Two moorhen chicks have been shot at a nature reserve in County Durham. The chicks were shot dead with an air gun at the Wingate Quarry Reserve. It’s thought that the incident might be related to youths drinking in the area.

I am always looking for new recipes to try and found BigOven.com Recipe Community which is an interesting recipe swapping website. You can search over 160,000 recipes by ingredient, occasion or cuisine. One thing I particularly liked about the website is that the recipes include a photo of how the finished recipe should look which is always useful. The website also has software to help you to create grocery lists and meal plans, so if you have special diet then it could be really helpful. You can also upload your own recipes, complete with photograph. As an incentive they have a monthly prize of $100 for the best recipe photo submitted. As someone who regularly posts photos of my cooking on my blog I might give this go to see if I can earn a bit of extra cash.

Researchers studying pandas in China have found that they have expanded their habitat in the bamboo forests of two western provinces. This indicates that the population of pandas could also be expanding which is good news for the species. The last panda census recorded 103 pandas in Baishuijiang, the largest panda reserve in China. There are currently only around 1,590 pandas left in the wild with about another 180 having been bred in captive breeding programs.

This creature was pictured near Hound Tor on Dartmoor. It is not known what the creature is but this picture helps back up the local legend that a hell hound haunts the spot. The story that a pair of spectral dogs known as the Hounds of Hell inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write The Hound of the Baskervilles. It is most likely that this latest picture is of a wild boar.

I read this interesting article about a project to re-introduce wolves to Yellowstone National Park and the impact the project has had on the parks eco system. The wolves were introduced in 1995 after having been absent from the environment for 70 years. Since their return there has been a regeneration of the parks population of aspen trees which were previously declining. Whilst the wolves do not have a direct impact on the growth of the aspen tree they do affect it indirectly.

The decline in the trees was attributed to the growth of the parks elf population which having no natural predators was getting out of control. The elk were able to wander around the park freely and eat all the young aspen trees. The re-introduction of the wolves has meant that the elk are no longer able to wander so safely for fear of being eaten. The knock on effect is that there are less elk and the young aspen trees are able to grow to maturity. I find it interesting how restoring the natural balance of predator and prey affects the whole eco system of the park.

We went for a walk along the Thames at the weekend to see how high the river was. Whilst we were there we came across this family of swans. They seem to be doing particularly well this year; usually they only have two or three cygnets, but as you can see this year there are four. As you can see from the photo the river has not yet burst its banks but is quite high for this time of year. The picture was taken at Staines.

This poor dog was shot at point blank by yobs with a crossbow. The dog now called Beau, survived despite having two crossbow bolts embedded in her skull. After a two hour operation they were eventually removed and she is now recovering well.

There have now been two alleged sightings of a Great White Shark off the coast of Cornwall. Whilst coastguards have dismissed the claims as scaremongering scientists have admitted that it is possible the Great White Shark could move into British waters especially as they start to get warmer. There has never been a confirmed sighting of a Great White off the Cornish coast and it is possible that the shark seen was actually a smaller shark such as a mako or a porbeagle.

I found this on Crooked Brains and had to post it. It's so unusal to see so many cats in a tree at the same time. I have managed to get a picture of two of mine sitting in the tree together but this is just great.

Organisers of a Donkey Derby in Llandudno had to replace the donkeys with a blow up sheep and a toy monkey. The event had been deemed to dangerous if live donkeys were used. Safety rules meant that the event needed to be covered by public liability insurance but unfortunately no insurance company would cover it. This is despite the fact that the event has taken place every year for the last 39 years without incident.

Newcastle City Council released the credit card details of around 54,000 people on the internet. The blunder happened when thousands of credit and debit card details were placed on an insecure server and were accessed by overseas computers. The details accessed include payment details for council tax, business rates, parking fines and rent. The Council has said that residents should monitor their bank statements to check for any unusual activity. That’s not very reassuring to the people whose accounts have been compromised.

We went to a party this weekend at Shaz and Chhaya's house, despite the fact that it rained all night we were still nice and dry under the marquee. Chhaya had spent the day cooking and treated us to a great spread of samosas, kebabs, chicken wings and mini pizzas.

Chhaya and me.

Shaz and me.

I just opened a rather nice bottle of Circular Quay Shiraz 2006 Bin 30. From South Eastern Australia it is a rather smooth wine with a slight blackcurrant taste and a hint of cedar wood. For around £6.00 a bottle, I think its quite a good buy.

A pair of peregrine falcon chicks in Inverurie have died after being poisoned. It is not known who killed the birds but police are appealing for information. There are currently only around 1,285 breeding pairs of peregrine falcons in the UK. The species have long been persecuted by game keepers and pigeon fanciers because the falcons eat mainly small birds. The Scottish raptor group estimates that around a quarter of nests in Scotland are subject to interference and killing despite the fact that these birds are still greatly at risk.

I have an intense hatred of garden gnomes, so much so, that not even one is allowed to set foot in my garden. This article represents one of most nightmares, a garden full of the little critters. Jean Balcombe from Willesborough in Kent has 1,500 gnomes in her garden which she has collected over 20 years.

A businessman and 18 friends spent a record £105,805 on drink at a London nightclub. Among the drinks they consumed were £80,000 worth of champagne, 4 bottles of Cristal Rose, 6 magnums of Dom Perignon, 36 bottles of Cristal and 12 bottles of Dom Perignon Rose. I feel better now about splashing out on a bottle of wine with my meal last night.

I found this really interesting quiz. It has 10 websites and challenges you to spot which are the real sites and which are the fakes. I got six out of ten.

A hamster that was left out with the rubbish has been rescued and has now been adopted by council workers. They have named him Brian although it appears he may actually be a she.

There has been a lot of news coverage recently about banks charging their customers unfair overdraft charges on their current accounts. The competition watchdog today launched a case against eight of the UK’s largest current account provides accusing them of unfair bank charges. The banks currently apply large bank charges on customers who have gone into their unauthorised overdraft. The watchdog has challenged these fees, however, saying they should be limited to what it actually costs the account provider when the account goes overdrawn. In some cases banks charge up to £39 for going overdrawn. The eight banks involved in this test case are Abbey, Barclays, Clydesdale Bank, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Royal Bank of Scotland and Nationwide. As someone who has been charges unfair fees in the past I will be watching this case with interest.

Cats and rats have been helping Colombian police sniff out land mines. The rats are trained to sniff out landmines and are taught to freeze when they detect one. The problem is that the rats have not been doing the job effectively because they are frightened of predators. Putting the rat into a cage with a cat helps the rat becomes used to the presence of possible predators so they can concentrate on their job. The cat’s claws are covered so they cannot injure the rat.

You might have cause to be worried if Oscar the cat (not my cat Oscar) curls up next to you. The cat has an uncanny knack for curling up next to patients at a nursing home just before they die. Staff at the nursing home have now started alerting the patients family if Oscar sits next to them.

A giant bustard has laid an egg in Britain for the first time since 1832. The birds are part of a program to reintroduce the great bustard to Britain using chicks from Russia. Although the eggs have not hatched it is still an encouraging sign that the species should be able to breed successfully in Britain.

I went to the hairdresser today to get my yearly hair cut. My hair is very thick so it had got to the stage where it felt like I was wearing a carpet, and the weight of it was causing me to have headaches. Now I have considerably less hair. I must try and go at least twice a year in future.

Farmers in Macedonia have found some cognac which dates back to the First World War. The batches of cognac were buried in trenches used by French soldiers and recently several cases have been found. They are expected to fetch around £3,360 each.