There are some birds in the Waggon and Horses on Lawrence Street in York, and they could cause a problem with the beer if the weather gets warmer...

No, that wasn't a dodgy comment about women drinking in the pub, but a reference to a pair of blackbirds nesting in the refrigeration unit on the heat outlet. Landlady Geri Walton thinks they may have become parents in the past week.

They decided to set up home in the cooling system to the cellar, and if the temperature goes up between now and late June (the end of their breeding season) then the fans that are needed to keep the beer cool will have to stay off.

Because blackbirds and their nests are protected, the chicks can't be disturbed, and so staff would have to find another way to keep the barrels cool (when another York pub had the same problem with pigeons a few years back, they had to put wet sacks over their barrels).

And if they end up with warm beer, the regulars would be disturbed, including our very own Dick Turpin, and he's disturbed enough already!

- It's been just over a year since Wayne and Deanna Allen took over The Melbourne on Cemetery Road in York, after leaving the Frog Hall, so Bar Talk has paid a visit to see how they are getting on.

When they moved from Frog Hall, they brought some of its features with them, including many of the regulars and rock memorabilia, which is now up on the walls.

The Allens have made The Melbourne a place of interesting contrasts - depending on what night you go there is a completely different atmosphere.

A large drop-down screen accommodates the football and rugby fans: go in any night when there's a big match on and plenty of people watching. Bar Talk visited the pub during the Arsenal and Man U match last month and was pleasantly surprised to see a packed pub split between supporting the two teams, with no agro, contrary to the stereotyping of football fans. And some very vocal rugby fans go in, including a certain local school head teacher who has been seen (and heard) thoroughly enjoying a Friday night game!

A completely different night out can be had when there's the jam session and live bands on. This is where the pub really scores, with people coming from as far afield as Leeds to join in the Thursday jam: regardless of experience everyone is encouraged to have a go, from jam virgins to old seasoned pros (you know who you are!). Then on Saturdays there's usually a band on (or is that abandon?), with Stealer, Aldo's Orphans, Rocket 3 and Miracles & Wonders all playing regularly, many of whom also help out on Thursdays.

Then there's the traditional pub entertainment: pool, darts and dominoes, karaoke (Bar Talk once got dragged up for that and cleared the pub), quiz nights and a quiz machine (with naked Spot The Difference on it!) One thing there isn't, and hasn't been, since they started is pub grub, as Wayne once said: "If I wanted to do food, I'd have bought a bed and breakfast". And there's no performing snails either.

- Foster's latest addition to its range is an 18cm-high version of its normal bottle that holds just 200ml. The logic behind the launch? Apparently, it stops people wasting so much beer by leaving bottles that aren't finished, as shown in a table of annual wastage of beer in bigger bottles and pint glasses.

We could see the reasoning in selling them in pubs and clubs considering how many bottles of drink are collected at the end of the night with an inch of beer left in them, but these are for the home market.

We think it's really just a cunning ploy to destroy the popular image of the beer-swilling Aussie by implying they can't finish a full bottle.

Any uprooted Australians in York wish to disagree with that?!

Updated: 08:44 Saturday, May 03, 2003