The Rule For Old Birds

I have a strict rule on the field

Old birds are never culled, they are retired and cared for until they die away naturally.

Sick animals are treated and culled if necessary.

But generally after their 'production' time is over, the birds are allowed to have a couple of years respite with their faces in the sun until they shuffle off this mortal coil.

Sun! I have almost forgotten what sunny days are like.

Yesterday was a wild, wet and stormy day, it was a day when the weather seemed to cut right through you, and twice during my rounds I found the bodies of two pensioners tucked away in the hedgerow.

An ancient buff ( above) had disappeared off and away from the others before she had collapsed as did Theresa the knackered old one eyed turkey, who had wandered off just before locking up 

I wasn't sad at all at the findings for winter weather is the equivalent of the ice flows for Eskimos , it culls out the old.

The bodies, I moved to the local Badger sett. At least they would enjoy a good meal during the night and when I thought about it all, the more I felt that the Eskimos had the right idea.....

When my time comes, before I have to rely on some uninterested carer in a urine smelling retirement home to wipe my arse, I think I would like to have the opportunity to wander away in the rain to lay down under a hawthorn hedge and have a final chance to look at the sky.

Then the badgers could stuff their fat faces on me for a month