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As  the Nottingham Anglers' Association bailiff on King's Mill Reservoir, I must say something about the amount of bread being fed to the ducks, geese and swans. I, for one, know what pleasure grown-ups and children get from feeding the birds, but please try to feed wheat or corn instead of bread, particularly white, which is unnatural food and is really quite harmful to the birds. The bread also has effects on water quality, plus it attracts vermin if any is left lying around. I hope that consideration and a little thought for the welfare of the birds will be used. PAM HALLAM,

This letter (above)appeared in the Mansfield Chad newspaper.The one below ,written by  my nice wife will hopefully be appearing soon

Dear Madam,

Many people enjoy feeding bread to ducks, swans and geese at our local parksand reservoirs and like to encourage their children to do so as itbrings them closer to some of our most common forms of wildlife. Although it is well intentioned, I wonder how many people realise thatthey are doing more harm than good? Kingsmill Reservoir attracts alotof wildfowl such as mallards, tufted ducks, canada and greylag geese with numbers increasing during the winter months when the birds are looking for food. However, feeding bread to birds causes many problems not only to the birds themselves but also adversely affects the ecology of the water.

Modern manufactured white bread contains bleached flour and artificial preservatives, making it unsuitable for small animals and birds. It causes malnutrition in birds by swelling up in their stomachs making them feel full and preventing them from eating a natural healthy diet. It also creates a vitamin E deficiency and a build up of protein resulting in an excessive growth of feathers in the wings of geese. This is a condition known as 'Angel wing'where the bird's wings droop and turn outwards, eventually preventingthe bird from flying. Imagine then, the scale of the problem if everyone visiting the reservoir decidesto bring one or more loaves of bread to feed the ducks and geese.Walking around Kingsmill I have often seen an excess of uneaten bread,sometimes whole unbroken loaves left to rot. Rotten bread causesenteritis in ducks and one single outbreak can kill all the birds inone area. Bread can also cause serious impaction in the bird's crop(gullet) If this were not bad enough, a build up of uneaten breadfloating about on the surface of the reservoir causes a type of water pollution called eutrophication. 

Thisis when an excessive amount of nutrients in the water creates thegrowth of poisonous algae, dangerous to both humans and animals. Thistoxic algae reduces the oxygen levels in the water resulting in thedeath of fish and a reduction in the number of insects. The algal bloomsmay also potentially block sunlight and prevent the photosynthesis of plants below the water. I'm sure your readers will agree that none of this is good for our wildlife.

So what should we feed the birds?  

In the wild, swans, ducks and geese will eat a variety of plants, seeds, grains and  insects.

If you feel you must supplement their natural diet then the kindest thing to do is to feed them corn, wheat, pearl barley or sunflower seeds.There are small bags of waterfowl seed  on sale in the Strawberry Fayrecafe at Kingsmill reservoir exactly for this purpose. Not only is thisa more environmentally friendly way of feeding the birds, but by buyingthis seed you will also be supporting the work of The Friends ofKingsmill Res. Please also think aboutfeeding locations and consider other users of the reservoir. There arefeeding stages situated at various points around the reservoir soplease do use them. Boat jetties are nota suitable place for throwing food to the birds. Sutton In AshfieldSailing Club have politely requested that the public do not throwbirdfood onto the jetties for health and safety reasons. 

TheRoyal Society for the Protection of Birds does not advocate the feedingof bread to wild birds. If you require further advice or information onany aspect of feeding wildbirds then there are a series of leafletsavailable which can be obtained from the RSPB Mansfield Local Group. We can be contacted online at www.rspb.org.uk/groups/mansfield

Anne Sommerville RSPB Mansfield Local Group

So whats this got to do with Frankie Boyle ? Well nothing really ,he is an extremelely funny guy ,recently on the telly,on  Mock the week to be precise ,he took the piss out of Mansfield Munter Rebecca Adlington,I remember it amusing me at the time.The Chad has published an arcticle about how offended Rebbecas mum is by Frankie Boyles comments about her daughters appearance.Rebbecca is a local hero ,when she won her gold medals at the Olympics ,I thought fantastic ,Mansfield can be rightly  proud of her .Im afraid Frankie was right however when he made reference to her having a face like  a bulldog chewing a wasp  (or whatever it was he said) Fair enough.The Chad by the way ,while I am libeling people is usually a thoroughly depressing read ,a typical edition will be highlighting the woefully inept non league football teams latest defeat at the hands of modest opposition.The rest of the newspaper is basically a list of local crime or adverts for tat that any right minded person wouldnt give house room to.The most hillarious section being the local jobs that are available ,both of them and one of them is at Macdonalds .Next weeks blog: why you should boycott Macdonalds.

Oh hang on ,Ive remembered that this is meant to  be about birds and stuff.Today at Pleasley Pit ,I watched several green woodpeckers ,while a kestel hovered in mid air, a huge charm of goldfinch floated by .This years charm ,being about 100 strong at present ,hopefully some siskin will join them again.Lots of Mippits about .