Conservation and Wildlife

[twentysix by twentyfive]

There is no doubt in my mind @mudsticks that we need a lot more farmers and big landowners to take your lead. All sorts of things are endangered. I'm constantly reading about birds going on the Red List. I haven't seen a collared dove for ages (they were everywhere at one time). The Swifts that screech every year over my garden (mostly down to wildflower meadow now - I know it's only 1/4 acre but it's the only 1/4 acre I have direct control over) are down to a few now. Curlew populations have crashed - I could go on . My wildlife gardening seems to be working with breeding populations of butterfly, dragonfly, frogs toads, some other (small insect) pond life yet to be identified, slow worm and occasional sightings of lizard. I get moth caterpillars too so I suppose I should do a night moth trap to see what's about. Day flying moths are fairly frequent. Birds seem to breed too but not like they used to. I try with only hedge cutting at the end of the year and putting up boxes. So Robin, Tit and House Sparrow. We have mice too. The bats that used to feed over the meadow at dusk seem to have vanished tho' .

This caught my eye recently. https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk They have a roadside verge campaign. Give your local highways/councils/councillors a kick everyone.

 

[mudsticks]

There is no doubt in my mind @mudsticks that we need a lot more farmers and big landowners to take your lead. All sorts of things are endangered. I'm constantly reading about birds going on the Red List. I haven't seen a collared dove for ages (they were everywhere at one time). The Swifts that screech every year over my garden (mostly down to wildflower meadow now - I know it's only 1/4 acre but it's the only 1/4 acre I have direct control over) are down to a few now. Curlew populations have crashed - I could go on . My wildlife gardening seems to be working with breeding populations of butterfly, dragonfly, frogs toads, some other (small insect) pond life yet to be identified, slow worm and occasional sightings of lizard. I get moth caterpillars too so I suppose I should do a night moth trap to see what's about. Day flying moths are fairly frequent. Birds seem to breed too but not like they used to. I try with only hedge cutting at the end of the year and putting up boxes. So Robin, Tit and House Sparrow. We have mice too. The bats that used to feed over the meadow at dusk seem to have vanished tho' .

This caught my eye recently. https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk They have a roadside verge campaign. Give your local highways/councils/councillors a kick everyone.

Well it might cheer you up to hear that a lot more farmers and landowners are picking up an enthusiasm for all things ecology, and environment of late.

That's why there are events that can attract several hundreds of them at one time.

It will take a change in government policy to bring about long term transition to overall better systems though .

And of course enough of the food buying public to get on board with making the necessary changes.

The Newly published National Food Strategy has quite a lot of useful stuff to say about all this -

As an already fairly radical root and branch, food and farming reformist, I feel it could go a lot further.

But it's not a bad start though, on the whole.

At least the subject is being looked at in depth, in the round, encompassing health, ecology, and social justice, rather than just siloing them all off from each other as if they're not deeply interrelated., .

 

[Chief Broom]

Otters seem to be doing OK in my neck of the woods [Brora] not common but i see them on a regular basis. I have a favourite spot along Brora's back shore where otters will suddenly appear out of the gorse and walk across the shingle and then go fishing. They know im there and dont seem bothered, sometimes when ive been fishing in the Dornoch firth an otter has stopped me fishing [as i dont want to hook it!] and wont go away so theyre not particularly timid. For anyone visiting this area i would recommend Meikle Ferry, Brora back shore and occasionally Loch Fleet as good places to see one.

 

[mudsticks]

Otters seem to be doing OK in my neck of the woods [Brora] not common but i see them on a regular basis. I have a favourite spot along Brora's back shore where otters will suddenly appear out of the gorse and walk across the shingle and then go fishing. They know im there and dont seem bothered, sometimes when ive been fishing in the Dornoch firth an otter has stopped me fishing [as i dont want to hook it!] and wont go away so theyre not particularly timid. For anyone visiting this area i would recommend Meikle Ferry, Brora back shore and occasionally Loch Fleet as good places to see one.

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Great shots 😊

We now have beavers living alongside the otters on our local river of the same name.

The beavers are doing good work against flooding, and seem mostly to have been accepted by the riverside landowners..

And even the fisherfolk now that they understand beavers don't eat fish

Last week I had some campers 'complain' to me that the owls were a bit noisy , at night

And another good moment was when I wandered up the farm to replace one of the nets that keeps the pigeons off the brassicas .

I was annoyed with myself for having forgotten and expected to find some unscheduled feasting going on.

Turns out I didn't need to worry.

Two large buzzards were patrolling the windbreak trees , looking for voles or something I guess.

Their presence was keeping all the pigeons well away.

Biodiversity in action, and helping me out too .

 

[KnittyNorah]

Re otters. A machine-knitting pal of mine lives in a suburban bungalow among a lot of other suburban bungalows, in Cromer. Her hubby is a keen fish-keeper and as well as having a collection of prize-winning koi carp, has quite an extensive water feature in the garden with more 'functional' fish - the non-prize-winning koi carp, golden orfe, and other smaller splashy things. The water-feature fish started disappearing last year and for several weeks it was assumed herons were to blame. Extensive netting was installed to protect their fishy friends, but still they kept going missing. So two game/wildlife cameras were installed to try to solve the mystery.

Not herons. In the middle of suburban Cromer, instead it was an OTTER! Where it had come from - and where it went to once it had eaten all the fish of any respectable size in their ponds - remains a mystery. Norfolk wildlife trust investigated to try to trace the otter via its spraint, but they concluded it was probably a lone young male looking to set up a territory who had arrived by chance, picniced for a while then had moved on to more suitable terrain.

 

[mudsticks]

Re otters. A machine-knitting pal of mine lives in a suburban bungalow among a lot of other suburban bungalows, in Cromer. Her hubby is a keen fish-keeper and as well as having a collection of prize-winning koi carp, has quite an extensive water feature in the garden with more 'functional' fish - the non-prize-winning koi carp, golden orfe, and other smaller splashy things. The water-feature fish started disappearing last year and for several weeks it was assumed herons were to blame. Extensive netting was installed to protect their fishy friends, but still they kept going missing. So two game/wildlife cameras were installed to try to solve the mystery.

Not herons. In the middle of suburban Cromer, instead it was an OTTER! Where it had come from - and where it went to once it had eaten all the fish of any respectable size in their ponds - remains a mystery. Norfolk wildlife trust investigated to try to trace the otter via its spraint, but they concluded it was probably a lone young male looking to set up a territory who had arrived by chance, picniced for a while then had moved on to more suitable terrain.

Grass snakes will rob fish from ornamental ponds too.

Naughty things

 

[KnittyNorah]

Grass snakes will rob fish from ornamental ponds too.

Naughty things

My pal was about to suggest that her hubby offer a 'good home' in the ornamental ponds to unwanted fish from his fish-keeping friends, when the predation stopped as suddenly as it had started and the otter apparently moved on.

 

[mudsticks]

Dont worry the stinging sensation subsides after a while.

Thing is with diets, and farming systems, different things are appropriate depending on region.

There's no 'one size fits all' approach

'Good' dietary choices will come with a large dollop of "Well it depends"

Tofu eating isn't 'wrong'.

Nor is, eating the products of pasture fed livestock 'wrong' Its a lot more nuanced than that

I've spent a couple of days this week, at a gathering attended by several hundred sorts of farmers, and food system folk.

There are many different approaches to tackling all these issues, on all sorts of scales, and levels.

I think it's generally agreed that industrial scale, oil based approach to food and farming is part of what's fecking up the planet.

More holistic, soil building, whole system, and more nature friendly approach is beneficial.

Getting politicians, and the general consumer to comprehend all this complexity, can be tricky, though.

People want simple answers..

There are none.


But I think we're getting somewhere..

Too sloooowly, of course for many of our likings , but progress is happening, on , and even in the ground .

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There were a couple of robots there, as well for those keen on that sort of tech 🌾

More positive progress on this front .

At above event I met quite a few larger landholders who were keen to have smaller, productive, organic fresh food enterprises integrated into their larger holdings, holdings which often produce grain, and other commodity crops at scale, but don't produce 'local food for local people' .

Even to the point that one of them came all the way down from Hertfordshire a couple of weeks ago for a days (paid ☺) consultancy here.

In addition to wanting to promote biodiversity on his farm, he also wants to provide an diversifying opportunity for a new start up business on his farm

Its quite a turn around from back in the day when all the farmers sons at college used to take the p** out of me for "Going on about organics"

Now they're turning up, and wanting my nollige, what's more, they're prepared to pay for it..

I know we've still got a loooong way to go, and many barriers yet to overcome.

And the UK is a small island on a biggish planet.

But there still remains, a small, yet stubborn part of me that retains some hope for the future .

 

[Chief Broom]

I loathe jet ski's...


JETSKI
“I must go down to the sea again
To the lonely sea and sky……
Sound of curlew
Sound of gulls
A gentle surf
A lonely beach
Sounds of landscape
Flood the mind
Sounds of seascape
Sounds of peace
I dream along
Ebb-tide running
Sounds of peace
The joy of life
No monitor screen
Or ringing phone
An anti-office
Then they arrive…
Big and shiny
4-wheel drive
From some distant
Tarmac place
Reversing seaward
With its payload
End of silence
End of peace
Hey Man Hey Man
Where you going?
Where you going
With that thing?
Across to Arklow?
Or wildlife-spotting?
Or maybe even
Lobster-potting?
No - not exactly:
Round and round
Is where you’re going
Round and round
And round and round
No great voyage
Destination: nil
Your Mission is:
Go round and round
Round and round
Round and round
Round and round
And round and round
Hassling surfers
Hassling swimmers
Hassling wildlife
Round and round
Round and round
Noisy noisy
Round and round
Pointless pointless
Killing silence
Burning petrol
Spraying water
Round and round
Jetski jetski
Pointless pointless
Well look at you
James bloody Bond
Jetski jetski
Pointless pointless
Misdirected
Round and round
Jetski jetski
Pointless pointless
Noisy noisy
Macho wetsuit
Jetski jetski
Pointless pointless
Mindless mindless
Polluting polluting
Jetski jetski
Jetski jetski
Jetski jetski
Round and round….
I must go down to the sea again
To the lonely sea and the sky
And all I ask is a guided missile
And some fuel to make it fly
And the launcher’s kick
And the rocket's scream
And the vapour-trail a-snaking
And the wonderful sound
From over the waves
Of a jetski disintegrating.

Author unknown

 

[mudsticks]

I loathe jet ski's...


JETSKI
“I must go down to the sea again
To the lonely sea and sky……
Sound of curlew
Sound of gulls
A gentle surf
A lonely beach
Sounds of landscape
Flood the mind
Sounds of seascape
Sounds of peace
I dream along
Ebb-tide running
Sounds of peace
The joy of life
No monitor screen
Or ringing phone
An anti-office
Then they arrive…
Big and shiny
4-wheel drive
From some distant
Tarmac place
Reversing seaward
With its payload
End of silence
End of peace
Hey Man Hey Man
Where you going?
Where you going
With that thing?
Across to Arklow?
Or wildlife-spotting?
Or maybe even
Lobster-potting?
No - not exactly:
Round and round
Is where you’re going
Round and round
And round and round
No great voyage
Destination: nil
Your Mission is:
Go round and round
Round and round
Round and round
Round and round
And round and round
Hassling surfers
Hassling swimmers
Hassling wildlife
Round and round
Round and round
Noisy noisy
Round and round
Pointless pointless
Killing silence
Burning petrol
Spraying water
Round and round
Jetski jetski
Pointless pointless
Well look at you
James bloody Bond
Jetski jetski
Pointless pointless
Misdirected
Round and round
Jetski jetski
Pointless pointless
Noisy noisy
Macho wetsuit
Jetski jetski
Pointless pointless
Mindless mindless
Polluting polluting
Jetski jetski
Jetski jetski
Jetski jetski
Round and round….
I must go down to the sea again
To the lonely sea and the sky
And all I ask is a guided missile
And some fuel to make it fly
And the launcher’s kick
And the rocket's scream
And the vapour-trail a-snaking
And the wonderful sound
From over the waves
Of a jetski disintegrating.

Author unknown

There's a lovely beach near here, no facilities, just cliffs, pebbles, and sea.

You have to walk a mile or so down through NT land to get there.

Just occasionally, you'll get someone on a jet ski venturing round from one of the towns along the coast.

To shatter the peace.

You can feel the other beach-goers taking out their imaginary sniper rifles to pick him off