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My name is Benjamin and I currently live in England. I am thinking of moving to America for a period next year to establish an office there.
I am a keen ornithologist, and it is to this that my concern relates. I am lucky in my current home to have a large estate with extensive wetlands, and in addition to cormorants and the rare crested bitton, I often get a shag crawling around my reed bed on a wet spring morning. I'm concerned that, with the intensive agricultural methods that I understand are in use in your country, the diversity of avine interest may be less considerable than in my native land. This, if so, might seriously reduce my interest in the endeavor.
OK Benjamin, first let me tell you that for a moment you had me thinking you meant the shag as a colloquialism for something else! My bad. Next, I would suggest you do a little more homework and select a specific region that you might like to narrow your office search down to that includes wetlands that may be similar to where you currently live. Armed with that info we may be able to help.
Have you determined where you want to open your office or is it hanging upon which species of our feathered friends you will find yourself surrounded by? If so google those birds in the USA and see where many of them are native to and go from there.
Dear Nuts, please let me tell you that I am seldom want to employ colloquial language! Besides which, I can't imagine what alternative meaning the name of this particular aquatic bird could have.
The business in which I am engaged is rather dull and technocratic, I'm afraid. This does mean, however, that I am basically free to establish myself where I choose, provided that commercial rents are not more than 300% of the national mean. Since I am largely ignorant of the native American birds, i would welcome your advice one what might be the best part of your country to consider, in terms of ornithological prospects.
As a side question: my father is a Frenchman, and he has passed on to me a taste for some of the fancy delicacies of that land, including, I am a little ashamed to say, those derived from what he calls 'privet chickens'. What is the legality of this in the USA? Can one net a blackbird for a pie in autumn, or catch thrush while out on a late-summer's walk on the heath?
I've known plenty of Brits and every time they've used the term "shag" they were referring to neither birds nor carpeting......
Benjamin you haven't given us a whole lot of information to go on. If you want birds, here in Seattle I've never seen so many birds in an urban area. Our neighborhood has bluebirds, crows, bald eagles, chickadees, hummingbirds, owls, sparrows, hawks of several varieties, tanagers, geese, seagulls, the occasional falcon, and various songbirds I can't identify. Western washington is bird paradise.
However if you try to shoot/capture/eat them, the neighbors are likely to run you out on a rail--if not have you charged with some kind of crime against natural birddom and you will spend the rest of your days in a Washington state penitentiary.
It is a garden paradise as well. You can't stop things from growing here. Trees and shrubbery routinely outgrow their expected mature limits. All fruits and vegetables that thrive in England also thrive in Seattle. However hot weather loving plants don't do very well here.
You can do regular chickens within the city limits of Seattle, don't know about 'privet' ones. Five chickens per property in the city limits, no roosters.
I've known plenty of Brits and every time they've used the term "shag" they were referring to neither birds nor carpeting......
Benjamin you haven't given us a whole lot of information to go on. If you want birds, here in Seattle I've never seen so many birds in an urban area. Our neighborhood has bluebirds, crows, bald eagles, chickadees, hummingbirds, owls, sparrows, hawks of several varieties, tanagers, geese, seagulls, the occasional falcon, and various songbirds I can't identify. Western washington is bird paradise.
However if you try to shoot/capture/eat them, the neighbors are likely to run you out on a rail--if not have you charged with some kind of crime against natural birddom and you will spend the rest of your days in a Washington state penitentiary.
It is a garden paradise as well. You can't stop things from growing here. Trees and shrubbery routinely outgrow their expected mature limits. All fruits and vegetables that thrive in England also thrive in Seattle. However hot weather loving plants don't do very well here.
You can do regular chickens within the city limits of Seattle, don't know about 'privet' ones. Five chickens per property in the city limits, no roosters.
I appreciate your remarks, Azoria, and after what you have said I will certainly consider Seattle as a destination. My good friend Bob Gilbert and his partner live a few miles from the city, and have always said it to be most convivial. Evidently, there are certain restrictions on ones freedom to progressively utilize the natural resources, although I must confess that much the same can be said of my own land. The ban on roosters seems a little draconian, but I can appreciate that the sound of a **** is not necessarily as pleasing as the sight of one.
To the others, I think there may be some misapprehension arising from the manner of my speech; the fact that the aforesaid is perhaps a little strained can be explained that not English, but Urdu is my first language, and that I learnt the former, only under duress I might add, from an old Harrow master during my 14th and 15th years. I draw courage from the fact that Benjamin Hubard's weblog is imagined by some to be my own; in truth, it is to it that my handle on this site is owed. I am an admirer of that blog, but it is written by a personage who is not one and the same as myself.
The ban on roosters seems a little draconian, but I can appreciate that the sound of a **** is not necessarily as pleasing as the sight of one. .
Actually, not everyone considers the sight of a **** particularly pleasing either, especially first thing in the morning.
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