On 20/3/09 18:09, in article , "Ophelia"
wrote:

Janet Baraclough wrote:

Is this supposed to show me up!! Consult with Sacha on this.

Changed days Janet. Both Sacha and myself have seen through you!

She believed your lies. We both know better now.


This sort of thing has been tried by Janet on 4 newsgroups I post to. I'm
not involving myself in it - waste of my time and everyone's enjoyment of
their newsgroups.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online

Sacha wrote:
On 20/3/09 18:09, in article ,
"Ophelia" wrote:

Janet Baraclough wrote:

Is this supposed to show me up!! Consult with Sacha on this.

Changed days Janet. Both Sacha and myself have seen through you!

She believed your lies. We both know better now.


This sort of thing has been tried by Janet on 4 newsgroups I post to.
I'm not involving myself in it - waste of my time and everyone's
enjoyment of their newsgroups.

Quite!

wrote:
In article ,
Ophelia wrote:
rjbl wrote:
Bit risky with native waterfowl - Cl. botulinum is endemic in most of
them - tastes nice but kills 80% of the infected consumers. Best to
stick to hygienic, farmed ducks.
Oh dear Well, admittedly we haven't shot and eaten Mallard, but we have
been ok with Teal.

You didn't actually BELIEVE that, did you? It was either irony or
bullshit.

Clostridium botulinum is widespread in the environment, and you are
almost certain to be exposed to it. Eating anything that has come
in contact with aquatic sediment (animal OR vegetable) may be the
best way to do so, but it's simplest to regard it as inevitable.

It can grow ONLY in fairly low acid, anaerobic conditions, which is
why home preservation of low acid foods is dangerous (of the sort
that excludes air). The toxin is also destroyed by cooking. This
bacterium is one reason that it is illegal for restaurants to put
uncooked meat (which may carry the spores) in the same refrigerator
as cooked meat (in which it may grow, and will be served without
further cooking).

Most people are in no danger from eating the spores, as it cannot
grow in the acidic conditions of their gut. Curiously, I am at more
risk than most people, as I am on proton pump inhibitors, but I
don't worry.

See Wikipedia.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Good on yer Nick, so you can read it up in Wikipedia. Doesn't mention
the classic Loch Maree outbreak - pate made from wild duck shot by the
guests and made into food by the hotel chef - it slayed them. Yep, it is
fairly widespread in the environment - ie of world wide distribution.
Type E is particularly prevalent in aquatic environments - like
estuarine and lacustrine muds and sediments - as in the ponds in the
great London parks - where epidemic botulism killed rather a lot a
wildfowl about 25 years ago, remember?

It is probably axiomatic that those minded to slaughter the local
wildlife for dinner probably don't prepare the corpses in kitchens
maintained, and operated, to normal food industry hygiene standards and
certainly cannot avail themselves of professional bacteriological
quality control, very few people have their own domestic bug lab. Put
simply, if you strangle yer actual hand-reared, organic chicken and cook
it up for Sunday lunch in the worst case you are looking at almost
certainly surviving an unpleasant dose of S. typhi or an enteropathic E.
coli. With our local wild duck population you are looking, worst case,
at an 80% probability of death and a 20% probability of spending the
rest of your life with catastrophic CNS damage; as in blind, deaf and
paralysed

Long way from the exam question, innit? To refocus - anyone out there
with any knowledge of the social habits and natural history of mallard,
based upon their own observations in their gardens, to offer to explain
or add to my own observations?

Glad to hear from anyone with useful insights to give

rjbl

beccabunga wrote:
rjbl;834217 Wrote:

Any body got any ideas where these mallard might get to between June
and
the following March. Are mallard migratory?

rjbl


http://tinyurl.com/c9yafb

Great ones for gang bangs are mallards. Fearful scandal locally when an
unfortunate duck eventually drowned as a result.




Thanks for the URL - very helpful. Someone else has spotted the species
rather freewheeling amorousness - doesn't seem to be confined to
boy-girl activities tho'. Seems to have a social ritualistic element to
the behaviour.

rjbl

The message
from rjbl contains these words:

Bit risky with native waterfowl - Cl. botulinum is endemic in most of
them - tastes nice but kills 80% of the infected consumers. Best to
stick to hygienic, farmed ducks.

I've never heard such nonsesnse!

A lot of mallard are shot locally, and there's never been a whisper of
any such thing.

Ducks from the estate where I 'do a bit' are amongst these, and are
processed by the head gamekeeper and his staff. (TAAAW, pheasants,
partridges, rabbits, the occasional hare, and venison. The best are
cleaned and packed for sale as-is, and sausages and burgers made from
the rest - or parts thereof.)

--
Rusty
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk

The message
from "Ophelia" contains these words:

Thanks Nick I suppose because I am new here, I am taking in everything I
read

Take in all you read on Usenet by all means, but spit most of it out
again innit.

--
Rusty
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk

The message
from rjbl contains these words:

Good on yer Nick, so you can read it up in Wikipedia. Doesn't mention
the classic Loch Maree outbreak - pate made from wild duck shot by the
guests and made into food by the hotel chef - it slayed them. Yep, it is
fairly widespread in the environment - ie of world wide distribution.
Type E is particularly prevalent in aquatic environments - like
estuarine and lacustrine muds and sediments - as in the ponds in the
great London parks - where epidemic botulism killed rather a lot a
wildfowl about 25 years ago, remember?

Nope, but you might be right. That doesn't mean it's dangerous to eat
properly-prepared duck (I missed the 'd' - but corected my mistake in
time...), just that it's inadvisable to wrap an uncooked duck in
polythene foil or kitchen-wrap, and leave it for a while.

Cooked, it's no problem, but always best not to wrap in something
impervious to air.

It is probably axiomatic that those minded to slaughter the local
wildlife for dinner probably don't prepare the corpses in kitchens
maintained, and operated, to normal food industry hygiene standards and
certainly cannot avail themselves of professional bacteriological
quality control, very few people have their own domestic bug lab.

Just as well - most of these places are crawling. (Yes, I have worked in
some, as well as chicken eviscerating and dressing lines. I've also been
dressing rabbits, hares, pigeons, and other game since the mid 1950s,
and never come across a case of food-poisoning of any sort.)

Put
simply, if you strangle yer actual hand-reared, organic chicken and cook
it up for Sunday lunch in the worst case you are looking at almost
certainly surviving an unpleasant dose of S. typhi or an enteropathic E.
coli. With our local wild duck population you are looking, worst case,
at an 80% probability of death and a 20% probability of spending the
rest of your life with catastrophic CNS damage; as in blind, deaf and
paralysed

Only in the vanishingly small liklihood of contracting any of these,
which torpedoes your 'statistics'.

Long way from the exam question, innit? To refocus - anyone out there
with any knowledge of the social habits and natural history of mallard,
based upon their own observations in their gardens, to offer to explain
or add to my own observations?

Glad to hear from anyone with useful insights to give

I exclude my garden as uninteresting to mallard, but I've observed them
(and done a lot of habitat maintenance) in esturine locations, shot a
few, and eaten all of them.

--
Rusty
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk

The message
from "Ophelia" contains these words:
Sacha wrote:
On 20/3/09 18:09, in article ,
"Ophelia" wrote:
Janet Baraclough wrote:

Is this supposed to show me up!! Consult with Sacha on this.

Changed days Janet. Both Sacha and myself have seen through you!

She believed your lies. We both know better now.


This sort of thing has been tried by Janet on 4 newsgroups I post to.
I'm not involving myself in it - waste of my time and everyone's
enjoyment of their newsgroups.

Quite!

Nuff!

Or the Flames of Hell may lick - er - no, we won't go there...

--
Rusty
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk

Rusty_Hinge wrote:
The message
from "Ophelia" contains these words:
Sacha wrote:
On 20/3/09 18:09, in article ,
"Ophelia" wrote:
Janet Baraclough wrote:

Is this supposed to show me up!! Consult with Sacha on this.

Changed days Janet. Both Sacha and myself have seen through you!

She believed your lies. We both know better now.


This sort of thing has been tried by Janet on 4 newsgroups I post
to. I'm not involving myself in it - waste of my time and everyone's
enjoyment of their newsgroups.

Quite!

Nuff!

Or the Flames of Hell may lick - er - no, we won't go there...

Probably best m'dear!

Rusty_Hinge wrote:
The message
from rjbl contains these words:

Bit risky with native waterfowl - Cl. botulinum is endemic in most of
them - tastes nice but kills 80% of the infected consumers. Best to
stick to hygienic, farmed ducks.

I've never heard such nonsesnse!

A lot of mallard are shot locally, and there's never been a whisper of
any such thing.

Ducks from the estate where I 'do a bit' are amongst these, and are
processed by the head gamekeeper and his staff. (TAAAW, pheasants,
partridges, rabbits, the occasional hare, and venison. The best are
cleaned and packed for sale as-is, and sausages and burgers made from
the rest - or parts thereof.)

Well, I haven't had the chance of Mallard, but I will not refuse it if I
do - thank you

Rusty_Hinge wrote:
The message
from "Ophelia" contains these words:

Thanks Nick I suppose because I am new here, I am taking in
everything I read

Take in all you read on Usenet by all means, but spit most of it out
again innit.

I am interested in most things here, but I am mainly interested in making a
garden for veggies, using raised beds. I am saving many more things as they
come up though

Incidentally, I can't set up my submarine yet, because I am between houses
and don't have a temperature stable environment to do so. I will have to
wait until the weather is warmer I will report on it once I am able. I
have seeds for tomatoes, basil and salad. I can't wait)

Rusty_Hinge wrote:
The message
from rjbl contains these words:

Bit risky with native waterfowl - Cl. botulinum is endemic in most of
them - tastes nice but kills 80% of the infected consumers. Best to
stick to hygienic, farmed ducks.

I've never heard such nonsesnse!

A lot of mallard are shot locally, and there's never been a whisper of
any such thing.

Ducks from the estate where I 'do a bit' are amongst these, and are
processed by the head gamekeeper and his staff. (TAAAW, pheasants,
partridges, rabbits, the occasional hare, and venison. The best are
cleaned and packed for sale as-is, and sausages and burgers made from
the rest - or parts thereof.)

Hmmm..... Vairy interestink! Mallard are actually a species protected by
the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; it an offence
"..intentionally to kill, injure or take any wild bird, or to take,
damage or destroy its nest, eggs or young.."


Killing them and eating may well be fun, but 'tis a crime - just where
is this Estate of which you speak?

Pity, since you obviously have deep knowledge of the natural history
that you seem so unwilling to offer any useful knowledge in answer of
the exam question.

rjbl

rjbl wrote:
Rusty_Hinge wrote:
The message
from rjbl contains these words:

Bit risky with native waterfowl - Cl. botulinum is endemic in most
of them - tastes nice but kills 80% of the infected consumers. Best
to stick to hygienic, farmed ducks.

I've never heard such nonsesnse!

A lot of mallard are shot locally, and there's never been a whisper
of any such thing.

Ducks from the estate where I 'do a bit' are amongst these, and are
processed by the head gamekeeper and his staff. (TAAAW, pheasants,
partridges, rabbits, the occasional hare, and venison. The best are
cleaned and packed for sale as-is, and sausages and burgers made from
the rest - or parts thereof.)

Hmmm..... Vairy interestink! Mallard are actually a species protected
by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; it an offence
"..intentionally to kill, injure or take any wild bird, or to take,
damage or destroy its nest, eggs or young.."


Killing them and eating may well be fun, but 'tis a crime - just where
is this Estate of which you speak?

Pity, since you obviously have deep knowledge of the natural history
that you seem so unwilling to offer any useful knowledge in answer of
the exam question.

But, what has that to do with botulinum? Why has this turned into an ad
Hominem attack?

Ophelia wrote:
rjbl wrote:
Rusty_Hinge wrote:
The message
from rjbl contains these words:

Bit risky with native waterfowl - Cl. botulinum is endemic in most
of them - tastes nice but kills 80% of the infected consumers. Best
to stick to hygienic, farmed ducks.
I've never heard such nonsesnse!

A lot of mallard are shot locally, and there's never been a whisper
of any such thing.

Ducks from the estate where I 'do a bit' are amongst these, and are
processed by the head gamekeeper and his staff. (TAAAW, pheasants,
partridges, rabbits, the occasional hare, and venison. The best are
cleaned and packed for sale as-is, and sausages and burgers made from
the rest - or parts thereof.)

Hmmm..... Vairy interestink! Mallard are actually a species protected
by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; it an offence
"..intentionally to kill, injure or take any wild bird, or to take,
damage or destroy its nest, eggs or young.."


Killing them and eating may well be fun, but 'tis a crime - just where
is this Estate of which you speak?

Pity, since you obviously have deep knowledge of the natural history
that you seem so unwilling to offer any useful knowledge in answer of
the exam question.

But, what has that to do with botulinum? Why has this turned into an ad
Hominem attack?


Not intended to be ad hominem in any sense. I looked to this grp to be
able to offer some collective observations to help my understanding of
an intriguing issue of garden ecology. Why should a wild species chose
to make my garden space its territory for about the same months every
year? I can account for the resident bird population; the sparrows, the
tits; the nuthatch; the woodpeckers; etc. By providing them with a
managed environment and a reliable food supply in my garden the local
birds have now come regard it as their home territory, they were born
and bred here. But why do the mallard return here every year; where are
they for the other 9 months in the year? That is the exam question and,
yes, I am disappointed that the question has not uncovered a rich seam
of collective wisdom.

rjbl

rjbl wrote:
Ophelia wrote:
rjbl wrote:
Rusty_Hinge wrote:
The message
from rjbl contains these words:

Bit risky with native waterfowl - Cl. botulinum is endemic in most
of them - tastes nice but kills 80% of the infected consumers.
Best to stick to hygienic, farmed ducks.
I've never heard such nonsesnse!

A lot of mallard are shot locally, and there's never been a whisper
of any such thing.

Ducks from the estate where I 'do a bit' are amongst these, and are
processed by the head gamekeeper and his staff. (TAAAW, pheasants,
partridges, rabbits, the occasional hare, and venison. The best are
cleaned and packed for sale as-is, and sausages and burgers made
from the rest - or parts thereof.)

Hmmm..... Vairy interestink! Mallard are actually a species
protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; it an offence
"..intentionally to kill, injure or take any wild bird, or to take,
damage or destroy its nest, eggs or young.."


Killing them and eating may well be fun, but 'tis a crime - just
where is this Estate of which you speak?

Pity, since you obviously have deep knowledge of the natural history
that you seem so unwilling to offer any useful knowledge in answer
of the exam question.

But, what has that to do with botulinum? Why has this turned into
an ad Hominem attack?


Not intended to be ad hominem in any sense. I looked to this grp to be
able to offer some collective observations to help my understanding of
an intriguing issue of garden ecology. Why should a wild species chose
to make my garden space its territory for about the same months every
year? I can account for the resident bird population; the sparrows,
the tits; the nuthatch; the woodpeckers; etc. By providing them with a
managed environment and a reliable food supply in my garden the local
birds have now come regard it as their home territory, they were born
and bred here. But why do the mallard return here every year; where
are they for the other 9 months in the year? That is the exam
question and, yes, I am disappointed that the question has not
uncovered a rich seam of collective wisdom.

I am so sorry you were disappointed. Perhaps, as someone pointed out, it
might have been better in a different group? If you do get the answer you
seek, I hope you share it with us.