Squirrels are a pest at feeding time

From: Alison Saville, Yedingham.

LAST winter, I found myself undergoing an enforced period of convalescence which was made more interesting by all the various birds that visited my bird table and feeding stations.

I knew from past experience that we had several grey squirrels locally – pruning a huge willow had rid us of a drey. Nevertheless, I was not prepared for the quantity of bird food that two of the pests consumed.

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A pair of greater spotted woodpeckers were the stars of the play and even my labrador waited for them to appear around coffee time.

I have seen this variety enjoy peanuts elsewhere, but nothing but fat balls would satisfy these two – which the squirrels also loved.

Peanuts, sunflower seed, kitchen scraps and quantities of bird seed were provided by the kilo each week.

My garden is surrounded by conifer and beech hedging, the latter providing shelter for literally dozens of goldfinches. My birthday present to them was a squirrel-proof nyjer seed feeder.

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And still the greys kept coming. The last straw was when I foolishly put out some peanuts in a non-squirrel-proof feeder. It took just seconds to rip off the bottom, and the peanuts to make a heap below.

I finally resorted to a squirrel trap. In just 36 hours, two were captured and disposed of.

My seed bill is now under control, at last, and all the little birds are free to breed at will.

From: Peter R Hyde, Driffield, East Yorkshire.

I AM very fond of wild birds, and during winter and nesting times put out the right food to help them. I am rewarded by a single blackbird who comes every morning to ask for dried fruit.

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Unfortunately, many of my neighbours have more than one cat and these cats are the worst predators of our feathered friends.

A recent hatching of blue tits caused me concern because they were fluttering among the shrubs and one can’t keep watch all the time to defend them from the claws of these pets, or should I say pests.

I just wonder how many members of the RSPB also own one of these killers.

In my book, cats belong on farms to keep down vermin and not on housing estates where they do serious damage to wildlife.

Cheque mate still applies

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From: Gary Hocking, acting chief executive, Payments Council, London.

I AM writing in response to Janette Hancock’s letter, “Cheque the facts on banks’ intentions”, (Yorkshire Post, May 26). I hope I can reassure her and other readers.

Cheque use has been falling since 1990. Seventy per cent fewer cheques are written today compared with 20 years ago. This decline will inevitably continue.

The Payments Council is determined that co-ordinated action should be taken to prevent customers being left high and dry.

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Rather than leave the decline in cheque volumes to take its course in an unmanaged fashion, the Payments Council set a target date to close the central cheque processing system in 2018.

This is to ensure that alternatives are developed that are acceptable to all those customers who currently rely on cheques for certain types of payment.

To make sure we get it right, we are consulting with all kinds of customer groups, and we are particularly focussing on those who use cheques more, such as older people, small businesses and charities.

We won’t be taking a decision until 2016 whether or not to go ahead with closure in 2018, and we will only go ahead if alternatives are in place, acceptable to customers and actually being used.

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In the meantime, you can continue to use cheques as you’ve always done.

To safeguard customers, banks will continue to provide cheque books to customers while they still need them.

So anyone who is mistakenly told by their bank that they can’t have a new cheque book should ask them again or get in touch with us.

Examiners pass the test

From: Allan Davies, Heathfield Court, Grimsby.

THE reported error on an OCR examination paper leaves me wondering what kind of system the board has for scrutinising examination papers.

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Throughout the 1970s, I was chief examiner of business studies statistics at ONC level for one of the regional examining bodies.

The procedure was as follows: I was expected to provide a proposed paper, solutions and a marking scheme by early August.

The board secretary would then send copies to two specialist moderators who were required to work through the paper before looking at my solutions, and then make any amendments or suggestions they thought fit.

They would then report back to the board from whence they would go to a DES national assessor whose task it was to ensure that the various boards had set papers of a similar standard.

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Given that all was then well, the paper would go to a moderators’ meeting where I would be fairly but firmly grilled. It took about three hours.

When approved, the paper would go to the printers.

I cannot remember a single untoward incident.

The system was simple and thorough. Students deserve no less.