Villagers are hoping to find a mate for a lovelorn peacock which has made their quiet residential close his home.
The glamorous bird arrived in the garden of Kate Barnes in Itchen Abbas, near Winchester, Hampshire, in July last year in a bedraggled state.
After eight months of care and attention from the local community, made up mostly of retired residents, the bird, which has been named Percy, has returned to full health. The residents are concerned that the young peacock is sad without a mate as he looks forlorn and makes his mating call in the morning and at night.
Estonian oak stands tall in Britain
An Estonian oak tree in a football field has left UK trees in the shade by scooping the European Tree of the Year award with almost 60,000 votes.
The highest-scoring UK tree in the competition, decided by a public vote, was the Major Oak, in Sherwood Forest Country Park, which is associated with Robin Hood and is thought to be between 800 and 1,000 years old, with 9,941 votes.
Scotland’s Lady’s Tree, a 100-year-old Scots pine at the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Loch of the Lowes reserve, near Dunkeld, Perthshire, home to a famous osprey, Lady, for nearly a quarter of a century, came 9th with 4,193 votes. And Wales’s Lonely Tree, a Scots pine more than 200 years old which stood on the top of a hill watching over the town of Llanfyllin, Powys, but blew over last April, came 10th.
New plum is the latest super food
A new variety of plum that contains some of the highest levels of anthocyanin antioxidants ever found in a fruit has gone on sale in the UK.
Marks & Spencer claims it is the first retailer in the UK to stock the Australian Queen Garnet, which according to studies contains five to 10 times more anthocyanins than a normal plum.
It has been touted as the next “superfood” to rival the acai berry. Anthocyanins provide the dark colours of many fruits and vegetables, such as blueberries and red peppers.
Flight of fancy has to be withdrawn
It looked like a steal: 72 US dollars (£47) for a round-trip business class ticket on South African Airways between Johannesburg and Abu Dhabi.
The online offer, part of a promotional sale at the end of February, was indeed too good to be true. The airline said it erroneously published the incorrect fare and that it was refunding customers who had snapped up the tickets. It said 640 bookings were affected.
South African Airways said a regular ticket on the same route in business class sells for about 3,400 US dollars (£2,230).
Firefighters make dogged rescue
Los Angeles County firefighters got creative to rescue a dog that had fallen into a 6in (15cm) wide gap in West Hollywood, California.
A dozen firefighters were called to the scene and found the 60lb (27kg) dog wedged upside down between a house wall and a retaining wall. Every time the dog whimpered, he slid further.
Firefighters could not just pull him out, so they improvised. They slid a pole under the dog, tied webbing ropes to his front paws, soaped up his fur and pulled. They wriggled the dog out far enough to grab his back paws, then a few tugs and he was free.
No damages for US legal sizzler
A man cannot seek damages for burns he suffered while bowing his head in prayer over a sizzling steak fajita skillet at a restaurant, a New Jersey appellate court has ruled.
The ruling upheld a lower court ruling which dismissed his lawsuit. The man claimed a waitress did not warn him the dish was hot, but the lower court found the food posed an “open and obvious” danger.
The incident happened at an Applebee’s in Burlington County in 2010. The man said he bowed his head, then heard a loud sizzle followed by a grease pop. He then felt a burning sensation in his left eye and on his face.