Urban Wildlife

Sometimes there is a strange syncronicity in the world, just yesterday following my posting regarding my being fooled by a garden ornament, there was a comment from Nancy (hi Nancy), about how important the green places are in her neck of the woods. And at the moment she must have been writing that, I was reading someone else's posting (as this person has an invitation only policy I can not reveal who), about how even living in the city she still can see wildlife in the green places where she is. Now I know that I am lucky as I live in an old mining village that is surrounded by countryside, but that has not always been the case. However, seeing birds or plants has always been important for me no matter where I have lived.

I also think that is one of the reasons why so many people like to have a garden or a window box or planters outside the door, it helps connect them with nature. When my ex and I first moved in together, the first thing we did was to plant up some pots to stand outside the front door. Neighbours told us that they would not last long, but apart from one minor incident where a toddler was picking the flowers, no one touched them. In fact we go buckets of praise for doing it as it helped brighten up everyone's lives.

However my main point here is that no matter where you live there will be somewhere where the wildlife is. This is vital to the spirit of man. (I mean man as the species not gender) I have long thought that when you see the places where there is serious social deprivation and crime, there no flowers. This is not just from seeing these places on the news but from visiting, working and living in such places. Therefore, I think one of the important things that needs to happen to aid the people in these areas is plant flowers, put up hanging baskets, add some colour and joy to peoples lives.

Often on the news and discussions on the radio, I hear the argument that we have a choice between people or wildlife. Personally I think that its the wrong question, it should be about people and wildlife, as the environment matters for people too. As well as the practical aspects that the natural world gives us for free, the human animal can not survive without the natural world.

I still remember the first time I saw a fox cub it was at the end of the platform at Kings Cross station, or the fist time I saw a Kestrel close up, it was nesting on the High Level Bridge in Newcastle. But I get delight from seeing plants that many people think of as weeds, growing on patches of neglected land, adding colour. No matter where you live you can find wildlife, maybe not the spectacular but the joy of hearing a blackbird singing its heart out will always make my day better.

Hunting Kestrel

I have finally started to get on top of my video footage. While I could just upload it on to my computer and make my back ups, for me its important to file the footage properly, as that way I can use the film to share my delight and joy for all the critters we share the planet with.

Anyway, I filmed this Kestrel recently and I am like a child let loose in a sweet shop (Candy Store). But if I don't stop smiling people will think that I must be on Prozac.

The Mouse that Never grew up

Now I am the first person to admit that some of the things I do look silly to an outsider. I often do things that parents will tell their kid off for doing, like splashing in ponds, or getting covered in mud. Personally I think that no matter how old I get I will remain immature. Hey I'm a man I think its part of the job description.

So what silly things have I been up to, well it started this morning with my cat waking me at half past four this morning. I would have been happy to stay in bed, but she needed something so I had to get up to see what that was. As she is an older cat at least fourteen, she doesn't always eat all the food put out for her, so to avoid flies laying eggs on her food I give her small but regular feeds. Also, sometimes I don't think that she can always see that there is water there for her. She always puts her paw in the water to find the level. It turned out that she had spilt the water and wanted feeding.

Once I had dealt with her I decided to go out for an early walk. It was still dark but I thought I could catch the early mist on a body of water near here, so I went towards that location. While I was walking there, after a four mile walk, a skein of geese flew over. I don't know what they were, but it is possible that they are returning winter migrants. It was to dark to film them as the sun was still not up, but a delight to see and my imagination ran wild thinking of where they could be from.

Now the body of water I was heading for is on private land and this spring I had asked permission to photograph or film the Grey Herons that have a nesting colony near there and while I have finally got that permission, it came to late to get to the nests this year. However, through the thick and thorny hedge I though I could see a heron standing stock still in the way that they do. So, and this was me acting like a child, I got down on my belly to try and crawl under the hedge. It was not easy, and I kept on having to stop as I really thought I was making a racket. It took me over half an hour to edge myself into position, and all the while the Heron stood there unmoving. I switched the camera on, zoomed in to discover that I had been stalking a stone statue of a Heron. No wonder it hadn't moved. Well feeling more than a little silly, I got up and realised that twenty metres away was a much more accessible gap so at least my exit did not take as long. When I got to the lake, any mist had evaporated anyway.

As I needed to do some shopping today I had to get back home, but while I added glasses to my shopping list, they don't sell them especially for fools to spot statues with.

Hurricane Kyle

I have a good friend who lives over in Maine and as I write she is braced for Hurricane Kyle. While this Hurricane is only a category one storm, living through any event like this can not be easy. My thoughts are with her and her kin.

However, one curiosity about Hurricane Kyle is that it is coming in from the sea and not up the coast line. This is the type of storm event that was predicted by climate models to start to occur by 2050

This is not the only effect of a changing climate that has happened sooner than predicted, and it looks as though we need to start looking at the effects that were previously predicted fifty and hundred years hence as happening in the coming decade.

But for now my thoughts are with all the people that Hurricane Kyle is impacting.

Bradford and Bingley Nationalised

As Oscar Wilde may have said to Nationalise one bank is unfortunate, but to nationalise two looks like carelessness.

In Britain the Bradford and Bingley Bank is as I write is in the process of being nationalised. This banks problem is that it specialised in the Buy to Let Market. Unlike a conventional mortgage a lender did not make the loan on the value of a property, but on the expected rental income. However, frequently these rental potentials have been exaggerated.

In media reports it has emerged that there are over twenty percent of rental properties in London that are empty. However away from the places of high demand, places like Manchester forty percent of the new build, predominantly bought by the Buy to Let market, are empty. Then if you include the older properties then the empty rental properties are just over fifty percent.

The problem is that the landlords are so wedded to the rental income they desire that they are not willing to accept the lower rent that the market demands. I do understand the difficulty that the landlords face as the rental income is lower than the cost of the loan(s). But the reality is that this system could never work, and most buy to let investors only made or retained their money with rising house prices.

The market has been manipulated by the Banks, the Financial services industry and the Developers. There is now a glut of rental properties and most of the buy to let investors will loose money. The problem is that far to many people became landlords who just did not understand their responsibilities as a landlord. The greed factor took over and they frequently looked down on the people that did rent.

This all has had an impact upon the public purse too, as low income families get part or all their rent paid. Thus the way the market has been manipulated has increased the public expenditure. The social impact of this does not stop there, as people who work as teachers, nurses and police officers have not been able to live in or close to the places where they work. The climate impact of the increased travel should be obvious, but it is the way that this manipulation of the market has excluded first time buyers from entering the market.

Previously it had been quoted that seventy percent of the bottom end of the market was made up of Buy to let investors. However, it now emerges that it reached nearly ninety percent just before the credit crunch.

The Government in nationalising the Bradford and Bingley are protecting savers, but it looks as though it will be saddled with the debts of the greedy investors. The problem is that here in Britain and in the US, the governments are trying to support and boost the value of property. When in reality the price of property needs to fall. Only when property falls to realistic and affordable levels can we start to resolve some of our social problems.

With housing costs so high, the long term unemployed can not see themselves having a job and a lifestyle away from the dependency on benefits. Jobs that have been filled by overseas workers can then be filled by indigenous workers. One of the absurdities was that the building industry was being filled by people from eastern Europe, yet we were building homes that were not needed.

I am not surprised that the Bradford and Bingley has failed, but for at least five years, people have been predicting this problem. Had the banks just refused to loan mortgages that went beyond the standard model, then prices would not have soared the way they did. But as the mortgage sellers were making a couple of thousand per deal, then the more they pushed the market up. Yet it is we the tax payers who will pick up the bill, now this flimsy edifice has fallen.

One further detail that has just emerged is that in Britain the level of personal debt is now two trillion pounds, about four trillion dollars. That includes mortgage debt. So while that means we have a lot of money to repay, the number of people that could face repossession is much lower than has been previously stated.

Here in Britain at least, the effect of this will be that most people will eventually, actually see their cost of living fall as housing cost will fall. It will not happen soon but it will happen over the next three years.

Nuclear Sell Off

Do you know, I think that Gordon Brown must have had a knock on the door from one of these sales people that come round trying to get us to change our energy suppliers. Except in this case for signing up to change from British Energy to EDF they offered the incentive of a free Nuclear Power station, but only if he paid by direct debit.

While I had hoped that here in Britain we would not follow the Nuclear route to fooling ourselves that we were reducing our Carbon Dioxide emissions, the sale of BE to EDF makes it more likely that there will be new Nuclear power stations built. The problem I have with Nuclear is simply that we still have not found a way of disposing with the waste from the first Nuclear power stations. Had we found a way of doing that safely then I could be persuaded that this could be an option. But as research has shown, the carbon footprint of disposing of the nuclear waste, per power station, could be triple or quadruple the CO2 of even a coal Power station, then it looks like a really bad idea.

Also while I am an internationalist, as EDF is eighty percent owned by the French Government, I see this as a problem. While I have no doubt that Britain and France have good relations at the moment, who knows what may transpire in the future. An ultra right wing nationalist government? Or an energy shortage over in France so that our electricity is exported to France? Or that nuclear waste from their plants is dumped on us?

While this may sound alarmist, the reality is that over the years no matter what is agreed now will change in time. The problem is that this will leave us with a toxic legacy in years to come. In Germany they have moved away from Nuclear power and are much further ahead with renewable's than most. Also in Germany the is the first commercial Carbon Capture power station. While we do need a mixture of power generation, I am very concerned that the British Government has followed the Nuclear route in this way.

Plastic Bags and Ponds

One thing that I have noticed this summer has been the number of people that are now using reusable shopping bags. While some people were already doing this, in the past few months it has become a rarity to see people who are using plastic bags. Therefore, when today I had to travel to the Metrocentre to connect with a bus there, I was rather shocked to see a group of women that were condensing their shopping and were just throwing the plastic bags on to the side of the road. I challenged them but all I got was an earful of some undignified language. However, when they saw me collecting them up to put them in the rubbish, the youngest one did come back and help and even apologised for her mothers and her aunts language.

I was almost feeling so disillusioned that I felt like just going home rather than visiting the nature reserve that was my destination. But, knowing just how it lifts my spirits to see wildlife, I knew I needed to visit there just to calm down. Then an elderly woman at the bus stop spoke up in my support. This brought forth more responses of support, but none helped me collect the discarded bags.

I must say that I can not understand the attitude of so many people, as there was a bin right there. I was actually pleased when I arrived that the Hide was locked as that meant I was alone. It only took me ten minutes to completely forget the incident and enjoy the birds. There must have been two hundred birds there, Teal, Red Shank, Oystercatcher to name a few. After about an hour I stepped out of the hide for a smoke. Even there I had the delight of seeing a Dragonfly hunting. While I had the video camera with me I did not try to film it as the one that I use for filming birds is not that good for filming insects and it struggles to focus on moving objects. So I just drank in the delight of watching him. As I turned to go back in I spotted some thing red on the vegetation. As I looked closer I realised it was a Burnett Moth. I did get the camera to try and film this, but it had flown off by the time I returned.

I had just settled down again in the hide when I heard someone at the door. It was a family out for a walk. They asked if the could come in. The children were no more than toddlers, and the baby was still in a pushchair. So it was a little crowded but the children obviously delighted in seeing the ducks and birds. But as with children of that age they made to much noise and the birds took to the air and moved to the other side of the pond. Personally I was not bothered as I knew they would return. The parents were apologetic but as I told them I would rather see children start to have an interest in wildlife from an early age. However when the baby had obviously filled his nappy, they decided to leave.

Within ten minutes the birds were coming back. Then I had another family group coming in. These were at least a couple of years older, and were able to contain their delight. Therefore the birds kept coming in closer. Talking to the parents, and the girls, I was able to show them the birds in the field guide. They wanted to use my binoculars, but they were to big for them to use. But by resting them on their side they could use them as a monocular and were delighted to see the birds close up. I also was able to use the video camera to show them other birds and the had great fun looking up the birds in the book. I must admit I did open the book to the right pages for them.

I was not able to film much while they were there, but it was a real pleasure to see the children's and the parents delight at the joy they got from really seeing the birds. I then had an hour of watching alone. Then another family party arrived, grandparents and grandchildren this time. I was settled and just watching, and was undisturbed by them. And while the children were talking, they were not disturbing the birds. But after about ten minutes the man started making a fuss that the children were “obviously” disturbing me. Even though I reassured him that I was not, he insisted that the children had to leave.

Not for the first time I was perplexed by the actions of other people. I suspect that it was because he was bored. However it is delightfully encouraging that children are finding delight in wildlife. Its akin to the way that most people are now not using plastic bags, slowly but surely people are starting to understand the need to care for and respect the environment.

Returning home on the bus, it was nearing dusk, I saw not just one but five Red Kites. So while I started the day feeling rather despondent, I end the day on a high. I don't need to bottle it, just see more wildlife.

Corporate Greed and the Banking Collapse

As I have said here before, probably to the point of boredom, I used to work in the Photographic Industry. I was forced to leave that career path because of an incident that has relevance to what is going on in banking sector and the corporate world.

I found myself working in one of the Kodak labs, just a technician although my experience had been managing departments. Therefore, I was rather disturbed to discover that Kodak were quite deliberately breaching the copyright of professional photographers by reproducing copies of prints for people. I even pointed this out to managers there and was told “Whose to know”. I was not in a position to refuse to carry out the work, but as a photographer myself, I did not like this situation one little bit. So I made sure that I got a copy of the British Journal of Photography, the trade magazine, as that was where the jobs were listed. However, to my surprise was an article that reported that a professional photographic company, Parasol Portrait Photography, were suing Kodak over breach of Copyright. I thought carefully about the matter and contacted the solicitors dealing with the case. I made my statement to them, a sworn affidavit, as I felt that all professional photographers need some protection from the “big boys” who were all to ready to rip the small guy off.

I never heard anything for months, oh and I did loose my job due to a change in shift patterns. Then one evening I responded to a knock at the door, there were two well dressed thugs at the door who pinned me to the wall and told me that unless I withdrew my statement I would never work in the industry again. Well I never withdrew my statement and they were right I have never been able to get work in the photographic industry again.

Although Parasol won the case, Kodak got away with ripping off many hundreds of other professional photographers who relied upon print sales to earn a living. Also they were able to use their power to stop me working in the industry. They did that quite simply by closing the credit accounts of any studio or lab that I applied to a job for, and when I was not offered a job the accounts were reopened. I know this as prospective employers told me this. But none were prepared to see their living damaged through making a statement to that effect.

However the point I am making by relating that experience is that almost all companies, no matter big or well known they are will bend the law or break it if it means they cam make money. While my experience is relatively small fry in the pond of corporate greed, it stems from an attitude that making money, no matter at what cost, is right. We only need to think of Enron as an example to see that that is actually wrong.

Further there are aspects of what Enron did that are mirrored in the present situation. But I think the history of this needs explaining.

Because of federal laws that prevented banks lending more than a ratio of more than ten times its deposit assets, the banks came up with all sorts of clever ways of bundling up loans into securities that meant that they were selling on the risk and this kept the loan off their balance sheet. However, this also meant that to continue making profits the banks had to lend more and more money. When the banks had leant to all the people that could realistically repay the loans, they looked to other potential customers. These are what we now know are called the “Sub Prime Market”, even here the banks could have still made money from making sensible loans. However, they started making loans to people to that were never going to be able to repay.
Now to you and I that is not sensible, but remember that the banks were packaging these up into securities and selling them on to other banks. That way when the borrower defaulted it was not the bank that bore the cost.

In this way the banks in America and to a lesser extent in Britain, could keep on making record profits as long as the public, us, kept on buying credit. Also for this to keep working property values had to keep on rising. I have already explained in a previous posting, that in the UK this was perpetuated by the myth of a housing shortage. So when the value of property started to fall in the US, the banks that were playing this game stated to their profits falling.

However, what has been the really toxic effect has been the way that all the banks have been packaging up their debts and bad loans and selling them on. As when other banks buy them they appear on their balance sheets not as loans but as assets.

It is the fact that all the banks have some of these on their books that is causing the real problem, as all the banks know they have them but none are being honest about what their exposure is. Therefore because the banks know that other banks are hiding these worthless assets, banking system will not lend cash to other banks.

Now if that was not complicated enough, the banks have also created very complex financial products and systems that further hide where their cash is or where their debts are. These systems meant that they, the banks, could earn interest by what appeared to be from moving vast sums around the banking system. In ways that make money laundering look like child's play. But all these systems were in fact just forms of gambling. As the same money was in effect being asked to do three or four thing at once.

The banks may just as well have been playing poker. As often this money was not theirs to play with. Ever wondered why the banks take so long to clear a cheque? During that time they are gambling on the various stock markets around the globe with yours and my money. But also with the money from pension funds and insurance companies.

The moment that the banks stopped lending each other money, and the flow of capital around the world slowed to nearly a full stop was when banks like Lehman Brothers had to confess that their true debt to assets ratio was not ten to one but thirty five to one. Like Enron, it looks like they were miss-telling the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and the FSA (Financial Services Authority) their true status. I suspect that may also be true of HBOS over here and why the government forced them into a shot gun wedding with Lloyds-TSB.
The reality is that the banks all know that they have misrepresented the value of what they really own and what they owe, and more importantly what they are owed.

I suspect that the banks have been bending all sorts of rules. There have been exceptions, here in Britain banks like Lloyds-TSB were criticised by their shareholders for being to boring and conservative but it has meant that they remain strong and appear not to be exposed to the same follies of other banks. Further, while some banks over here may well fail the worse excesses of Wall Street was not repeated over here, and most of the banks here are still quite strong, although wounded by Wall Street. However around the world the banks will have to learn to earn their profits in much more safer ways.

While on the subject of the excesses of Wall Street, Lehman Brothers Last year paid out thirty five billion pounds in bonuses (that's Seventy Billion Dollars). That means that is money that could have helped save the firm, left the business.

But all multi national businesses have been doing this for years. They will over pay themselves and the rich have become super rich. Even when they fail the business, they still get paid substantial sums. If I were to loose a business millions I doubt that I would get a pay out of a million or more. But we really do have a system where the super rich look after themselves. And this is the other aspect of why the economy is falling apart. Multi national businesses have sold out the countries that created their companies.

In America and Britain these businesses have chased the cheapest place of production. Most notably China, where pay is a fraction of what pay is in Britain or the US. In this way, these British and American corporations have been enriching countries like China as well as themselves of course. All this has added to the outflow of capital from the US and UK economies.
We have the situation where both the US and the UK have gorged on credit and we now have the hangover of debt. Therefore we both have the unholy trinity of debt, falling asset values (housing), and the reality of having passed peak oil. As while all the attention has been on the sudden rise in the cost of oil, no one has seriously looked at why this happened.

While there was speculation and that did have an effect, it was not the whole of the picture. Nor was it that there was or is any real increase in demand, as while production is close to the level of demand, there was no rational reason for the price to shoot up in the way that it did. The only rational explanation is that the oil fields don't contain as much oil as previously claimed. There is a precedent for this, as both BP and Shell had to admit a few years ago that they were over stating the oil reserves that they have.

The increase in the price of oil has the knock on effect of increasing food prices as we require ten calories of hydrocarbons to produce each calorie of food. Thus, every dollar on a barrel of oil adds to the cost of growing and transporting food.

Therefore, while the increase in energy costs are impacting people directly and indirectly, it is the the debt binge that really has caused the problems we face now. The trouble is that the effects impact everyone, especially the people that have not lived on tomorrows hoped for earnings.

The problem we face on both sides of the Atlantic is that the the reliance on the markets and globalisation has failed. Thus far all the solutions being offered rely on us borrowing more. Here in Britain we have the government trying to prop up the mortgage market. When it has been foolish lending that has caused the problem. In the US the government is trying to buy out the bad debt.

However what really needs to happen is the US government needs to buy the houses that are being repossessed rather than buying the debt. That way people will not loose their homes and the families then pay an affordable rent. While there will be many Americans that think that is far to socialist, it is far less socialist then nationalising the banks. Further, if the banks fail then as long as the deposits of ordinary people are protected then the banks should be allowed to go bust. As this is the same principal that the banks are using when they foreclose on peoples homes.

By buying up the houses rather than the debt, at least that way the government will have assets that may rise in value latter, and it will stop the knock on costs of the social problems that making people homeless will create. Further, there will be a revenue stream crated in the form of rent.

This really could be a real opportunity for both the US and the UK to really start treating its poorer people with justice and dignity. I have long thought that it is a scandal that in either country there should be people that are unfed and hungry. Equally this could provide a real opportunity to provide housing for all the homeless.

I don't think that it will be an easy time, but I really do think that we are on the cusp of a genuine change that will mean that business will not be allowed to indulge in the greed of the past. Further, I think that the populations of the world will demand much greater corporate responsibility and social justice from businesses.

Honey Buzzard and Badgers

Last night I went out to keep a vigil on the main badger sett that I have been watching. I was not even sure if the badgers had returned since the flooding, therefore I was more than ready for a night with no sightings. However, I had the joy of hearing both the calling of a pair of Tawny owls to keep me company. I could hear rather than see activity but it was not clear what was abroad. There are rabbits there as well as foxes, but the way that the rain and the flooding have changed the undergrowth has dulled to contrast thus my image is a little less distinct. While I did have the IR camera with me, but I did not want to waste the batteries. Also, no matter how careful I try to be, the camera does make some soft noise when operated, thus I prefer to save its use for when it is most likely to be useful.

I sat there and while there was some movement around I just could not tell if the badgers were there. As the pre dawn light began to grow I spotted three of the badgers, they were to far away to film as the IR Light doesn't have the range, but the black and white of their faces told me they were back. I waited until they were underground and settled till I moved. It is not dignified getting out of a tree when your cold and when your legs are getting numb. So my half jump half fall disturbed a barn owl who screeched and hissed at me, then it dived towards me. Thinking it was going to strike me, I ducked covering my face with my hands. The late great Eric Hoskins lost an eye to such an incident, therefore I have always been careful. But the bird was just after a mouse or vole that I had disturbed.

As I started to move off I heard the call of the old boy who also watches the badgers. Even though he uses night vision equipment, he had not known I was there. As we walked home, he lives in my street, we chatted about the badgers. He had seen five of them so that is really good news. He told me that he thought that I was being attacked by the Owl, apparently it had been just two or three feet above me in the tree, and it looked to him that it was the owl that had driven me from the tree.

When we got home I invited him in for a cup of tea. As he is eighty he was feeling the cold much more than me and I could see he needed to get warmed up. As he stepped through the door I saw something just by his foot and I told him to just stay still. I bent down to look and it was a spider. Now my carpets are a dark brown, and he asked how on earth did I spot that. I got the spider into a collecting tube. I latter identified it as Liocranum rupicola. I will latter post the film I took of it, but it is brief as it was rather fast on its legs. But if I had eight legs I am sure I could run as fast.

We talked about the badgers and wildlife in general and I told him that recently I had seen an Osprey and that I had seen a Buzzard, but it looked different to a Common Buzzard. He suggested that what I saw was a Honey Buzzard. We looked up in my field guides along with my notes and it looks as though that was what it was. However, the bird was in the wrong location. He told me that he had heard that there were reports that the weather had misplaced some Scandinavian birds, so it was possible I had seen one of these birds.

We had a good chat and he told me that he wanted to introduce me to the police officer that deals with wildlife crime. There is only one for the whole force. Then he told me that the other local police force, we live right on the boarder of two counties, had screwed up and possibly alienated a wildlife watcher. The police have to rely on the support of wildlife watchers to keep them informed of wrong doing. Well I told him all the details and he realised I had been that wildlife watcher.

That amused him but he was also annoyed that the event had occurred. As his own experience shows the police will often fail to act when people are obviously poaching or disturbing badgers. Thus me being stopped from trying to watch wildlife was unacceptable. We parted agreeing on that, I hope it doesn't happen again. I have no problem with the police asking me questions, but as the police only have powers if they have a genuine suspicion that an offence, then I think I will be a bit obstinate if anything similar happens again.

Anyway this posting is not a moan, and latter I settled down to hear the BBC World on the Move on the radio. There was a report that over the last ten days or so there had been three hundred sightings of Honey Buzzards. Therefore it was likely that I had seen one of the birds from Scandinavia that was on migration. As I still have some uncertainty about the identification I will not be adding it to my life list, but I may go and see if I can see this beautiful bird next year.

AirTraffic Worldwide

When you see something like this you realise just how many people are moving around our planet.

Improving Habitat for Fallow Deer

About three months ago I was contacted by an organisation who wanted my input on a project to relocate some Fallow Deer. As relocating wildlife populations have had mixed results I was sceptical but I agreed to look over the plans. I kept an open mind, but was prepared to ask tough questions. Further I made it clear that I was prepared to look hard at the plan to ensure the plan was appropriate and workable. I was quietly pleased when the people involved were pleased with me taking this sort of stance as they really wanted it to work.

The organisation involved is a social housing organisation, a housing trust. The problem was that they were in the process of acquiring some land from a developer to build social housing, not just that but environmentally sustainable housing. Thus this interested me also. However, the site was next to a SSSI (Site of Specific Scientific Interest). The problem was that the developer had jumped the gun and started clearing the site when they had first acquired the site this had enabled the fallow Deer to wander in to the SSSI site and were damaging the habitat. Previously the scrub on the development plot was preventing this.

Anyway, I could see that there is a real need to move the deer, but I did not like the plan that they were thinking of using. This effectively was going to be attempting to herd them like sheep. Further, I asked the question of why would the Deer want to move?

Well a plan was needed to improve the original habitat for the deer, so there will be a program of planting trees and shrubs over this winter as a start. Also and this is where events have assisted, the plan to build on the development plot has been put on hold, that will allow time for the newly replanted habitat to re-establish itself. Further, it means that by using temporary fencing the Deer can be moved off of the SSSI on to the development plot until the land is actually needed. All this should mean that by the time the building work needs to start the newly invigorated habitat will be ready for the Deer.

So what appeared to be a difficult problem appears to have some very simple solutions. While I can not reveal the location at the moment, I hope that over the next few years I will be able to film the work as it progresses.

Off the Beaten Track

I can always tell when I need to do some laundry as I either run out of or come close to running out of knickers. So I realised Saturday that I would need to get some washing done on Sunday. As I don't have a washing machine that means doing it the old fashioned way, in the bath. Now to go off on a tangent, my cat has for some years preferred to drink from a running tap. She will often fuss me and call me to turn the tap on to do this. Even though there will be a bowl of fresh water for her in the kitchen. Well today she heard the tap running and was into the bath room like a shot. She came back out just as quickly leaving a trail of wet paw prints trailing through the house.

If anyone has tried to dry a cat you will know that its not easy. Finally she settled down on my bed so I knew that I would need to change the bedding too. Thanks Trouble, thats the cats name “Trouble”

I also thought that it was a good opportunity to get some housework done. Now before any of my female readers start fainting from shock, I do housework like a man, badly! I do try and keep on top of it, but I would rather spend my time walking or reading. That said I do try to keep the place fit for anyone who may call round.

I was in the middle of running around with the vacuum cleaner, next time I may turn it on, when there was a knock at the door. It appears that my mobile has ceased to work. Well I hope I did not disturb to many people around the world when I cheered at that news. But it meant that someone who had wanted to contact me was not able to. I told him that he could have called my land line or even sent me an email, but instead he had driven over. Some people just don't think about Climate change.

Well as interesting as what he told me was, I declined his request for me to help with a project he and his friends have undertaken. While I can and do get involved with conservation work, there is a limit to what I can do as an individual. Also, I prefer to get involved with conservation that benefits wildlife and is not just for benefit of people. This particular project they were advised, by a professional ecologist, risked damaging habitat rather than improving it.

So I was free to enjoy my Sunday. Well apart from the housework that is. However, as my mobile has died, I thought I should check on other people who may have needed to contact me and to let important contacts know that my mobile was now defunct. A couple of people I called, but I passed the good news (do you like mobile phones?) on by email. While I did the a decidedly damp cat came and sat on my lap.

While sitting at the computer, the phone rang. It was my friend for whom I had said I would walk her dog. I had just mailed her, and it made her realise that my offer had been a genuine one. So could she divert her sister who was coming to see her so that I could walk the dog. While it was a change to my plans, I had got some of my place sorted out, so why not.

I just grabbed my binoculars and jacket and was ready to go. Because of where my friend lives I knew exactly where I could take the dog. Also as my friend had not been able to do more than take her dog out to do her business, she needed to have a good walk. Telling her where I was going everyone was happy.

I went to the wood that I had discovered and we went round the laid trails. It was great for me as I was able to work out what parts of the wood and habitat were worth looking at more carefully. It is full of fungi at the moment and I think that there will be places that will be great for wild flowers in the spring too. Now I have always assumed that trying to watch wildlife with a dog would not be that successful, but as this dog is so well behaved I was delighted when I saw a Deer and she just laid at my feet while we waited for the Deer to move on. Also its clear that the dog was genuinely pleased to please me.

Although we both nearly ended up in the dog house as we were both rather mud splattered when we got back. The dog really enjoyed getting a hose down, I less so. But at least I would dry off walking home.

While I was walking the dog, I did not see a single person in the wood or on the footpaths. It is strange but so many people just go to the places where everyone else goes and then complain that they cant get the peace they seek. Well the peace is there off the beaten track.

Banks Housing and the Economy

I have been going on about the sustainability of house prices for longer than this Web log has existed and I have said that it would end and that prices would crash. I also predicted that the Greening of the planet was likely to start with an economic crash rather than an environmental disaster. That does not mean that there will not be something significant that will not happen. In fact I still think that we will see an environmental event so profound that it will shock us into respecting the environment, and I still think this will happen soon. By soon I mean the next three to five years. Based upon the present state of knowledge, I think it is likely to be a sudden rise in sea level. However, it is the financial events that are most profound effect at the moment.

While I will concentrate upon the British economy, many of the broad brush strokes apply across the world.

Recently it was reported that the British economy had not grown for the last two quarters, but if you take out the increases in property values from that then the British economy has in fact been shrinking. When this end to the supposedly steady growth was reported, the BBC reported that the economy over the last ten years had grown by 450 million pounds. While that may sound like a large amount what is not often understood is that when we have flooding events that cost more than a billion pounds, of witch there have been several in the past ten years, this all gets counted towards the gross domestic product the way that the economy is measured. Now, with flooding alone having cost at least 450 billion, then where is the growth?

All we have really been measuring is the cost of repairing damage, the cost of replacing what we already had.

The other important aspect of the illusion of the rise in property values. I call it an illusion as this has been driven by a supposed shortage in accommodation. Even in London more than twenty percent of homes are empty. Not a figure plucked out of the air, but statistics gathered by the housing charity Shelter. What people should have been talking about is a shortage of affordable housing.

While I don't think that it was ever planned that way, the more I have researched this the more convinced I am that the banks and the government knew that they were spinning a lie to the public as the banks were making money from making loans, the government were making billions from stamp duty (a property sales tax), and the property developers were making money from building more and more. This was all sustained only if the lie could be maintained only if we all kept on perpetuating the myth of a housing shortage.

There is also a further factor here, as no matter how much house prices rose, it never filtered through to the rate of inflation because of the way that inflation is measured. When calculating inflation it is only the cost of the loan that counts not the capital repayments. While the increases in property values has increased rents as well, as only thirty percent of us rent, then only a small portion of rent increases counted towards the measured rate of inflation. Thus we could have house prices supposedly rising by three hundred percent and it having little or no effect upon inflation.

What effects there were were also masked by the fact that so many of our consumer goods were coming from China where they could be manufactured extremely cheaply. With items like clothing, Electrical and Electronic goods actually falling in price, the real rate of our inflation was in fact being hidden.

Then it has to be remembered that this consumer spending has not been funded by earnings from greater efficiency, but from borrowing. In Britain the average person owes over twenty-four thousand pounds and that excludes housing finance. Now in Britain the average wage is twenty-four thousand pounds per year, that means that Mr or Ms average owes a years wages before tax.

All this spending created an illusion of a growing and vibrant economy, but we have been spending tomorrows earnings. The accumulated personal debt is over one trillion pounds (about two Trillion Dollars). That is greater than the gross domestic product of the UK economy and it was this debt that was funding the banks.

The money that banks were making from housing finance was minimal, only about six pounds per every hundred and that on the whole life of a twenty five year old loan. While the personal finance loans were generating earnings of twenty percent plus per annum. However, all this was only sustained by the mythology of ever increasing house prices. The moment that house prices started to fall then the whole edifice of the way the banks were lending money would inevitably collapse.

I have to say that I do feel for the many people that have been impacted by the Credit Crunch. The problem is that it is far from easy to stand out from the crowed and say that you are not going to play the same debt game that everyone else is playing, but we all need to learn to live within our means.

While the falls in house prices are are major part of why there is now a banking crisis, it is also the level of personal debt that is also playing its part, as people will try to retain their home by ensuring they pay their mortgage, they will reduce or even stop paying things like credit cards or non secured loans. That is where it hits the banks hardest as with secured loans the banks can get some of their money back by repossessing your home, on credit cards the finance is not secured.

What is actually happening is that sanity is returning to the market. It was never sensible for banks to lend mortgages of one hundred and twenty-five percent of the value of a property. While in a rising market it was likely that the increase in property values would mean that the property value could the level of the loan, it always was a gamble that the bank was taking. Further, the borrowers should have looked beyond the discounted repayment rates. It is the double impact of rising interest rates and falling property values that is hurting people. Then to really make matters even more difficult for people just when these discounted offers are ending on their mortgages the banks are not lending. While it is being called a credit crunch, there is not really a shortage of finance out there, what is happening is that that money is no longer as cheap as it was. Plus the banks have finally put their sensible heads on and are now actually looking at if people can really afford to repay the money.

While all this is very painful for many, the fact that we have been buying goods with money we have not earnt yet was never wise. Also, and for me more importantly, this has all had a disastrous effect upon the environment. With many people just buying consumer goods to replace perfectly serviceable items just because of fashion, we have seen more waste produced. With most of these goods coming from places like China, all this has added to climate change. This is where the reduction in spending on consumer goods will really help the planet.

However, the real environmental impact has been the building boom. The impact of the myth of a shortage of housing has been every scrap of land being built upon. For example in London anyone that had a seizable garden built another dwelling on the garden or sold it to a builder who built on the garden. Equally we have seen thousands of homes being built on land that was unsuitable for building, I am speaking of the many flood plains where new houses have been built. There is also the impacts to climate change from all the construction activity.

Further, where people were forced to move further away from the places they worked by rising house prices, the greater the distances people needed to drive has all added to the environmental impact of the tripling of house prices.

Now with the myth of a housing shortage blown apart we will see house prices falling to a realistic level. That average has always been about three and a half times the average wage that makes the real value of your average home Eighty five thousand pounds. Not a quarter a million or any of the other fantasy amounts that Harry Potter could have conjured up.

Apart from the fall in the price of homes to a realistic level, the end of the spending spree that most of us have been on will reduce the environmental impacts of the wasteful consumerism that has prevailed for the last ten years or more.

However it will be the way that the greed of many businesses have been harming the many for the enrichment of the few that will start to occur that will really benefit us all.

Don't misunderstand me, I do think that we will see more pain, and I suspect that the next part of this slow motion crash will be parts of the insurance industry. Also as I have already said I think that we will have an environmental event that will shock us all into taking Climate Change seriously. I suspect this will be a sudden rise in sea level of half to one metre. When this happens it well be so deviating that it will bankrupt the insurance industry. Not just the British industry or the US industry, but globally the impact will be so costly that the insurance companies will not have the funds to pay out the trillions of dollars this will cost.

However, I don't want to go off on an environmental tangent, as there is another aspect of the current banking and economic crisis that we all need to bare in mind. That of why the banks are no longer willing to lend to each other.

In the past banks it used to be that only when the banks had the cash to lend would that money be loaned to people or businesses. In that way the banks were relatively secure as they ensured that loans were secured and they knew who they were lending to. While there were other financial bubbles that burst in the past, in the 1920s banks loaned people wast sums to buy shares. When the Wall street crash occurred it was the realisation that this money had just disappeared that shocked the banks. It was this fact that caused people to commit suicide realising they had lost everything.

The depression that followed was caused by the fact that the banks quite simply did not have the money to lend to businesses, even sound businesses. That led to good businesses failing as they could not invest. But also it meant that in the US the Federal authorities placed a cap on the level of debt to assets of ten to one that banks could lend. A similar system applied here and this forced the banks to limit what lending they could make. Then in the 1980s here in Britain we had Thatcher deregulating everything, while over in the US Regan did the same. It took many years but finally the banks concocted products so that they could lend more, avoiding having to place these on their balance sheets.

When Lehman Brothers collapsed it emerged that they had a debt to equity ratio of thirty-five to one. That is for every dollar of assets the were exposed to thirty-five dollars of debt. Remember that Federal law says that they are legally limited to a ratio of ten to one.

What none of the banks are actually willing to acknowledge is that they all have a much greater debt to equity ratio than they have thus far disclosed. Therefore because all the banks know that they have this problem none of them are willing to lend to each other. If you know your lying, you are not willing to believe the lies of other institutions. They have all been playing that game. Additionally the governments and the regulators know this too.

Now remember that the major asset base of property is over valued by about two half times based upon the normal economic valuations, then there are at least six trillion dollars of loans that are secured upon worthless assets. That's a figure that is based upon the global banking system.

If you then add on the personal debt that is unsecured then the debt is over ten trillion dollars. And that is just based upon the personal debt of the US and the UK.

On a number of occasions I have spoken of the risk of debt, I never expected it to manifest in this manner. Nor did I realise just how vast the level of global debt was. What I want to know is did our government? It is clear that they have been Hyping up the housing market as it gave the illusion of growth and wealth, while in reality all we have been doing is spending our inheritance before we even get it.

Walking my Legs off

Yesterday I walked my legs off. It started very early in the morning when I went out to film some of the damage caused by floods for a farmer near Morpeth. The problem he is having is that even though he was insured, the insurance company even without inspecting the damage are trying to get out of paying out. So I was asked if I would film the effects of the flood damage. However, this meant that I ended up having to walk about eight or nine miles between the locations. I may post more on this at a latter date, as the Farmer and myself will hold the insurance company to account if they try and wriggle out of this.

Even with doing this I still had plenty of time to get out and do more of what I wanted to do. As I may have mentioned here before, I have been filming and exploring along some of the walks and trails around here. One of these is the Derwent Walk that runs from Rowlands Gill to Consett. While the walk its self is interesting in its self, I was also very curious about some of the elements that lay along the route.

So I went straight back out to Consett. Near the begging of my walk is Café and I decided to stop there for a sandwich and a coffee. I was pleased with the quality and the service and the place is a real gem. By far the best Café in Consett.

Then I had a shortish walk to the first location I wanted to visit, and I decided to go via some playing fields (Sports fields). I was just walking down the steep bank to them when I spotted a Kestrel. I had not even extracted my camera from my bag so as I tried to get the out, and load the tape affix the battery I watched in wonder as the kestrel was mobbed by a couple of crows. If only I had been ready I could have got some great footage. I did get a few seconds but the bird moved out of range.

For me that was a great start and it is always a joy to see birds like these. However I wanted to get to the location of the cemetery at Blackhill as there are two almost identical chapels there. They are now disused and derelict but are still beautiful buildings. Also I was curious as to why there were two. I filmed the first from all sorts of angles then moved on to the second. I was filming and the building was obviously once a magnificent building. On one was a rose window, the glass is long since gone and the stonework is crumbling. On the other the design is almost identical however, as I looked at the Rose window of the second I realised that it carried the Star of David. Now I understood why there were two, one was a Christian chapel while the other was a synagogue. It is a shame that they are both now derelict but at one time there was the pride in the local area to have built them in the first place. I think that I will have to visit the local library to find out more.

As I was interested in some of the other locations along the route of the walk I set off along the route. Almost immediately I had to stop and film the bees and other insects that were feeding on a bush that was in full flower. When ever I do that I always get strange looks and comments from people.

The last time I had walked this part of the route it had taken me hours to cover a few miles, as I was stopping to film a flower here, or a lichen there, but this time I covered the ground quite rapidly. While I do get comments when out filming, the majority of people are really friendly. As the Derwent Walk is a great location for people to walk their dogs, seeing people out with their dogs is not that surprising. However as I came round one gentle bend, I was faced by the site of two women with eight dogs, Eight Huskies. As one of the women was in a invalid car, at first it looked as if the dogs were pulling a sledge. But it turned out that they were just being taken for a walk.

I could tell you all the boring bits, but I got to a point where the route passes under a road where there is a great pub. As it was about three in the afternoon I decided I had earn a beer. So I stopped for a pint. Sitting outside at one of the picnic tables I sat and watched the world go by. I spotted what appeared to be a Peregrine Falcon land in a tree. The foliage completely hid the bird so I was not sure of my identification. But I kept half an eye on the tree. Then when a wood pigeon landed on a bare branch I thought I must have been wrong or that the Falcon must have moved on. The pigeon stayed there for more than five minutes then suddenly dropped out of the tree and there was the clap of wings that pigeons make. Less than a second latter the Peregrine was on it plucking the bird out of the air.

Had I even thought that something like that was likely to happen I would have set up the camera to film it, but it was over so quickly that would have missed it. Remarkable behaviour and what an experience. A fellow drinker also saw it and was all but jumping up and down with excitement.

As I walked further, I stopped to film one of the views, and I noticed a dragonfly hunting in the area, while I have not reviewed the footage, I may have got this on film. This delayed me and while I got to some of the other locations I wanted to, I suddenly realised how late it was getting. I was placed in a quandary as by this point I was at an equal distance between walking to the end of the walk and getting the bus home from there or taking another part down to the road and then walking along until I could get a bus home from there. Either way it was still a couple of miles walk . Well I chose the walk back, and in following that route I discovered what looks like a gem of a woodland habitat that looks as though it is not frequently used by people thus the wildlife may well be undisturbed. So I can see that I have more to explore at a latter date.

I was rather tired when I got home but it had been a really great day.

Geese

Well now I know why my bank wanted me to repay my overdraft. My account has a new owner, I am not worried by it, but I am angered by the fact that speculators effectively killed my bank. I may post more on this soon.

But now, I want to comment on a couple of comments. L, I agree that the comment that I received regarding my video of the bugs mating was sad. With so much that could interest this persons small mind on the internet, why read my web log if your not interested in the topics.
Also, in response to the question from my talking tree, Swans have a reputation for being fierce. I don't think he had his eye on me but my lunch. While filming that clip I was worried the swan was going to get even closer, but when he realised he was not going to get fed he went off disgusted.

Also, I should point out that when I talked of having a new friend, I was talking of the dog. The woman whose dog it is, is twenty years my senior, but as is rather predictable if I talk to a woman then I must be chatting her up. There are some folks in the village that have had me married off about half a dozen times.

Now it strange that Ms Tree should also mention Geese (play X Files tune here) as today I have been on the trail of Barnacle Goose. As Barnacle geese are an winter species it seemed rather early for one to have arrived. Also they normally are found on the west coast and not the East so it was rather unusual if true. That said rarities do turn up occasionally so it was worth looking. But while we saw plenty of Canada Geese, not a feather of the Barnacle Goose could be seen. I suspect a misidentified Canada one.

However, I did see a rarity as the sun came out today. I stood in confusion trying to work out what it was, but then I remember seeing a picture in a book once.

New Friends

After posting my last film here, I got an email telling me that my films are gross and my correspondent says that I should be I should be shooting them with fly spray and not a camera. While I was tempted to allow an edited version to be posted I decided to just reject it as I really don't have time to edit out profanity. I am fully aware that some folks dislike insects, but this is predominantly a nature web log and while some people may like all the cute and cuddly ones, we share the planet with all life. Now it may be that that comment, sent anonymously, was intended as a joke, but it just made me question the sanity of the person posting it.

However, as I don't just want to “gross out” my reader, I am including a posting of some film of a Swan today.

Also following my posting of the film of the flooding at Blackhall Mill, I got a rather strange email from a woman who said that she thought she knew me. While I did not recognise the name, I asked how she thought that? Well it turns out that she worked with my ex-wife when we first moved to the North East. She thought that she recognised my voice from the commentary.

I realised who she was as the first person from work that my ex had made friends with, had lived at Hamsterley Mill, not far from here. I had met her a couple of times too, but she had been a friend of my ex wives and not mine. So I was not sure what to do when she asked to meet me, while I have no problem with meeting someone from my past, or my wives past, that part of my life is over.

Anyway, she told me that she wanted to apologise as when she had met me then she knew she had been a bit off with me because of some of the things my ex had told her. Some of these she now knew not to be totality accurate, her words. Even so, I was not sure why she had wanted to meet me. Well it turned out that she and my ex are still in contact and a couple of years ago, my Ex had told her that, she (my Ex), wished that there was some way for us to get back together.

Well I have given the matter some thought and I really do not want to even met my ex, or know where she is or anything like that. For reasons of both our dignity I don't want to go into detail, but that was a different life and a different time. Both our lives have evolved from there. My exs friend said that she understood. But she also asked if I was not curious about my Ex, I told her that yes I was but sometimes its better not to know and that I was more concerned with now and the future than the past.

Personally I suspect that past baggage would always have been there had we met again.

Talking of new friends, when I first came to the village I started to get to know some of the various dog owners. Most of whom I only know as Mrs Rover or Red Setter woman, but the majority I get on well with. There was one woman whose dog, a Heinz variety, I got on very well with. In fact her dog took more notice of me than it did his owner. Well I had not seen her or her dog for ages, until today. I bumped into her as I was returning from my meeting with my ex-wife's friend. It turns out that the woman has not been well, and for the last eight months the poor dog has been in Kennels. Well when she saw just how her dog had not been getting the human interaction he needed she has taken the dog out early. While taking the dog walking is boosting her own recovery, I have agreed to occasionally take the dog for a walk myself.

Had I know of her illness I would have been to see her, but unfortunately I did not. At least by taking her dog for a few walks I can keep a check on how she is at least. While at times I have thought of getting a dog from a rescue shelter, while I still have my cat who is at least 12 years old, I don't know her exact age as she was a rescue Cat, I don't think it would be fair on her. She doesn't like dogs and would bully any dog given half a chance. I just hope that the poor dog can keep up with me.

Beavers are Coming

When I posted yesterdays bit of nonsense, I was trying to remember what the collective term was for a flock of goldfinches was, but I was not sure so I looked it up today and its a Charm of Goldfinches. Now if that doesn't generate a smile then I don't know what will.

I have had a smile on my face most of today as I have had various snippets of information that has come my way today. I had wanted to go out today but the weather would have risked me getting the video camera rather wet, so I postponed that until I have a dryer day. However being home meant that I was here to get some rather important phone calls.

While not the first of them, one was on a topic that I have posted on previously that of reintroducing Beavers back into the UK. Already a licence has been granted for this to happen in Scotland, and locally a plan is being drawn up for this to happen in this area. With the flooding events this plan is now being made public, and why I can now talk about it now, as the way that beavers manage their habitat will have some serious benefits in helping prevent flooding events in the future.

While there is some serious opposition to the planned reintroduction of Beavers, here in the North East we have learnt some very positive lessons from the reintroduction of the Red Kites. By being open and public about the reintroduction of the Kites the public were on the side of the birds. By doing the same with the Beavers, again there is likely to be considerable public support.

Further, data from a similar program in Latvia and Lithuania it was discovered that for every six thousand Euros spent on the reintroduction of the Beavers there, the Beavers created sixty thousand Euros worth of flood defences. That would have been the cost if they had to be build by man. If anything shows the value of protecting wildlife then this is it.

With Climate Change causing more extreme weather events, it really is this type of solution that will be the only cost effective way of lessening the effects of that reality. I will be looking forward to the day that I can tell you folks that I have seen my first Beaver.

Also because I did not go out filming today I was able to get on with doing some more editing, and here are a pair of Soldier Beetles copulating.

Goldfinches but No Deer

I have today had a rather fruitless but enjoyable day sitting in a hide waiting to try and film deer with their young.

The opportunity came about from helping one of the elderly residents in the village with her shopping on the free bus that goes to the supermarket. All I do is help folks who need it get their bags on or off, as do many others and its all part of the community here. But one day while I was wearily trudging up the hill with camera and tripod I saw one of the old folks from the bus. She was with her daughter. Anyway, we passed pleasantries and I trudged up the hill, I was gasping for a cup of tea and a toilet break if the truth be told. I was only ten yards from my road, I live near the end of the road so I was nearly home, when the daughter stopped her car by me and asked if she could have a chat. I told her that I had to get into the house and if she was willing to let me get there strait away, we could talk there.

I had just left the front door open for her as I dashed for the bathroom. Fortunately my cat had introduced herself to her. I put the kettle on and she agreed to stop for a cup of tea. What she wanted to do was thank me for helping with her mothers shopping and could I help keep an eye on her. Primarily call her if her mother failed to get the bus or her shopping. While I said I would I also explained that I don't always do my shopping on the same day.

While we drank our tea, she asked me about what I had been filming. As always I showed her rather than explained. This led to her telling me that her husbands parents had this land and there were Deer there regularly. Cutting this a little shorter, I ended up in a tent, erected by the husband trying to film the Deer. Unfortunately I did not see the Deer and when I was leaving I discovered that the Deer had been seen in the field behind me. Well another time perhaps I will have more luck.

I did think that the location would be good for birds in the spring, and had the tent been better sited I could have filmed the goldfinches that were feeding on the thistles there. It is one of those aspects of wildlife watching that can be frustrating, but it is a relaxing experience though.

Spiders and Badgers

I have been rather tired, as I have been busy searching for where the Badgers have relocated to. So I was not really looking forward to my task this morning. I had agreed to go to a location that is under threat from development. In the past there were records of a rare spider, but the environmental assessment provided by the developer failed to record it.

While the Credit Crunch has delayed the development, it still may go ahead and the important part of the habitat could be lost. The original plan would have left the most sensitive area free of development, but to mitigate the fall in house prices the developer has asked for an amendment to the plans that will now mean building on this sensitive area. Thus while I felt far to tired to go, others were relying on me. Also as first light is the best time to see and catch the spiders so they can be identified, it meant a very early start.

I had already prepared my books and guides, so I was ready when my lift turned up. Once on the site I was enlivened by the task in hand and once I had shown the folks how to catch the spiders, I had my work cut out identifying the spiders. I did have some help in that as I have four books on spiders, but the majority was down to me. We did not find the rare species, so it looks as though the idea of getting the area designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, SSSI, is not feasible. But with the diversity there is there, I am sure that a good argument can be made for not building on that land.

In relation to the Badgers though, the picture is so confused that I can not get a clear image of what has happened to the Badgers since the flooding. The problem is that the family grouping have dispersed and it is impossible to work out exactly who is living where at the moment. Add to this the felling work that is going on in the woods has disturbed the badgers regular trails. Also the tracks of the heavy machinery have left some really deep ruts in the tracks in the wood. Therefore, it makes walking at night rather dangerous. This is where the IR camera has really been helpful as with it I have foreseen where the dangers are. Eventually I will discover what the Badgers are doing but for now, I will just have to keep observing and waiting to see what they are doing. However of over forty individuals, I have only been able to find thirteen. While I know that in one of the setts at least one badger drowned, my fear is that the badgers did not fare as well as I first thought.

On a much more positive note, I have taken down the do not disturb sign for this week as the first episode of Tess of the D'Urbervilles is over and it is a very good production. The acting was excellent and the most difficult aspect, was well done, I am looking forward to the next three.

Yellow Staghorn

I was pleased with the response to the first of these films. I do intend to get out and film more this autumn, and I do have some other footage that I may be able to use too. I am no expert and I will only post a film if and when I am positive that the information is completely accurate. Therefore, if I have any doubt about what I have identified then I will not include it in this series.

There are a number of fungi that are similar in appearance and this series should not ever be used as a reliable way of identifying any fungi that people are thinking of consuming. There are some excellent books out there so it is far better to obtain one of those. Also there are courses as happens here in Chopwell Wood, where a real expert is on hand to help folks learn. So look out for a course or a walk where you can learn about collecting mushrooms.

I would also hope that people are responsible about not over collecting, as the visible fruiting body is the way that fungi spread their spores, leaving some behind to spread their spores is the only way that they will remain to return. Also only collect what you can use. I know of a few people that will try and take everything they find, and end up throwing out most of what they collected as they just can not cook and eat all of the fungi they harvested.

Most of all, please be safe,

and if you are in doubt about the identification then

don't eat it.

Hover Fly

For me one of the benefits of the poor weather is that I am able to get on with the cataloguing and editing of my video footage. While I am now very careful to create back ups and back ups of the back ups, I still have thirty five gigabytes of film on the computer. This I can clear only after I have made sure I know what's in each clip and what I am doing with the film. While some of it is for personal use and no matter how much you try and bribe me, it would just bore the socks off you. But as part of my rational for keeping this Web Log is about sharing and education folks about why the Environment matters, I do film with the aim of helping myself and others understand the environment.

Also, I am well aware that often I do film creatures that most people seem to dislike. As in this film of a Hover Fly Sisyphus ribesii. So I do apologise to my reader who has a phobia of anything with more than four legs, or my reader that walks bare foot on snails. However, every aspect of the flora and fauna of the planet has an important part to play in the ecosystem that we rely on. In many cases we don't even know or understand where or why a creature has evolved to fill that niche. Therefore, I will continue to film and show things that fascinate me and if for some they provide the yuck factor, well I am sorry but all these mini beasts are welcome here. Where I don't want them is in my kitchen or on the extinction list.

Snobs and Art

A recent comment prompts this posting after I told of an experience years ago with trying to buy a record in a specialist shop. The assistant had looked down his nose at me somewhat, the effect was not to put me off experiencing Classical Music but it stopped me shopping at that store.

Personally I think that good music is good music no matter what genera its from. It is often the snobbish and pretentious attitudes of some that prevent others discovering what is worth listening to. Be that music, poetry or something else. I love some Dickens but I also enjoy Science Fiction. Yet the snobs look down on SF as not being Literature. Yet often by placing a story in a different context such as another planet, can difficult topics such as morality, racism sexism and a whole plethora of other issues be aired. I think some of the best has been as good as Dickens. And this weekend is a television adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, well as a Hardy fan the do not disturb sign will be going up.

The person who made the comment also mentioned the small minded minority that look down upon newcomers to birdwatching. I would rather encourage others to appreciate wildlife, be it birds or whatever by helping them, rather than belittling them. After all we were all beginners once. I often find that there is a real comradeship amongst Birders, and I am as open to learning as I am to teaching. What amuses me about the pretentious Birder is that we are actually all amateurs, and often the jobs where that skill can be used are voluntary. As my bank manager is more than willing to tell anyone, well not anyone just me! While I am reasonably confident about identifying British birds, if I were in America I would be lost and be a real beginner. Not that I am likely to be going there soon... unless someone invites me.

Its funny, but I also have a liking for wine and Real Ale, both subjects where people can get pretentious. With Wine I have learnt what I enjoy and what suits my pallet and I like to share that. I am no expert but I know enough to be able to buy reasonable wines at at reasonable prices. With Real Ale, again I know what suites my pallet and while so many people will go for the strongest heaviest ale, I often find the stuff the real ale freaks go for, is just to sweet for me. As well as being far to strong, half a pint and I would be falling under the table. Equally they will always tell you that in the past beer was much stronger. Well I actually delight in deflating that bubble, as while there were some seriously strong beers brewed in the past, what was actually brewed and sold in volume were actually weaker than what is sold today. All checkable by looking at the duty the brewers paid to the government.

So often people will try to exclude others for many reasons, well if we all learned to share... Oh I feel all Louis Armstrong... What a Wonderful World.

On the subject of music, on the local News last night there was a piece where members of the Northern Sinfonia were on the roof of the Sage centre, for a photo that will be publicising the new season where they will be playing all nine of Beethoven symphonies. Now I have no idea if I can afford this, but if can I may go to at least one. Perhaps if I tell my bank manager that I will stop bird watching... No he will never believe me.

Osprey and Beetles

While I have been down to the river since the flooding, today was the first time that I was able to pass through Blackhall Mill since Saturday. I had to go to Consett to get some shopping, and the effects of the flood are still very visible. I wanted to return to film the scene as it is now but I did not have the time. However, what is worthy of comment was during the bus journey along the Derwent valley was that at East Law, the fields were still shedding significant volumes of water. So much that the drains at that point are struggling to cope and there is still a few inches of water pooling on the road at East Law.

While the remnant of Hurricane Hanna is coming here on Thursday, the forecast is at least that it is not likely to dumping the volume of rain that happened on Saturday, but I will keep a watch out on that, as forecasts have been wrong before.

Now I do have a plea to all my American friends, while we in Britain are grateful for all the gifts you keep on sending us, we don't really want your old hurricanes when you have finished with them.

To go off at a tangent, one of the things that I love about where I live and Britain generally, is the names of the villages and hamlets around here. While I often have to obscure the exact location when I am posting observations of wildlife to protect the wildlife, where I can it delights me to mention some of these wonderful places when I can. I am trying to discover the origins of some of these names as they are rather fascinating.

As my regular reader may remember, last year I spoke about helping carry out a survey of the bat roosting sites in the local woods. When I did that, along with other work of a similar nature, my binoculars suffered from the heavy rain that day and has occurred rather regularly. So I decided to buy a new pair. I decided to get a pre loved instrument as I can not afford a new pair that is of the quality I need. So I bought a pair from a well known auction site. However, I was out when they when the parcel was first delivered. Therefore I had to get a redelivery booked. Well they arrived and this morning I took them out to test them out in the field. I love them, and while testing them out I spotted something hidden in the trees. I moved in closer and to a better position, and saw an Osprey that had been roosting over night in the trees. My guess is that it is on its migration south. What a thrill, as while they are seen from time to time, to see one roosting is rare.

Another thing that I have recent obtained is some specimen tubes for collecting insects. Part of the reason why I needed to get these is as it can be difficult to identify insects I needed to retain individuals for identification when carrying out a survey. Often when trying to work on improving a habitat it is vital to know what is there in the first place. Anyway, I also realised that I could use these to collect individual insects with the aim of photographing them. So I have been carrying a few of the collecting tubes in my pocket. This morning I spotted two beetles and collected them safely. I was then able to film them at home. One I got some film off but it did a rapid escape. The second was far more cooperative and I got some great film of it. The one that got away was just a common ground beetle, Amara aulica, but the other a weevil, Crytorhynchidius lapathi, I was able to return to the location of its collection so I am not harming the ecology in any way.

While I was doing the filming, the water engineer who is also an amateur archaeologist turned up. He was fascinated to see the beetles especially in close up, and he said that all this could be useful as he wants me to help with some environmental survey work. So it looks like my building up contacts is paying off. However, while we were talking, he did stop and ask “What did I want to do when I grow up” I told him that I don't want to grow up if it means loosing my childlike wonder at the world.

Higgs Boson

I was rather amused to hear Professor Stephen Hawking's being interviewed on the radio this morning as he has a $100 bet that the Higgs Boson will not be found.

Now for those that don't know this particle should exist according to the theoretical model of the universe as it is what gives mass to everything. For that reason it is called the god particle. Well personally I hope they don't find it as that way new theories will have to be developed that would then also explain dark matter. Something the current theoretical model doesn't.

Also I hope that they don't find it, as just in the real world, god doesn't exist.

The Loss of The Lungs of our Planet

Now why is it that when your in the bath the telephone always rings?

Yesterday as I was getting out of the bath a friend called. As he knows that I often don't watch that much television, he called to let me know that there was a news program that I was likely to be interested in. I was and I will talk of these in a moment. But first I need to tell you that I made a mistake yesterday. After talking on the phone I started to upload a video to You Tube, but I must have clicked on the wrong file, as it was not until today that I realised the I had tried to upload one already there. Therefore, the video was not showing on my posting until I corrected this. So I am sorry to the folks who tried to see this but could not.

However, because of this I also discovered that my footage of the Flooding at Blackhall Mill, the village down the hill from me, is my most watched film. Firstly though I want to thank all the folks that responded to this film, unfortunately as I get about fifty emails per day, I can not respond to everyone personally, but it is really heart warming to know that so many people care. My emotions are mixed though as I would rather that it had been a film of something pleasant that was the most watched, and not one of a rather stressful incident. I am just glad that there was no loss of life and while a hundred homes had to be evacuated, I am acutely aware of it could have been far worse.

Anyway, last night there was a program about the way that some of the rubbish that is supposed to be going towards recycling is actually being shipped overseas and ending up in landfill in India of all places. That's five thousand miles away. While I disliked the tone of the program it was rather shocking that instead of the materials we carefully sort so help reduce the use of natural resources and to stop wasting energy is just ending up in land fill.

Further, the program showed that even what is supposed to sorted waste is contaminated as in the example of bales paper that was full of plastic. Making them not viable for recycling. The problem is not the local authorities but the private companies that are paid by local government to sort the waste. I am just glad that I take all my recycling to the collection point myself and do not put it into the mixed box that my council provides. The main reason I do this as I often collect other peoples rubbish that they throw away in the wood. It is clear that we really do need to do more as a society. The problem seem to me that it is an attitude that far to many people are not prepared to take responsibility for their own rubbish and think that its someone else's responsibility. Yet here in Britain the cost of disposing of rubbish is growing, it costs municipal authorities one hundred and fifty pound per ton to send rubbish to land fill. If we actually had to pay that cost personally, I bet that there would be a real change in our attitudes to waste.

The other program was about the continuing and increasing destruction of the rainforest. In Brazil the rate of destruction is faster and greater than ever before. While there are many reasons for this, but it is the rate of the destruction that is really alarming. There will come a point when we will rue what we are doing to our planets ecosystems. I know that the majority of people do care about what is happening, but feel powerless to stop the destruction. Yet we do have some power it is the power of the Dollar, Pound or Euro in our pockets. If we don't buy products made from exotic hard woods then the people who are illegally logging the rainforest will no longer make money from this destruction. It really is that simple.

Equally when buying foods if we avoid buying agricultural products that come from Brazil, there will be a rapid end to the destruction of the lungs of our planet.