Relocating Mammals

For the past several weeks I have been watching for the Dragonfly Nymphs that have been living in one of the many ponds and pools locally. My wish was that when they emerge I would be able to film them as they emerge from the chrysalis stage as adult dragonflies. All was set for this to happen, the emerged as nymphs an while I missed that stage I have visited everyday so that when it happened I could film them. However on Wednesday I had to go with some other people to visit another rich wildlife site to offer some aid and advice. So I was not able to go to the pool on Wednesday or on Thursday as I was away. On Friday, my investigations just showed the empty chrysalis case, the ghost skin of the dragonflies. They had emerged while I was away. So unless I can find more this year it will be next year before I can get that film.

However the trip away was more than worthwhile. The Ministry of Defence here in Britain has several sites where for safety reasons the public are not normally allowed. This means that the natural history on these sites flourishes free from disturbance by most human activity. Further, the military people who manage this land are very sensitive to the needs of the wildlife most of the time too.

Therefore, being allowed to carry out a limited survey in one of these areas is a privilege.

However, the main work that needed to be done was catching rabbits. For reasons that will become obvious, the army, following advice, had built what was effectively an artificial burrow sites for the rabbits and our job was to live catch the rabbits so they could be moved to this site. It was all done by a very traditional method of using purse nets and feeding a ferret down the burrow system, the rabbits exit the burrow and into the purse nets. Our role was much more that of wildlife specialists with the job of finding all the entrances. Or exits as they become, as if you fail to net even one hole that's where the rabbits will emerge.

It took the two days, but we must have caught ninety percent of the rabbits and moved them to their new home. They now have three acres of fenced in land to happily live and breed on. Now the reason for this is simply that there is a bird of prey that has been nesting near the site. The problem was that during exercise it was flying in to take the rabbits and endangering its life. So a novel solution was devised to create an alternative nest site, this it used this year and the pair raised two chicks. But they persisted in hunting within this danger zone. So to protect this rare bird decision was taken to move the food to a safer place. This had worked reasonably well with work done in the past and this work I was involved in was the finish of that.

The work was one of the most unusual things I have done, but it gave me a chance to see a bird I have never seen before, a Golden Eagle.

Had I been allowed to take or use a camera on the site, I could have had some wonderful film, but while that was not possible, I at least will have the memory of seeing this magnificent bird.

Chickens and the power of Big Business

This week saw the AGM of Tesco's the largest retailer in the UK. What is worth remarking on is that they receive eight out of every ten pounds of the retail spend in Britain. That is not just of the food spend, but of all of the retail spend.

Therefore it was not that surprising that the TV chef, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall attempt to get Tesco to raise the welfare standards for the chickens they sell, failed.

By becoming a shareholder in Tesco, he was able to get a motion tabled that called upon Tesco to raise the welfare standards for the chickens sold as food. Tesco made this as difficult for him as possible, forcing him to pay eighty thousand pounds on the literature to contact all the shareholders regarding the motion. As anyone who has heard the news he got support from ten percent of the shareholders, but the motion was ultimately defeated.

While other supermarkets need to shoulder their share of responsibility in the way that animal welfare is abused to bring cheap food to the supermarket shelf, as the largest retail in the UK, Tesco should have provided a moral lead here. But they have shown it is profits at any costs that is their motivation not quality or welfare.

In tests in a food laboratories it has been shown that the so called Standard Chicken has more than one hundred grams of fat per kilo than does a free range bird. Further, free range birds have a higher proportion of Omega 3 fatty acids, the good fats that we need, than do barn reared birds.

With a epidemic of health problems related to obesity, the standard chickens that the supermarkets are offering are far from the healthy food that we are being deliberately misled, to believe them to be.

Tesco make as profit about seventy pence ($1.30) per standard chicken sold, the farmer makes only three pence (5c), from a retail price of £2.50 ($4.75). The difficulty that most people overlook at the checkout is that for anything to be so cheap someone must be loosing out somewhere. Here it is the farmer, and ultimately the chicken. This callous disregard for the welfare of the animals we choose to eat, lessens us as people.

Additionally the intensive keeping of animals for food has a serious environmental impact, as the volume of manure produced becomes a problem. In the past with the less intensive production of meat animals, the manure was a benefit that fed the land. Now it harms it.

However, the real threat from intensive animal production is that any disease problems quickly become an epidemic. In history it was only when there was a realisation that overcrowding, sewage, clean water and hygiene that were key to solving the problems of public health, that many of the diseases of the past were finally overcome. Yet we seem to have forgotten that lesson when it comes to animal health and welfare.

With an increase in the prevalence of campylobacter in chickens, we could be paying for our cheap food with the costs of treating food poisoning. Just as we made some dumb decisions that lead to BSE, who knows what problems will emerge from this.

While I do appreciate that food prices are increasing and that this effects poor people much more than it does the more affluent, but there is a hidden cost to cheap food and with Tesco's posting record profits, it clear that they are profiting from the backs of the poor.

Florida Buys back the Everglades

While I am never short of information to post here, as there is so much going on in the world of conservation, environmental concerns, and my own wildlife watching, occasionally I pick up on a story that I have to refrain from talking about. This often is more to do with protecting the area or ecosystem, but on occasion it is just that the facts are not clear. It was such a story that I first got sketchy information on about six months ago. An American agricultural company were selling off all its land because with Climate Change brining higher sea levels the company would lose all its assets.

While I dug as far as I could, I kept on coming up against barriers. While I could not confirm the story, I also could not dismiss it either. Especially as the commodity that was being grown was sugar. With the drive in the US for producing Ethanol, essentially alcohol from sugars, everyone I spoke to could not understand any part of US Agri-Business leaving the sector at this time, unless they knew something we didn't. When I suggested to my contacts that it could be because of impending Sea level rise, while they accepted that something of that sort could be the only justification for this happening, I also faced the same sceptical attitude about how real Climate Change is.

Now, today on the NPR Environment Podcast, there was a story that The United States Sugar Corporation has sold the State of Florida one hundred eighty seven thousand acres of land, thats over three hundred square miles, in the Everglades for $1.7 billion

While the slant given to the story was that this was a great boost to the restoration programme that has been going on for the last nine years, no one could understand why this had happened.

While I personally am more than happy to see this land brought back into the unique ecology of the Everglades, the state has been misled into paying a premium for the land. However, what the state of Florida has done via this land purchase is provide land that will be needed to mitigate the effect of a rising sea level. Therefore, while they may have paid top dollar now, the people in that region will come to see this as money well spent, as restoring the Everglades will help prevent the loss of homes and lives when the sea does rise.

You Meet Some Great People Watching Wildlife

Firstly, I have just been asked the question most often asked of me, that of how do I get around without a car? Part of today's events illustrate just how easy it can be. While yesterday I had some shopping to do, I had a further trip to make today to the supermarket. I acknowledge that for many people doing a weekly shop at the local supermarket is most convenient, in spite of the advertising claims, it will not be the cheapest. Thus, I shop carefully, buying on quality. Therefore, I buy my Fruit and Veg from Green grocers and Meat and Poultry from the Butchers. I have made comparisons and I frequently find that by going to good small local shops I save around twenty five to forty percent off the price of Meat and Vegetables. To give one example I can buy stewing steak at half the price in the butchers compared to the supermarkets.

However, one of the main effects that doing the shopping without a car, is you are more conscious of the weight you will have to carry. Therefore, you stop buying much of the food that gets wasted. In the UK that's ten billion pounds worth every year. I contribute about ten pounds per year to that, well even the most frugal shopper makes mistakes.

From my village there are two bus routes, one that goes to Consett, the other that goes to Newcastle. But that one goes via one of the many hubs in the region, so I can get to most places, it just take a bit of planning and forethought. Just as with the shopping, it comes down to thinking about what's needed rather than buying on impulse. That said, I always keep options open so that if I see something on a special offer, I can adjust a planned menu to include what's cheap that day.

However going back to the main point, using public transport is not that difficult. If I go into Newcastle for an evening, I just need to ensure that I allow myself enough time to get the last bus. I can use taxis too, but as its over twenty pounds for that fare, why waste the money?
Anyway, I had a trip to the supermarket today. The supermarket provides a free bus twice a day five days a week, so that adds to the ease of shopping. Had my cat been prepared to do her own shopping then I could have left it until latter in the week.

I didn't know what it was, but at the moment I seem to be a child magnet and I found another child that wanted to talk to this strange hippy that is this “Wood Mouse”. I kept her entertained by pointing out the Horses and the sheep, or clouds with legs as I was calling them.

Then on the way back, I had this same chatter box telling me all about some children's television programme that I had never heard of. And she wanted to move in to my house, I told her that she could not as I had only just trained the birds to feed at my feeders.

What's been happening is, because from the first time I used the supermarket bus, I helped the many senior users of this service with their bags, I now have a couple of the old ladies that are trying to play matchmaker and any and every single woman are being steered in my direction. That's why I seem to be attracting all this attention. Fortunately it is a village and sooner or latter they will run out of women to try and pair me with, and using the kids is not fair. I was finally told that this is what's happening. Well I will chose my own partner.

Anyway, the other thing I needed to do was send off a cheque, as I have just bought, second hand, an Infra Red video lighting system. I got it at a price I could just afford, but it will open up possibilities that at the moment I can only dream about. Will I be able to film the badgers? Watch this space.

As the weather forecast had been for rain by lunch time, I wasn't sure about going out. But as it had not yet arrived, I decided I would risk it. So with no real purpose or destination, I decided I would just see what was in my local woods.

There is a delight in just wandering around with no reason, just there to experience the delights of the natural world. While there was nothing exceptional that I saw but I delighted in taking pictures of the wild flowers that proliferate along the tracks. While I had not planned it that way, I went looking at the effects of the thinning that has been occurring. While I am pleased with the effect, I was annoyed to see that it has been happening throughout the nesting season. This will have effected the birds in general but its the impact upon the rarities that we do have here that makes this criminal.

Well I can see that I may need to speak to someone over this.

However, during my walk, I put that at the back of my mind, and just enjoyed being at one with the forest. One thing that was a delight to find though was where the deer are hanging out with the disruption of the current work in the wood. This could be the first job that I use the Infra Red light for.

I had expected to only be out for a few hours, it was nearly eight before I got home. Even that was delayed when I stopped to talk to a chap who told me of a couple of other good wildlife watching locations near by. Its one of the great things about any form of wildlife watching you just meet some great people.

No Luck and Good Luck

It has been hard to believe that we have just had the Summer solstice. Not just from the weather, but as hard as I look, I cant find where the year has gone. There was so much that I wanted to do, related to the seasons, but I have not had the time. I always knew that I would not be able to do all on my wish list, therefore I have been concentrating upon what I can do. That includes my observations of the Badgers.

As it was the solstice I thought I would have the best chance of filming the badgers. So I went out on Saturday night Sunday morning to watch them. While I still don't have access to the main sett I have been watching, there are others I can observe. While the wet weather does make it uncomfortable, the rain can help deaden noise and can make it easier to remain undetected. However, this night I saw absolutely nothing. Normally, I would see something, be it a mouse or vole, the odd rabbit but not a creature stirred. It is probably just that they had better sense than to venture out.

Not deterred, most would say foolishly, I did the same last night. This time I did at least get to see, very briefly, six of the Badgers as they moved towards a known feeding ground. While I did think of moving to that area, I decided to stay as it was likely that they would return that way. But they did not.

So I returned home feeling tired but philosophical. I had to go in to Consett for some shopping and to the bank so I could not retire to bed. Therefore, I was able to snatch some film of one of the Red kites as it glided over my home as I went to bring in the milk. I kept the camera with me when I went to catch the bus. So often when I have been at the stop, I have seen the kites from there. So I thought I would take it more in hope than expectation.

There was no sign of the kite but there was a female blackbird, busy pulling worms from the ground. While a little shaky I filmed her. Then while standing there I was busy watching a small white butterfly that came to rest on the grass. I was just powering up the camera when a swift came down and snatched it from the air. So quick was it that I was not sure what I had seen, but as I could see the swift departing with the white wings visible in the beak, I was left in awe of the swifts agility.

While I tried to get round my chores efficiently, I was confronted by a queue in the butchers. That meant that I would have to wait an hour for the next bus. As I came out of the shop, I bumped into a couple from the village who I had not seen for a while. So we had a little chin wag. Then I decided that as I had to wait I would go for a cup of tea.

One of the things that is rather surprising is that in Consett there are some quite good Cafés. Not sophisticated dining, but much better than the greasy spoon one could expect. I have been slowly discovering these, and went to one that I have not been to before. As my accent is not a north east one, frequently this will cause me to stand out. Therefore, sitting at my table I heard one of the two children, in a stage whisper, make a comment. The mother apologised and we fell into conversation. It was just general chit chat, then the youngest child spotted my red kite badge. I have an enamelled badge that the RSPB issues to help raise money, and the mother said that her daughter was nuts about the red kites. So getting out my camera I showed them the film I had just shot of the Kite. It also ran onto the film of the Blackbird.

Well, without relating the whole of the conversation, it turns out that she works for the local education authority and asked if I would be willing to give some talks to schools about wildlife and natural history. Well I could have been knocked over with a feather. I cautiously said I would, but I would need to know how doing something like this could be educationally significant and add to help the children learn. It was her turn to be ready to be knocked over with a feather, as she realised I was on the same wave length as her and I could be what she has been looking for for ages.

It was left with us exchanging phone numbers and email addresses, and that we needed to arrange a meeting to discuss what is needed. Anyway I get home to a ringing telephone, its the husband of my driver from a previous posting. (its not my fault if your not keeping up) She had just delivered a baby girl. They had thought from the scan that it was a boy, so they now have to start thinking of a girls name. They had been thinking of giving this child the same name as I have, but as I told them calling any child “Mouse” was not fair.

However, the main reason for the phone call was that they wanted further help with some small mammal trapping. But this will not be locally but two hundred miles away. While I am interested I cant do everything and I have left it open.

I just wonder if in six months time I will still be wondering where all the time fled?

Beavers in England

Recently I posted an essay on the reintroduction of Beavers into Scotland. While trying to access the data learnt about the impacts upon the environment of this, I learnt that in England for the last two and half years there have been Beavers living here. While they have been fenced in, the sixteen European Beavers from Bavaria, so like our Royal family they are German, have been living happily and without damaging the environment. In fact the improvements the Beavers made to the habitat has provided homes and habitat for thirty other endangered species. This was all unexpected.

Any reintroduction programme always faces opposition from some groups, therefore this test site was used so that we could learn what the impact would be upon the environment and more importantly the biodiversity. Thus on a five hundred and fifty acre fenced in site, the beavers were released.

As beavers will do they adjusted the landscape to provide themselves with the pools and lodges they need to live. The first aspect of their natural behaviour that was noted was by cutting down the trees around the pools on the site, it regenerated the vegetation. Wild flower seeds in the seed bank spontaneously germinated. Some were plants that were thought lost to the site, and this had the additional effect of enabling invertebrates to come in and the population of water voles, a species in serious decline in the UK, started to increase. There were also unexpected benefits for fish as the Beaver lagoons created habitat that allowed fish to breed.

The aspect that really surprised everyone involved was that during flood events, the way that these mammals had managed the watercourse greatly slowed the flow of water helping to lessen the effects of the flooding.

While I dare say there will be people that are still not convinced by the wisdom of reintroducing these animals, all I have seen thus far is a genuine win win situation. I am hoping that I will be able to take up the invitation to go and visit the site myself and get my own view of an English Beaver.

Beauty in the Commonplace

Tonight saw the last of four Springwatch themed specials, as my fellow wildlife nuts in the UK will know. I am sorry for my overseas reader, that you cant or did not see them. However, the key message in all of them was simply that wildlife is brilliant and its all around us.

While I recognise that I am lucky living where I do. I get to see all sorts of wildlife in my local environment. But, the thing is there will be people in other parts of Britain that will get to see other natural history in there locations. This applies equally to my overseas readers. In a recent comment by a human Ent that reads my web log, she offered, amongst other things A raccoon, a skunk a couple of foxes and a half eaten chipmunk (I can see my postwomans face at trying to deliver that), and while I would love to see all (except the chipmunk), I realise that I can not. Not in my local area anyway.

However, I would encourage everyone to enjoy and appreciate the wildlife you have. Be it the trees that are in your town, or those wild flowers in the garden, or even the sparrows that cant sing, there is beauty in all around us.

To illustrate this here is a link to two little films that I shot just in my back yard. One is of Sparrows on and flying around the seed feeder. The other is of Jackdaws feeding from the same feeder and showing how acrobatic they can be. Both I have used slow motion to show the beauty and grace of the birds.

While on the subject of filming, I had hoped that from filming the Red Kites yesterday, I would have some great footage, but as I have discovered cheap tapes don't last. The quality is so poor that I can not transfer it to the computer. With some of the previous footage that I have been shooting I was having difficulties and it looks as though I have lost some of that. While disappointing, it has taught me how I need to work so that I don't loose anything in the future.

Well there is no point crying over spilt milk, it just means that I will have to go out and do better.

First Cuckoo of the year

As the forecast had been for heavy rain, my plan was for going and getting some food shopping. But I had also promised that I would take two of the people I have been aiding recently to a place where we could all get a good look at the Red Kites. The difficulty is that it wouldn't work if the weather was very wet, but equally getting everyone together at the same time was nigh on impossible.

So yesterday it was all left open and dependent upon the weather. Therefore, when I saw that the rain had not yet arrived I called my fellow watchers and said I was willing to give it a try. So we all headed off to a place that I knew there was a good chance of seeing them, but as there are no guarantees I wanted to increase the odds and took some pieces of cooked chicken. Just as putting out seeds and nuts for birds in the garden attracts visitors then I knew there was more opportunity by doing this.

We settled down and waited, while nothing happened with the Red Kites for a time, while we waited we saw other birds. Two exceptional ones was a Kestrel and a green woodpecker. It was nearing the time that I would have to head home, as would one of my fellow watchers. It really did seem as though we had lucked out, but just as we were saying we would give it another half hour, we had been there for over six hours, we spotted one in the distance. After about fifteen minutes it was joined by two more and they came to the field were we were. From the hedge we watch as they flew fifteen or twenty feet overhead. It did not take them long to find the chicken, they did not ever land to take it but plucked the chicken pieces from the ground in swift passes.
We were all more than thrilled by this and while we were all now running late it was worth it.

Anyway, with my fix of Red Kite, I headed off to get some shopping. I got that done s quickly that I had time to treat myself to a carrot cake and a coffee. The bus home goes through a rather run down council estate (Housing Project) that is set in a rather nice landscape. If it were not for the crime problems I would love to live there myself as the views are heart warming. While on the bus just by a large green on the edge of the estate and on a steep hill, I spotted what I at first thought was a thrush. It was newly fledged as its feathers were still fluffy. But it didn't look right for a thrush, I thought it looked like a cuckoo and this was confirmed when this warbler, probably a willow warbler, provided the comical vision as it fed this over grown fledgling. The bus was passed before I could see more, but having not herd a cuckoo this year at all, it was great to see that.

Behaving like a Child acting as Adult

Now I know that I sometimes, for the sake of the wildlife, get myself into some silly situations. Just such an incident occurred a few weeks ago when I climbed into a tree to ensure that my sent was above the wildlife I was trying to see. When I got up there was enough light to see what I was doing. I stayed there until well after dark, and while I did get to see the Deer, they were to far away to film. Trees in the way, to much vegetation, but my field craft had been accurate in predicting the general location. So once I knew the deer were clear of the area, I decided to climb down.

This was not as easy as it sounds. I lowered my camera, and as I tried to get down myself, my gaiters (used to stop the midges feeding on me) got caught up. So I tried to get back up, not so easy in the dark, and I ended up with my left foot on the ground but my right foot rather elevated. Well lets put it this way I suffered a groin injury.

In the past I had to have a hernia operation, and while at times is has caused some discomfort all had been fine. However, I though I may have undone that by my antics. Therefore yesterday I went to see my GP. I explained what I had done, and his first question was and how old are you?
Well I do childish things, but its my excitement at seeing wildlife that brings out the juvenile in me. At least I don't need to have another operation but isn't it always the way as soon as the warranty runs out that's when things go wrong, and mine expired when I reached middle age.
So today I went to see someone who I had met in one of the local pubs some time ago. One of the aspects of anything to do with wildlife is just how enthused people get regarding natural history. It my just be the Red Kites, or that people love seeing the birds in their gardens but the British love their wildlife.

Anyway, this couple that I fell into conversation with told me that just as the pub we were in, they to ran a community library. And that most of the books had been donated. However, they had a significant number that were natural history titles that no one seemed to want to borrow, so did I want them. Now while books on natural history interest me, there are some that are not really that good. But I did agree that I would take a look at them. That's what I did today.
Well I was expecting there to be a few but there were nearly a thousand books there. By no means were they all Natural History books, but every topic under the sun. They were thinking of selling off these books at fifty pence each. So I suggested that they check what they were actually worth first. So using the internet we went through them, and many were worth far more than fifty pence.

Therefore I hoping I offered the suggestion that they sold them on line. This would provide greater income and enable them to buy more of the books they knew people wanted to read and borrow. I was enlisted to take pictures of them and together we worked out a fair price for them. It was clear that they had been good well looked after books.

Then came the box of the Natural History titles. These had not come from some mere dabbler, many of these books were incredible reference works. What shocked me was they were saying I could have them. I refused pointing out how valuable they were. This caused them some confusion as they had already had a book dealer look at them and he had offered twenty five pounds ($40) to take them off their hands. I picked out three and showed that they were mint first editions and was able to show that these three alone were selling on the internet for just under one thousand pounds.

Going through the rest there was a combined value of well over a thousand pounds. All in all they could raise about Four thousand pounds for their community library. While they had realised that some of the books could have been worth something, no one had been able to help them. In fact it seemed that all the help they had had previously was from people trying to help themselves.

I did not come away empty handed though, as one of the books was a mimeograph (a shorter cheaper students edition) of the New Naturalist Badger a book that I have long looked for but, out of range of my pocket. And I paid twenty pounds for it.

I also have my eye on another book but I will have to save up my pennies for that one.
Now I can see how I am doing it all wrong and misunderstanding what I am seeing. Anyway to celebrate getting this book, here's a picture of one of my sows taken six weeks ago.

Cornish Dolphin Stranding The Navy Was to Blame

At the start of last week there was the heartbreaking incident of twenty six dolphins that had retreated into the Perculi river were they were stranded and died. While I was tempted to make a posting at the time, I really saw no point as all I could do then was repeat what was already appearing in the main stream media.

But as the husband of one of my teachers had been a collector for London Zoo, and while those people have moved on, I made a couple of phone calls and sent off a couple of emails.

Interestingly, I discovered that there had been some live firing just prior to the stranding. This was later confirmed via reputable news sources. The key though was the results of post mortems and laboratory examination of tissue samples.

I can now reveal that the results do show that the dolphins did have percussive injuries and this is why they fled up the river.

The MoD of course said it was “Highly Unlikely” that their exercise in Falmouth Bay had caused this tragedy, but they would say that wouldn't they.

What annoys me about incidents like this, is the evidence is overwhelming that Dolphins and Whales are seriously impacted by the noises crated by humans. The use of Sonar and underwater explosions have been proven to cause serious harm to these animals, but the moment that animals are killed or injured the barriers come up, and everyone says its not us governor.

It seems that out of sight is out of mind, particularly when it comes to the sea. Already a staggering ninety-five percent of all sea life is endangered. That means in threat of extinction. Scientists are warning of the total collapse of all fisheries by 2048, that's globally. Yet while we have governments, like ours that just pay lip service to the environment we risk loosing valuable life sustaining resources. Not just as the source of food, but the marine environment forms a vital link in the carbon cycle chain.

When will we learn respect for our fellow creatures, our planet and ourselves?

My thanks to the Press Association for the Image

Beauty and the Beak

I was alerted to this story by one of my readers, you know who you are, and I tried to think haw I could tell this story. Well the video via You Tube tells it much better than I could.

Backyard and Book Birding

Yesterday I needed to go to the library as I wanted to look back at the back issues of some of the trashy newspapers. While I wish I had not bothered as in most there was no news unless you class stories about television personalities (most of whom I have never heard of) and the people in reality TV shows, as news. However, I only tell you this to put into context what happened next.

When I got back home I was planing on going out for a walk. I checked the phone no messages, so I thought, great I can get out without delay. But when I switched on my mobile, I use it as a watch, there were fourteen missed calls. Realising who had called I called the number. It was the folks I had been helping with the species survey.

While the details will remain confidential, what made me laugh was that I was asked if I ever in? I was able to retort that if he had left a message I would have known they were trying to contact me. Anyway, they wanted help and access to some of my books to identify some of the plants and moths. Not only that they wanted to complete it this weekend. So could they come round? That's my walk out the window.

When they got here, the first thing I was asked was could I make some Coffee. My driver from the other day was impressed by it. She could not believe that it was Fair Trade. It used to be that Fair Trade Coffee was not the best quality but now it is as good if not better than most. So I have converted another couple to doing the right thing for the developing world.

As we worked trough my books and their notes and fuzzy photos, I don't remember teaching them to take pictures to match mine, he made a comment about how small my kitchen is. Now their kitchen is larger per square footage than my living room and kitchen combined. They also live in a six bedroom former farm house. All this banter was in good humour.

As we got through the list, there were a few a bakers dozen that it was impossible to name. With that done he said that was brilliant and that left him time to look up on the internet what species were on the current bio-diversity action plan. His jaw hit the floor when I told him that I had a copy.

They said that if there was anything they could do to help me, I only had to ask. There really is nothing I could want or need. All I could think of was to be allowed access to their little project as the conservation work happens. One of the great things about this particular site is that as it is completely private it should thrive as wildlife haven.

Although as we worked today, from my kitchen window and or office window we were greeted to a procession of birds coming into my yard to feed. At one point I had five species there at one time.

So while I missed having my walk I did not miss the wildlife today. Further, my cat “Trouble” thought that it was her birthday as she had three people to fuss her.

Freedoms and the Press

Yesterday I made a posting regarding the actions of David Davies in resigning his seat in parliament to force a debate on the removal of our legal freedoms. I was bracing myself for attack as most people seem to think that the measure is warranted. But as that assumes the police only ever arrest the guilty, something that is blatantly not true.

Anyway, one reader made a comment, that sparked this follow up. First, she said;

“I still think Ray was the better songwriter”

Well as I can not think of Ray Davies when ever I hear the name of DD...

But there serious part of her comment was pertinent that of the speed that this measure has gone through the house of commons without any public debate.

The fact that Rupert Murdock has told Kelvin Mackenzie to stand speaks volumes about how un-free our press is, and why there has not been any real debate on this issue. Yesterday on the Today Programme, the BBC's flagship News programme on radio four, at 7:40 Kelvin Mackenzie was interviewed and he admitted that he was told to stand by Rupert Murdock, and he admitted he always does what RM says.

That means that Rupert Murdock is controlling the public debate on serious issues. Via his newspapers and his television channels he has stirred up hateful attitudes to the European Union and foreign workers. All bad enough but when we are talking about something as vital as our freedoms and liberties, having one powerful man closing down debate is appalling. It is a media dictatorship.

Because of this I have taken some time to go and look at what his (Rupert Murdock's) papers are saying, not just this issue but that of Climate Change. It is clear that RM is a “Climate Denier“ and it is no wonder that most people believe that Climate Change is a myth.

With people like Gordon Brown, George W Bush and Rupert Murdock running things it is no wonder that we are in the upper reaches of a fast flowing highly polluted river with out any means of propulsion.

Bullfinch and Springwatch

I will start with an apology as I realise that my American readers will not have seen the Springwatch programme on the BBC. But while it is quirky and rather British I personally have loved the past three weeks. This year I think that it has been the best so far, and having had my fix of TV wildlife I can now happily ignore all the Football (Soccer) and the Olympics later on in the Year. Although with the Olympics had I been a sports fan I would have not watched it as a protest to the Chinese governments treatment of Tibet. Anyway before I get on that soapbox, back to Springwatch.

One of the things that Simon King had this year was an ultra slow motion video camera and if it were not that it costs a couple of houses to buy, I want one... Seriously, I love to see the details that filming with something like this reveals. It makes me want to buy a better camera myself but high definition suitable for filming wildlife is out of my league at the moment, perhaps I will win the lottery... Don't I have to buy a ticket for that?

Keeping on topic though, on Thursdays show, the last of the series (until Autumnwatch), there was a clip of film that showed a chaffinch dominating at a bird table. Now a couple of months ago I filmed the same behaviour but it was a Bullfinch doing it. However, other birds did come in and snatch a feed so this one was not quite as dominant. But I did it in slow motion and it does make the birds look very graceful.

Also as I do listen to my readers needs, I will just post the link to it at you tube rather than make it difficult for the folks on dial up to access this. Although I do listen for the two cats that are my other readers, I will not be posting the address of the birds as they requested anonymity.

David Davies - A Politician with Principals

When I returned yesterday, from helping to carry out a species survey, I caught the news headlines on the radio. While I wanted to find out the details, I really did not believe what I thought I had heard a politician had resined his seat in the House of Commons over the erosion of our civil liberties following the narrow vote in favour of allowing detention of terrorist suspects for forty two days without charges being laid.

I fully realise that the arguments in favour for this legislation may seem compelling as the purpose is to help protect us from the murderous acts of terrorists. But as has already happened with laws that were intended to be used purely for anti-terrorism, are now being used for all sorts of very minor crimes. By minor I do mean minor, as these laws and powers are being used to convict people guilty of things like allowing their dogs to foul the footpath.

For eight hundred years because of the Magna Charta, in Britain, we have had the right not to be detained without any trial or charges. While the situation has changed and we need protection from people whose twisted logic and sick morals justify (to themselves) the murder of innocent people. By our own government destroying our rights and liberties, the government does the terrorists job for them. If our own government erodes our freedoms and changes our way of life, the government is capitulating to the terrorist.

During the debate in parliament it was notable that people with experience of dealing with terrorism, were against this. In Northern Ireland during the period of nationalist terrorism Britain used internment. That was locking up people for their political beliefs, often with no real evidence that they were terrorists. This acted as a recruiting Sargent for the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and probably prolonged that war. This is not only my opinion but the carefully considered thoughts of minds much better than mine.

This loss of protection of the individual from the state is one of a long line of liberties that we have had taken away. While each individual loss of liberty can be justified as reasonable but only as long as we have a reasonable government. In Germany in the 1930s many of the same loss of freedoms were implemented, and this led to the repressions of the Nazi regime and the murder of six million people.

While we don't yet have an oppressive dictatorship in the UK, yet. We have seen the government assuming more powers to control what is private in peoples lives. While some measures that protect children are welcome, there is an increasingly alarming repression of any ideas, thoughts and behaviour that deviates from the standard. The ban on smoking in public places is just one example of this.

However, it is the loss of liberty that this measure of locking up innocent people for six weeks without charge that is going beyond what should be accepted by a free society. The measure is being sold to us as a way of stopping terrorists outrages, but that would only be true if the police only ever arrested the guilty. Even now there are people that are arrested just because they are Muslim During the war with the IRA there were many people that were wrongfully convicted. While our legal system is not perfect I would rather trust a judge than a politician with my liberty.

As an environmental activist I could see the government using these powers to repress my opinions and activities. Not that I have ever or would ever become involved in anything destructive or violent. But once a government has a power they will use it and use it in ways never originally intended.

The one thing that strikes me as strange is that all of these modern terrorist organisations have grown out of repression. They want to dictate their perspective and impose their way of life upon all of us so why are we removing our freedoms for them?

It was hearing that David Davies the conservative shadow home secretary had taken up the challenge on this issue that has surprised me. The Conservative party (analogous to the Republicans) are not known for their libertarian principals, in fact they are rather better known as being authoritarian. So I needed to watch and listen to the news to find out if what I had heard was correct.

He is resigning his seat in the house of commons to force a serious debate via a “by election”. What is also heartening is that the Liberal Democrat's have already said the will not field a candidate. It looked as though this was going to be a straight race between a conservative libertarian and Labour.

Labour used to be a left of centre socialist (or rather more social democratic) party. But they have been a much more authoritarian and right wing whilst in government. So while I never thought it would happen we have a conservative defending our liberties while Labour are taking them away.

Then last night while watching a politics programme on television the former Editor of the Sun (A right wing Tabloid Trash Newspaper) Kelvin Mackenzie, announced that on the instruction of Rupert Murdock, would stand against David Davies.

Well to say we are living in interesting time is almost an understatement. Traditionally it would have been Labour defending freedoms. To have David Davies forcing a real debate in the country by giving up not just a high profile political position but a guaranteed ministerial post in government when the conservatives win the next General Election, shows that he is a man of principal.

The debate in the media over the issues has been derisory and has left much of the population thinking that apart from the Labour Party, no one wanted to prevent terrorism. Yet only the minority who listen to or read serious journalism will know that even the heads of the intelligence agencies and senior police are opposed to this measure. Well it all becomes clear that serious informed debate has been stifled by Rupert Murdock via his media empire.

So while we do not yet have a political dictatorship, we do have a media dictatorship with Rupert Murdock at the top. It is no wonder the British public are so ill-informed.

Watching wildlife in a straight jacket

There is an aspect of watching wildlife that never gets mentioned on television, in books or magazines. While they will mention the long hours that are sometimes required to catch an all to brief tantalising glimpse of wildlife. There in never any mention of the fact that the wildlife watcher will need to pee at some point.

While I have no problem slipping discreetly behind a holly bush, I also need to ensure that if that occurs it as far away from the the animal being watched as the scent can discourage wildlife especially mammals.

I tell you this as today was a perfect example of this problem. I had been asked to help with some survey work on a site where the people looking after the site are applying for a grant to carry out some much needed conservation and restoration work. While they had been using techniques like live trapping and conventional survey methods, the one creature they wanted to get clear evidence of was lacking. So while I was doing my course I had been talking to one of the other students and suggested other methods like camera traps. They did not have any nor the money so I was asked if I could help.

Therefore I found myself confined in a very small hide, really nothing more than a one man tent or a bivouac for thirteen hours. Before getting into this makeshift hide, I had set up my video camera in stills mode so that it would take a picture every thirty seconds. I had also rubbed some fresh horse muck on the tripod to disguise any human scent. This on a track that was in regular animal use and this was further scattered with peanuts.

Therefore with four watching points covered, one by my camera, two by other volunteers and myself we should get a clear idea of what wildlife was using the area. Further any pictures would also serve as supporting evidence for the grant application.

After about eight hours I was provided a break so that I could get a drink, and after washing my hands something to eat, and the inevitable need to find a Holly Bush. I also needed to change the Battery on the camera, while its long like it doesn't last eight hours. And as it had been eight hours before being relived the camera had missed about three and a half hours of the wildlife on the path.

Anyway, after my next stint in the little hide, all the observations were done, there was much better data on the wildlife in the area and plenty of factual observations to support the grant application. The only part that was missing was had we captured any pictures? Fortunately I was getting a lift back, the wife of one of the people involved in this project. As she is seven and half months pregnant, I was worried that the odour from the tripod would make her feel ill. But she said that not a bit of it, in fact she was going down to the stables (they have horses) every day as all during her pregnancy the smell of horse muck had been like perfume to her.

Anyway when we got back we were having to toss a coin as to who could use my bathroom first, as my female readers will be able to testify, it increases the urge and need. So computer on I set about uploading the images to the computer, while that went on I made some coffee. My driver as I shall call her, could not believe the number of books I have on wildlife. The books cover about twenty feet of shelf space, so I was getting a request to help further with identifying more of the wildlife in their project area. Plants, moths, Insects and while I would like to help I don't think I will have the time.

Finally all the pictures were downloaded onto the computer, there were nearly one thousand five hundred. So I set about placing them into folders, one for each half an hour. And then burn them to CD. While doing that, the man that had relieved me was clearly seen relieving himself in the very area that we had all been trying to watch over. When I showed this to my driver, she was amused and annoyed as she had long suspected that he was trying to scupper the plans for protecting this area. I leaned that in the past there had been some form of development that had been planed but rejected by the local authority and their little groups attempt to improve the habitat was part of an attempt to prevent any building on the land occurring in the future. However, when they realised that some of the oaks were nearly of an age to have them classed as ancient, within days they were felled by the landowner, or at least the ones on his part of this land were. Before tree preservation orders could be obtained.

As she and her husband own part of the land themselves, that part is reasonably safe, but they wanted to ensure that what they loved remained for others too. But they could not understand why it was that at every turn the potential developer of this little wildlife haven was one step ahead. Well it looks as though the answer was there for them.

As the idea had been to capture images of the mammals there, the urinating man had prevented them showing up. Nor did we find any ents helping to protect the trees. However, from the human observations we do know that there are Fallow Deer, Row Deer and Stoats there as well as fifty bird species. Plus and this will mean protection for the habitat, they have adders and palmate newts there too. Both highly protected.

While very uncomfortable at times a highly productive day. I am just glad that I don't have to type up the grant application, something I think they stand a good chance of getting. At least this little bit, of English countryside is being cared for.

Any colour but Green

While my posting about the Green Festival was about all the difficulties I had trying to get there, and the difficulties of some friendships, when I actually got there I did have a good time. One of the first things that greeted my eyes were the colours of the healing area.



While I could have spent all day taking pictures, and there was a lot to feast my eyes upon, I was also aware that I was much older than most of the other people there. Now I don't know what its like in other parts of the world, but over here it is becoming increasingly impossible to take photographs in public places where other people are. While you actually have a legal right to do so, if you take pictures anywhere where children are, people start getting paranoid. Even carrying a camera anywhere near where children are can cause conflict. So I quite deliberately was very selective about what images I created.



However, my main reason for attending the festival was to keep in touch with what is happening with the environmentally committed. It made such a refreshing change to be able to say the words “Climate Change” without seeing that glazed, or should I say double glazed (its more energy efficient), expression materialise. Although I did feel that far to many of the exhibitors were pitching their communication at to low a level, as most of the people visiting the event already know and understand environmental issues.



That said there was one charity that had something that I had not seen before, or heard of but as I am doing a bit more research on that topic, I will leave that for another posting as the subject is worthy of a posting on its own. But one thing that I had heard about was a woman, Ingrid Wagner, who was aiming to break a world record, with knitting. I am sure that is the same the world over, that on local regional news there are the quirky stories of the eccentrics that do strange things. Well I had seen this story some weeks ago on the local TV news. Therefore when I spotted this woman with these enormous knitting needles I knew something about her already.



Now personally I don't give two figs about world records, it the quality of the person that counts, but I do wish her well in the endeavour as it is helping raise funds for charity, and its a daft idea that is using material that would have gone into the rubbish bin.



So as you can see the Green Festival was far more colourful.

Beavers return to Britain

As my regular readers (two cats and a human) will know, back in Autumn I spoke of a project that planed to reintroduce the European Beaver back into the UK. The greatest difficulty with any project like this is in fact education as people develop prejudice against some species.

With the beaver the prejudice centred upon the damage they would do to fish and to woodlands. As Beavers are vegetarian and eat tree bark they would not damage fish at all. In fact the calm pools the create for their lodges actually benefit most species of fish as they create habitats that enable the fish to breed more successfully.

The other prejudice was, is and will be more difficult to counter, as beavers do fell trees.

However, in the control areas where captive populations have been introduced, the activities of the Beavers has actually mirrored much of the tree felling work that has to be done to preserve riverside habitats anyway. As we live on a crowded island, the competition for space has meant that many of the natural processes have been interrupted. Further because of the loss of species, or exclusion of animals, humans have had to resort to carrying out maintenance work to retain the ecology that was there in the first place.

Therefore, by reintroducing Beavers, the trees that would overwhelm river banks get felled naturally. This will save the conservation organisations, farmers and land owners millions over the coming years as work normally undertaken by volunteers, contractors or workers will occur naturally.

A further benefit that was not expected was the discovery that the root systems of the trees felled by the Beavers worked much better as erosion protection. Because the Beavers are felling the trees younger, that would happen for conservation reasons, the micro root systems of the trees retained the soils of the river bank better. Additionally, the made the rivers less prone to adding to the damage caused by flooding. Partly because these root systems acted as a better sponge, but mainly because of the slower flow rates of the Beavers created habitat meant that in a flood swollen river, the water drained away better down the river channel and was less likely to over spill.

So while some people may still object to this reintroduction, the benefits will be imminence. As the species is being introduced into a landscape that has done without Beavers for several centuries, legal permission was required from the Government. This has now been given by the Scottish Parliament, and the reintroduction programme will occur in Scotland.

All the effort in the study of the possible effects of the Beavers on the environment was important as it was possible that the effect would have been like an invasive species that would have seriously impacted existing species and habitats. However, by ensuring that we knew what the likely impacts were and most of them are beneficial, we can all look forward to a time when Beavers will become a part of the British landscape again.

My thanks to Natural England for the picture by Paul Glendell

And here's a link to the Scottish Wildlife Trust and more information about the reintroduction project.

Lapwings and Skylarks

While there are some days that I have to wait to see what happens in the day to provide inspiration for a posting here, today I could write five or six posts just from what happened this weekend. Also there is some good news I will be bringing you soon about some important conservation work that is happening.

Further, events in the news could have elicited my posting today, but as I personally am fed up of hearing bad news and I having had enough of people in my life dumping their emotional baggage at my feet, I have decided that where possible I want to try and keep this web log about wildlife, the environment and more importantly all the positive aspects of conservation. While I know that will not always be possible as events unknown may well dictate this.

Anyway, over the weekend while out walking to get some petrol, I spotted a Lapwing sitting in a field. There was in fact several there, but this one was very close. I thought that it was likely that I had found a nesting colony. So I returned today to take a closer look.

While the weather remained fantastic, and the Lapwing were still around the location, as it was on a working farm, the farmer was working on the field today. My assumption that it was being used as a nesting site and the farmer to his credit and my praise here, actually times his work to enable the birds to nest and fledge. Further, he also does many other things to accommodate the wildlife on his farm. From the information supplied he was able to guide me to a bird that is familiar and normally seen on its song flight, the Skylark.

The farmer has taken my details and has told me that he will let me know next year when the Lapwings return as he would love some pictures for his farm website. I told him that I would put a link to his from here, but he told me that he didn't want that, as it risked to many people coming down to the farm, especially as he had just had all his heating oil and his diesel stolen. Not only that but to get to the fuel they had damaged the storage tanks making them unusable. While the farmer was insured it has made him wary of strangers. While this made him initially appear quite hostile towards me when I first showed up at the edge of his field. But also had that event not occurred then he probably would not have stopped to find out who I was.

Lastly, I want to thank his wife for the lovely fresh bacon and egg breakfast that they treated me to. It is not that often that I get that sort of treatment from people whose land I have strayed onto.

One final comment I want to make, he asked me where I most enjoyed watching wildlife, I told him a on a small group of islands on the north western edge of Europe. The British Isles. While that may sound corny it is also true.

Wildlife of China

As my regular reader will know, I have been taking delight with the Natural History series Wild China that has been showing on BBC television over here. The series has been criticised in reviews as being PR for the Beijing Olympics. While I will not shy away from critiquing any government regarding environmental abuse, Human Rights abuse or for just being plain stupid, this is a Natural History series and had the films been critical of China then it would no longer have been about the wildlife.

While a film that was critical could possibly be made, this also is a co production with China TV and if it had been made with the intention of being critical of China then the series would never have been made. Nor would we have discovered all the hidden delights of the previously hidden and unknown wildlife that we have seen thus far. In fact one of the scenes shown tonight would never have been filmed. That of Wild Giant Panda courtship and mating.

Also one of the remarkable aspects of tonight's broadcast was that there was at least some comment of some of the environmental mistakes of the past. Additionally, and this may be seen as propaganda, it appears that China and its dictatorship have realised that serious environmental damage has been done in the past and are at least trying to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. There was also an acknowledgement that greater industrial extraction of water from the yellow river, risks the ability of the central plateau to grow the fifty percent of Chinas wheat that it currently grows.

All the way through the series there have been comments that have highlighted some of the environmental impacts that have occurred in China. And while not apportioning blame, the series has not been shy in providing examples of these. One that was illuminated tonight was the fate of the Crested Ibis. It was thought to have been made extinct, but in 1981 seven individuals were found. A conservation programme was initiated and there are now just over five hundred individuals

While I could be critical, I would rather be constructive. There is no a single political geographic area on this planet that could not do a much better job on the environment, therefore I would rather that we had this limited openness that none at all. There is obviously a tacit propaganda exercise by China, but only from learning more about the world can we hope to change what's wrong and keep what's right.

Newcastle Green Festival

This weekend was the Green Festival in Newcastle. I had planed going along yesterday, but I made the mistake of accepting a lift. However to explain what happened I need to give you some background. Back when I lived near the coast, I became acquainted with a woman who visited the pub that I regularly drank in. While a friendship was formed, her life was far to complicated for me to become involved with her, even though it was something that appeared to be occurring. Further, as she had a young daughter, I was cautious while this woman had split up from her partner, I could see that it could be potentially damaging for the child if I had allowed anything more than a friendship develop. As it turned out by the time I moved away it looked as though I had been right to be cautious as the woman's partner was back in her life.

While I kept in touch with them as a family, by letter and later email, I had not seen them for ages. Therefore I was rather surprised when he contacted me and asked if I was going to the Green Festival. Especially as he was rather anti environment, but the woman and her daughter had been excited by the environment especially after I took them to see a Bottle Nose Dolphin that started to come into the mouth of the River Tyne.

When I first heard one had been spotted I had done some reading to try and understand the behaviour and realised it was likely to be the turning of the tide that drew the mammal in following the fish. Thus, we actually had better viewing successes than almost everyone else who were looking at random times.

Therefore I agreed to accepting a lift to the festival, ignorant of the fact that I was entering a war zone.

He turned up a little late, but there was still plenty of time to get there. But, to make matters even more complicated he wanted to drive down to Peterlee to collect his new girlfriend. At that point I should have refused the lift and made my own way there. But the mother and daughter persuaded me that I should stay.

Well, when we got to the new girlfriends home and I saw her, even I was shocked as the new girlfriend looked to be only a little older than the daughter. I was begging to realise why they wanted me there. Both the mother gave me a look that spoke volumes. I was not sure if the journey into Newcastle was going to be full of pained silence but the daughter started talking to me of her plans to go to university to study ecology, and this conversation kept the mood much lighter than I expected.

However, that was only the start of the drama. As he approached the motorway the engine died. He had run out of Petrol. To make matters worse, he not only did not have a petrol can but no money. It is best described as let battle begin. Fortunately I did have cash and my Bank card so I went off with the mother and daughter to find a petrol station. We found one, but they had no petrol cans. So it was a long walk to find a shop that sold a petrol can... Well you can fill in the blanks. Some two hours later we were back and filling the tank. But that was not the end of it as he was in a huff he slammed the door shut, with the keys in the ignition... It took another three hour wait for a friend to come down with another set of keys to get us in again. I would have just gone home but my cameras were locked in the car.

Therefore I missed the whole of yesterdays festival. However, for me it showed that I was right not to get involved in anything more than a friendship here. While it had its annoying aspects, it was rather amusing in some ways too. By the time we were able to head back home the daughter and I had instigated a phrase of; “Parents” and we were falling about laughing with just a look and mouthing of the word.

Today I saw the daughter at the festival, free of her parents, where she told me that her Dads new GF had dumped him. He had lied about his age, the daughter had pointed out that her dad would have been eleven when she was born had that been his age. It was great to see that she has become such a mature and sensible young adult, especially as her parents are so childish. Something she acknowledges herself.

We also talked about relationships, and she doesn't want one at the moment as to many of the lads she knows are far to immature (she also said like her father). I explained that I too would prefer to stay single than get involved with the wrong person.

Then as we walking round the park we noticed something that was so funny. One young woman was sunbathing. She had removed her top and this she was using to ensure that no one could look up her very short skirt. But what made it funny was that she was sunbathing topless.

The festival its self was its usual mixture of crafts, ethnic clothing, complementarity healing, and all the usual political organisations. One thing that I was glad to see since I last attended was that it was in danger of becoming overwhelmed by music. And club music at that, witch was pumping out at high volume. Now the festival doesn't allow generators to be used at the festival thus excluding the people that are just there to take over the event and don't care about the ethics of the event.

All this means that the exhibitors that needed power were using solar power predominantly but there was one wind turbine there too. Had I had the spare cash I would have bought a solar battery charger for my camera batteries, but I didn't have the money as I paid for all the petrol yesterday. But at least I know where I can get one in the future.

There were some useful contacts that I made there, and I learned some new things and you will get to read more later, but for now I want to do some more research to match the efforts that some of the organisations put into their displays and the information they provided.

Well, I need to go and feed myself now, as the with the cat feed and me now newly bathed, I am starving. And that reminds me, one of the other things that I may be doing is joining an Organic Box Service again. I have tried them in the past but often the quality was not good enough. But if the standard of the produce can match what was on display at the festival then I may have found a good one.

With oil at $139 its time to Green the Economy

Yesterday was world environment day as many of you will already know. Obviously with that in mind the UK government announced that three big off shore wind farms have been given the go ahead. When I say big I do mean big as each will have over one hundred seven mega watt turbines.

Potentially this could be good news for manufacturing in the North East region of England, where I am. As a lot of the skills are already here from the shipbuilding industries of old. Not only that, but much of the design and research and development has been done here too. At Blyth, forty miles from me, the first test turbines were erected nearly ten years ago.

Then tonight on the News the top story was that Oil price has hit new heights yet again of $139 per barrel. Now I am going to shock my American Readers, you think you have it tough at four dollars a gallon for petrol (Gasoline) here in Britain its dollar equivalent price is nearly eleven dollars a gallon. Diesel is over twelve dollars.

While the British government is coming late to this matter, there finally is the realisation that we need alternative sources of energy to fossil fuels. While the cost of oil pushes up the prices at the pumps, it does help reduce consumption and so will help slow down the effects of climate change by a little, what is really needed is investment in renewable's.

Last Saturday the Film Shadow of the Moon was on, a documentary about the Apollo programme and the effort that was made by America to get there. For a long time I have failed to understand why it is that no political leader in the US has been as bold a JFK was in envisioning the moon shot, but for alternative energy.

Just imagine that if in the 1970s America had looked at the oil crisis and said we will not allow ourselves to be dependent on oil and had set out, as was done with Apollo, to develop wind and Solar power generation, imagine the economic strength and power the US would have now. Not only would the US have been spending less on oil, it would have reliable virtually free sources of energy. Imagine the jobs that would have been created by now in the manufacturing and installation of Solar panels and wind turbines.

You only need to look at the way that industries like computing have developed better and faster machines over the last decade to know that the power to innovate is there.

While in Britain we are playing catch up with parts of continental Europe, these new industries are creating jobs, new jobs. The off shore wind farms will create over two thousand new highly paid jobs. Further the investment in research and development is already generating exports for the UK.

I just hope that who ever is elected as the New US president will have the vision of JFK and commit the US to curing its addiction to Oil.

Big Cats in the British Countryside?

A few weeks go the local paper carried a story that a big cat, panther?, had been seen. While these stories come up from time to time, and it is possible that there are feral big cats in the British countryside, this is the first time I have heard reports of one locally. So I went for a look myself and spoke to several people. Most were sceptical, but one man said that he had seen it. So I gave him my number and I told him if he saw it again to call me, as I wanted to try and film it.

Well, I got a call and yesterday morning I went out to try and film it. I discovered the trail it was supposed to be using and I laid in wait. I did see a cat, a big black tom with a dirty red collar on it. No panther this. So I went back to my informant and he was excited and asked if I had filmed it. I told him that I had seen a moggie with a collar but that was not a big cat. As he told me what he had seen, I realised that we had indeed seen the same animal but his perception was far more embellished than my much closer observation. In his mind it had been at least twice the actual size.

There was no scoup there. I doubt that it is anything more than this big old tom cat.

So in the afternoon I thought I would see if I could catch some of the birds that feed in my yard. I have been seeing some of the larger birds, Jackdaws and Starlings precariously landing on the fat balls to feed, and I thought that would be great to catch on film. So I set the camera up to film them. This gave me time to do some editing and to try and get more of the footage catalogued. Its all very well filming this stuff but if I cant find it latter...

And I did get a couple of short films put together. I am still teaching myself the editing process and this is all good practice. These I posted to You Tube and while most of my stuff only gets a few viewings, one got over one hundred seventy in the first few hours. That amazed me as none of my films contain gratuitous stupidity.

Anyway back to the birds in my yard, I kept on changing the tape, and while the birds were coming in not one landed in the area the camera was focused on. While I was changing tapes though I did spot a sparrow with nesting material in her beak. So I turned the camera on the area that I suspected the nest entrance is and yes a nest is being built. However its to high up to film. So maybe next year.

One thing I did do though was take a walk down to the River, as I wanted to see if I could see where the bats are roosting in the rocky cliffs known as the crags. While searching for the locations that I thought could be in use, I spotted the nest of a Peregrine Falcon. I had to stop myself from filming it, I don't have a licence to do so, yet. Fortunately it is well hidden and if my observation was right it has two chicks.

Then today while on the bus coming back from a shopping trip to the supermarket, I spotted a buzzard. Only briefly but less than seventy meters away before a copse of trees obscured my observation.

But the best one was very early this morning, I had stayed up all night to see if I could see the Fox with her cubs. Well about a hour before dawn, I saw her and two cubs. Not only that I saw a pair of Barn Owls quartering the same field. Who needs sleep when there is wildlife to watch. ZZZZzzzz

Crane Reintroductions and Animal Behaviour

I guess that amongst my British readers you will already be aware of and probably already watch Springwatch, but as many of my readers are from overseas, I apologise in advance if I am talking about stuff you already know.

But last year on springwatch they showed one of the Barn Owl chicks eating his younger siblings. One thing that the programme can not be accused of is being over sentimental. This is part of normal natural behaviour. Then this year was something even more extraordinary. When the series started they showed a Swallow (Barn Swallow) that was using an artificial nest. On Monday the chicks hatched and the male killed the chicks. While there was an attempt to save the chicks, there was nothing that could be done and the male killed the chicks. He then went on to build a new nest.

Now while artificial nest boxes are a boon to many birds, even back twenty years ago I was told that artificial nests for swallows just don't work. This is because the building of the nest is an important part of the pair bonding. What possibly happened in respect of the birds on SW was that the male thought the female had been unfaithful. It was not his nest and he possibly thought that he was not the father.

As this has never been filmed before, even the experts are not sure what is going on, but it shows that we don't know everything and we humans have more to learn.

One of the other things that SW has been showing is the work being done to reintroduce the Crane to the UK. This has involved one of the presenters having to dress up in a silly costume to disguise his human form. Something I can empathise with as I have had to do similar things myself. However, while the techniques may seem silly, they are in fact proven ones. In the US the same processes have been used to help increase numbers of the Whopping Crane. This includes all the dressing in silly costumes and using litter pickers to mimic the bill of the chicks mother. As well as teaching the chicks to become cranes, well it has to be seen to be believed. However, the aspect that differs with the American programme is that they have to also teach the birds to migrate.

This is done by teaching the chicks to fly with and behind microlight aircraft so that they can learn the migration route to Florida.
For my American reader you can see this on Wild Chronicles in an edition called Operation Migration.

The success of the red kite reintroduction programme all bodes well for the Crane School.

Broadband Rip Off

Today on the News was a story about just how slow Broadband really is. While this will be news to people in London, anyone outside the capital will know that this is true. For people in rural locations its even worse. My regular reader will know that I had problems with BT when I moved house and was getting speeds of less than 100 Kbps (Kilo Bits per second) This improved when the corroded cable was replaced, eventually. But even now I normally only get 200 Kbps on a good day nearly 300 Kbps Although if I am trying to deal with Video I will sometimes do it at night when if I am very lucky, I can get 500 kbps That is still only half of the speed that I am paying for.

It is Ironic that this story should arise when I have just posted about trying to help my readers who are on dial up and don't have access to broadband at all.
The get out clause that all the companies use is up to whatever speed you are paying for. Well one of these days I think that someone will get so hacked off with being conned that a customer will take the companies to court.

Therefore, I am fully aware of the difficulties of internet connection. So I hope that my posting of video to this web log is not causing to many people difficulties. If it is please let me know and I will see if I can adjust the settings and lay out to make things easier.

Red Kite Film

As a special request from a tree, yes I do talk to trees and this one talks back, (Quick call the men in white Coats the mouse has gone bonkers), I am posting the film of the Kite as a You Tube Embedded item.

As I used to be on a Dial Up connection myself, I know just how difficult it can be to view media files so for the Tree and my other reader who uses dial up here it is.

A Difficult Day Became A Red Kite Day

Today I was expecting to be a difficult day, but my stars were saying would be a lucky one. As I was meeting with my bank manager, I thought I would need some luck. I changed my bank account a number of years ago to my current bank when they were a building society. However I was just outside of the date that would have given me free shares when they floated on the Stock Exchange. As this was only by a few days, I made a complaint then. That marked me out to the local Manager as a difficult customer.

The situation never improved. Then when my ex and I split up, because of the debts and bills she had I aided her by acting as guarantor for her rent and other commitments so that she did not end up homeless. However, when my bank heard of this, my bank placed restrictions on my account that made a difficult situation nearly impossible.

I helped my ex clear her debts but because I never had any extra cash, the bank kept the restrictions in place. This also meant that it was impossible for me to move my account as the restrictions normally only apply to people that have been irresponsible. When in fact I was being responsible.

In spite of complaints made at the time, I was stuck in a situation not of my making. Therefore, when I got an invitation to go and see the Bank Manager, I was not looking forward to it. However, because of the Credit Crunch, the bank has been reviewing its customers accounts and couldn't work out why these restrictions had been put in place. I told them why, and even then the advisor I was speaking to could not understand what was happening, as that seemed just plain wrong to her.

Well the upshot is that the restrictions are to be lifted and they will be investigating as it appears that the then manager overstepped his authority. I did ask if I was going to be compensated, but all they were prepared to say was that they would look in to that. Well if I am I think I will buy a pig and give it flying lessons.

On my way home I actually felt more angry about it, but while passion can be useful, I could not see any way to channel it positively. Also what I had expected to be just a couple of hours had dragged on to being all afternoon. As I had planed to go and film at one of the birds nest sites, I had missed that chance.

So, I switched on the computer and looked up out of the Window: RED KITE. I grabbed the video and was out the back door like a bullet. I cant help it but the moment see the Red Kites I am five years old again. There are some of my readers who know that I am childish anyway, but I really do get excited by seeing these birds. Anyway I got some film out the back of my place, including some shots of the kite being harried by a crow. It also serves to illustrate just how large the wingspans are of these magnificent birds. I would have gone chasing the bird and got more but I realised I was standing in the street with bare feet. Well at least I keep the neighbours occupied and while they are talking about my antic's they are not gossiping about anyone else.

So what started out as a difficult day became a Red Kite Day.