder pieces at gamefairs
and the like, happily the hair has now grown back
DerekW