Get off my Land!

A walk around Frodsham No.6 tank this morning en route from Liverpool produced pretty much the same selection of birds as just over a week ago: Avocet, plenty of Common Whitethroats, a Cuckoo – whom in the intervening period had had a sex change, and a flyover Yellow Wagtail.

A scan over the drier areas revealed a hatched Plover (sp), with at least two others on nests and a breeding pair of Oysties too. After last year’s ill timed excavations by Peel Holdings, it looks as if anything nesting on the ground is in for a tough time again, but trying to dodge quad bikes this time as oppose to diggers.

Thanks to Anon for posting the links to the RSPB website detailing the various projects aimed at tackling the decline in many of our unsung and diminutive passerines. Whilst I am no fan of machinations of the local RSPB, I am guilty of forgetting about much of the unheralded good work the organisation is involved in at a regional and national level.

I suppose the key to restoring agrarian bird diversity lies firmly at the feet of our farming community. Whilst there are many notable exceptions, the majority of farmers seem intent on irradiating every living organism on their land with the exception of their crop or livestock.

Of course many are under huge pressure to drive down costs and in order to produce cheaper and cheaper food, but still I feel that as custodians of much of our countryside they hold an equally important duty to the preservation of our natural heritage.

A couple of examples: only this morning on Radio 4, there was a piece on the fact that many upland farms are now financially unviable. The downside to this apparently was that the countryside would become ‘overgrown’ - what a ridiculous bit of spin. How about natural?

Moreover, last week the BBC interviewed a pig farmer in Suffolk on the prospect of White-tailed Sea Eagles being re-introduced nearby. His argument against the project was that ‘a bird flying over might disturb my pigs.’

Personally I would be quite happy to pay a little more for my food if the result was less intensive farming and a few worried porkers, but I know that many people don’t have that luxury…

Until later.