I have updated the most recent of my posts complaining about how some people allow their dogs to behave in pubs to include a list of some of the pathogens which can easily be transferred to humans. It is pretty shocking – there are far more than I realised and the effects can be very serious indeed.
Why am I bothering? Why do I bother with any of it? I almost hate to think how many words I have produced about the big lie of the badger cull.
Some of it in all honesty is therapeutic venting, catharsis. But I am reminded of the story about the small boy and the starfish, apparently based on an essay by Loren Eiseley, which a friend was good enough to mention in a very kind review of my first book, Animal Trust.
Thousands of starfish are stranded on a beach after a storm. A man spots a boy carefully throwing them back into the sea, one by one. He asks what possible difference the boy thinks he is making – he can hardly save them all. The boy picks up another starfish and returns it to the sea. “It made a difference to that one”.
So if I have got just one person to understand that bovine tuberculosis is almost nothing to do with badgers (I know people even now who are not persuaded) then that makes it worthwhile. If just one person thinks twice before allowing their dog onto pub furniture and because of that just one person does not become seriously ill, then that makes it worthwhile. I very much doubt that will apply to the people in question but it just might to someone else.
I have noticed increasingly recently that even more than ever no one actually apologises for anything. And “sorry” is not a long or complicated word. But it does I suppose imply an admission of liability (which is why you never hear it in business) and no one wants to be held accountable for anything it seems. Instead people are “upset that you are upset”, or they shift the blame: “I am sorry it made you feel that way.” “I have my reasons for my behaviour but it should not have impacted on others” is another example which I found especially galling. That fear of accountability is why it is so very difficult to sell, in my business, anything to institutions these days.
How can it be that absolutely no one is being held accountable for the badger cull? Surely there must be criminal charges which could be brought against its architects. It cannot all be blamed on sheer incompetence.
It also applies to the situation here with the mutilated tree in my garden, attributed to misunderstandings or a communication breakdown but actually more to do with people not listening. It continues to trouble me. It is not just the loss of a friend (the Lime Tree), I have realised there is also a sense of violation, an invasion of my space. It suddenly came to me that the last time I felt this way was when I was burgled, something which has happened several times in my life. I have, mentally at least, apologised to the tree. The timing is terrible too – trees are already really struggling in the drought.
As is to be expected at this time of year the garden birds have mostly gone elsewhere although the Great and Blue Tits still keep me busy refilling the feeders and the Wrens are still around. I was delighted to see one just a couple of feet away the other day. The Jackdaws have disappeared completely. Their presence in large numbers has been impossible to ignore (not everyone is keen of course – it is certainly a lot quieter without them). What I have now noticed is the sound of Carrion Crows (and Magpies who are still about). I find that fascinating. Are they here because they can be now that the Jackdaws have gone? Crows are larger birds so I guess it must be about numbers in terms of establishing and defending territory, not that the Magpies care. I’ve mentioned before that the corvids on a nearby common are all Rooks. How are these things decided? Maybe there’s a thesis waiting to be written.
Morndyke Parrot Sanctuary, in Thirsk, sounds like my kind of rescue and founder Tricia Phillips my kind of person. She is campaigning for an end to the trade in parrots and end to keeping parrots in cages. They really shouldn’t be here in the UK at all. Incredibly, “There are 1.5 million parrots in cages in people’s homes in the UK … So until those 1.5 million parrots are out of cages I won’t stop.”
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust’s magazine for summer is here. It’s aimed at children which is why I originally subscribed to it although mine have never taken an interest. I usually learn something new from it all the same. In this instance that some animals pretend to be dead not to just to deter predators but sometimes females do it to stop males from pestering them and some fish even use it as a hunting strategy – they lie on their side and then pounce on the smaller fish who have come to feed on them.
The RSPB’s spring/summer issue is here too, with a Corncrake on the cover. CEO Beccy Speight makes an impassioned case for doing more for our sites protected for nature. “Only 38% of our SSSIs are currently in good condition” and government cuts “have weakened monitoring and enforcement, leaving fragile habitats vulnerable.” This is not news, but it beggars belief that more is not being done, as does Andy Burnham’s rolling back of net-zero targets. We cannot afford to keep doing that or there will be nothing left to protect. Are we really learning nothing from the climate change which surely no one can any longer ignore or deny?
George Monbiot in The Guardian urges us not to despair: “despair is what the bastards want you to feel.” That’s pretty much how I concluded Animal Trust. He draws a comparison with the end of the Catholic church’s grip on Ireland following the revelation of so many appalling scandals. The phrase ‘tipping point’ often refers to the point at which climate change becomes catastrophic but he suggests that we may be at a tipping point where fossils fuels are more expensive than renewables, awareness is growing “as heat shocks hammer the message home”, green technologies are growing and “fossil-funded politicians look outmoded, ridiculous, corrupt”.
The RSPB is keeping a close on red-listed Leach’s Petrels, one of our smallest breeding seabirds.
Actor Samuel West suggests ways to encourage others to enjoy nature – for him birdsong was the “gateway drug”. Simon Barnes also writes about his epiphany and his gratitude to his teacher. He has done so much to share his enthusiasm with others.
Caddisfly larvae are architects who build protective cases from a whole range of materials and some species even construct fishing nets from secreted silk. I also learn that spider silk, only about a thousandth of a millimetre in diameter has the tensile strength of steel or fibreglass and its elasticity is better than nylon and when wet almost approaches that of rubber. Different glands produce different silks for a variety of purposes.
Corncrakes are particularly in need of protection and intervention – modern farming practices barely give them a chance. David Dinsley, warden at RSPB the Oa, is an expert. Even something as simple as cutting a field late, slowly and from the centre would give them a chance at least of getting away from the machines. Thank heavens for people like Dinsley, his staff and the team of volunteers who help him in his conservation efforts. And thank heavens for the RSPB and their colossal efforts, explained by Gillian Burke of Springwatch fame. We need as she says to get ahead of the curve now. We are setting fire to the house.
I do still think the RSPB’s campaign for more robust licensing for bird shooting is misguided albeit well-intentioned. Protect the Wild’s campaign to end it altogether is more up my street.
A round-up of some of the RSPB’s work includes action for Swifts, Dunlin, Grey Plovers, Curlew Sandpipers, Capercaillies, Black Grouse, Curlews, Yellowhammers, Turtle Doves, Bitterns, birdlife on farms, a fen reserve in Norfolk, rainforests in Scotland and Wales, seabird bycatch (up to 3,300 Guillemots each year for example), and Marine Protected Areas.
RSPB Abernethy, a huge reserve in Scotland, writes Susanna Fraser, supports over 5,000 species and is particularly noted for Ospreys. Such successes do not of course happen by chance.
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