A weekly round-up of rural rows

In Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire, villagers were worried last weekend by the sudden deaths of large numbers of birds. People found up to 30 dead birds, mostly starlings, in their gardens. Environmental health officials said the deaths were a mystery, and the RSPB were no wiser. A spokesman said it could be disease, or poisoning, or the hot weather. Alec Meldrum, 85, said: "It was a horrible sight. I've never seen anything like it."

A flock of geese has upset plans for a wind farm in Argyll. Councillors were advised this week to refuse permission for a 25-turbine wind farm at Largie Estate, Kintyre, because of fears that the Greenland white-fronted geese, which over-winter nearby, would fly into the blades and be killed.

Dolphin cruise operators in the Moray Firth are at war with Scottish Natural Heritage. The SNH has limited the amount of trips they can make to a colony of 130 bottle-nosed dolphins. SNH says it is to prevent disturbance, but the cruise operators say it is because noise from their boats affects the SNH's "listening stations" where people hear the dolphins. The Inverness harbourmaster, Capt Ian Fairgrieve, said that the growing number of powerboats in the area "cause a great deal more damage to the dolphins than two recognised operators chugging back and forth".

Andy Richardson, 13, of Hoyland, south Yorkshire, put his net into the village pond this week and pulled out a piranha. "The fish was quite big and you could see its razor-sharp teeth," he said. Tom Georgeson, the pond bailiff, said: "It was a grand fish. Somebody must have been keeping it in a tank at home and didn't want it any more."