Crows and Magpies to be culled?

On Sunday I read in the newspaper that there is going to be a cull of crows and magpies who are blamed for the decline in the population of songbirds such as the yellowhammer and skylark.  The RSPB have stated that the population drop is due to other factors such as removal of habital and food sources.  I am inclined to agree, who are we to interfere with nature in such a way?

What do you think?  Read more about it here and here.

My New Friend.

I have a new friend. A tiny blue tit has been sitting on my window sill at work each day and peering in at me. The window sill is very narrow but big enough for this little fellow. It's such a privilege to see him each day. My Nan gave me some raisins for him and he was back briefly this morning to help himself to the few I had scattered.

More about Blue Tit.

(Image from Google, at some point I hope to be able to get a picture of him for you)

A small way to make a difference.

I have finally got around to combining all the piles of used stamps I habitually rip from envelopes and they are now ready to be sent to an animal charity. I usually send them to Guide Dogs for the Blind but want to give some other organisations a chance to make some money as well so after some research online I have come up with a list of other animal charities that accept used stamps:

Haworth Cat Rescue

PDSA (The address to send stamps to is, PO Box 9191, Wishaw, Lanarkshire, ML2 OYB)

Chaldon Animal Sanctuary

RSPB

Guide Dogs for the Blind

I was wondering how collecting stamps actually helps raise money for these good causes and after more research it seems that stamps are sold in bulk by the animal charities to collectors which raises funds, a kilo of foreign stamps can raise £12 to £15. The Robert Murray Stamp Shop has an interesting article on this.

This is a simple and effective way to help raise much needed funds for animal charities. If you arrange to have a container near where you open your post, or where you dispose of/recycle your junk mail then you can rip the stamp carefully off the envelope, pop it into the container and once you have a large amount simply put them in an envelope and send them to a charity of your choice. At my previous place of work I set up a large envelope where people dropped in their used stamps and once the envelope was full I would send it straight to charity. It all adds up and is no trouble at all.