Its A Strange World

After dealing with my difficulties with the English language, and tucking in my Freudian slip away too, I headed out across the woods. I wanted to get to a point that is on the far side of the wood where I have been leaving titbits for the Red Kites and where I have regularly been seeing a Kestrel.

But it was the walk through the woods that was amusing. I had only just entered the woods when I saw one of the blokes from the village who used to regularly boast about all he saw in the woods. While I have no problem with a little friendly competition, when I first came to the village it really did seem as though everyone was seeing so much but were also rather aggressive about it, almost like they were staking a claim of ownership on the forest. Personally its a place to be shared, and while I would never expect them to disclose the locations of Setts, Dens, Lairs and Nests there was a real attitude problem I had to overcome. Now this individual always claimed to be regularly filming the wildlife, just as I was trying to do. But I never saw him with a camera, and he was frequently drunk and does spend most of the day in the pubs. While it was few months ago now, I had just been out filming something, I think it was insects and encountered him and I showed him the footage. Well since then, I have not suffered the same confrontational attitude from this disparate group of men. On passing and greeting him he said your out wildlifing again, as though he should be surprised. Now to me, I find it surprising that so many of the supposedly dedicated wildlife watchers spend so much time in the pub.

Now I have to jump forward a little bit as while I was sitting and waiting for the Red Kites, I spotted another villager who does get out watching the wildlife rather than just talks about it. As he was at risk of walking into the shot that I had so carefully set up, I broke my cover and called him over to my hide. He too had spotted the Red Kites coming in and was happy to try and watch from my better vantage point. It looked as though all my efforts were going to pay off, but a dog walker appeared and the dog started trying to chase off the Kite. The Kite moved off and we chatted to the dog walker who was alarmed that her dog could have injured the Kite had it not flown off. But was also delighted to have been so close to the Red Kite, she was ten or fifteen feet from the bird as it aborted a food snatch.

Well better luck next time will have to remain my philosophy. That had not been the only abortive attempt where others out in the countryside had appeared at the wrong moment today, but it was the most dramatic. While I can get disgruntled by inconsiderate people (adults) in public hides, or at a well known viewing spot, I see these sorts of disruptions are part of the filming or watching experience. As the countryside has to be for everybody.

Returning to the other villager, after having missed filming the Kite snatching prey from the ground, we chatted for a while. We were both hoping to see the kite return too. But he said something that I found extraordinary; that I had done more to get the villagers using the woods than anyone else ever did. I was really confused by this and explained what he meant.

My longest and most loyal reader, I think is still the only one, may remember that when I first moved to the village and was first exploring the woods I was told that there were Wild Bore in the Wood. Rather than being frightened by this I went looking for signs, tracks and traces, but could find none. While I learned from the ranger that indeed about two or three years before I had moved to the village two Bore had escaped from a farm, she had not seen any trace of them. In fact looking for the mythical Wild Bore helped me discover loads about the biodiversity in the woods. But no sign or trace of the Wild Bore did I ever see. A couple of years latter I discovered that the two that escaped were recaptured less than a week after they escaped. But while I was being constantly told that there are Wild Bore in the woods, by the same blokes who were supposedly such great countrymen, I was able to honestly counter that I could not find any trace of them. There was and is no sign of feeding, of wallowing or more importantly the marks that should be there on the trees, therefore I started to confidently say that there are no Wild Bore in the local woods.

Unbeknownst to me though several of these men that I was having difficulty with regarding the wildlife sightings were coming into the Pubs with stories of having seen Wild Bore and their dramatic escapes. Here in Britain I have for a long while said that every pub should be subtitled “Ye Olde Pack of Lies”. And it was in dispelling the myth of the Wild Bore that got people to start using the woods again for walking dogs or as a place of leisure.

But equally effective in helping others venture forth into the woods again was simply that I was going into the woods on a regular basis. When I first came to the village there was problems with Poaching. While that was predominantly rabbits and I was alert to the enquiries from people who seemed too interested in the locations of warrens or dens, I was also aware that Deer are regularly poached. This disrupted the activities of the poachers as they could no longer carry out their nefarious activities without the risk of being seen or caught. It seems that the Wild Bore myth was one being perpetuated by the poachers and by busting that myth people felt safe in returning to the woods.

While I can understand what I was being told, personally I disagree as people would have discovered there were no Wild Bore in the woods for themselves, it was a nice compliment. It is just a shame that the Wild Bore has been replaced by the “Wildlife Bore”

While that has not been the only source of difficulties that I have had in the village, this does explain the sources of many of my problems. As again going back to when I first went to explore the pubs, in one I was offered drugs by a young man that lived just up the street from me when I lived in the first cottage I was in when I first came to the village. As well as refusing the drugs, I passed details on to the neighbourhood watch. I discovered that the individual had just come out f prison after serving four years for drugs related offences. However, the young man's father was also one of the major poachers.

Therefore, there was a concerted effort by this minority to try and drive me out of the village. Well they did not succeed and the hostility and the problems have dissipated. I doubt that all the problems have gone and I dare say there will be some clashes in the future but as they have discovered I do stand up for myself. Even when one of the idiots tried to set my hair on fire, I dealt with it by reporting it to the police rather than just thumping the moron, showed that I was not someone to be messed with.

There were times when I really wondered what asylum I had moved to, but it really was the last gasps of the thugs to control and terrorise the village.

Anyway returning to my walk across the woods today, I came across some of the people that dress up in medieval costumes and come to the wood to play. Seeing any group that play with Swords and shields is amusing to me, not least because they take themselves far to seriously. To me it is just adult dressing up. As I had to pass this group I called out a greeting to them as I approached of; “Salutations, I am but a poor artisan on a pilgrimage, I beg the leave of your liege to pass unimpeded”

The two woman turned grinned and laughed, the three men just looked embarrassed at being caught playing their dressing up games. I wonder how they would have reacted if I had asked if they had seen “My Precious”, or asked for reports of orcs?

Well it takes all sorts to make a world, and at least it makes life interesting.