Deer, Butterflies and Village Life.

Well the last week has been rather busy, tiring and stressful for me. By Friday last week I was tired but hearing that I had obtained my IR camera, a farmer friend asked if I was willing to help him discover the numbers of Deer that were on his land. Near part of his farm are a small number of houses, and they have been complaining about the plants in their gardens getting eaten. Initially they blamed the cattle, but as he had to stop dairy farming when Foot and Mouth happened, (that's when I first met him) that clearly was not the cause. Then the owner of the majority of these homes, they are owned as holiday lets, realised that it was deer that were getting into the gardens and nibbling the plants.

However the owner(s) were not willing to put up deer fencing as it would spoil the view and reduce the holiday letting income. Thus the owners of the cottages wanted to have the deer culled. This has been on going for a number of years. The farmer doesn't feel that there is a problem, and when I have looked I cant see what the problem is either, what damage there is is minimal. The reality is that the owner of the holiday lets gets more money by keeping the gardens pristine and he wants them to look picture perfect all the time.

So I was asked to see if I could count the number of deer that are going into the gardens from the farmers land. No matter what is said about farmers in general, there are more that care about the land the wildlife and landscape than don't. Anyway the farmer set up in a copses of trees a hide for me. It was raised of the round so that my scent was not detectable, but once there I was stuck there all night.

Now as anyone will know, it poured with rain last Friday night. And I was in danger of evolving gills. I got the information required and I saw fourteen deer, five Roe and nine fallow. As well as many other animals, including a fox that found shelter under the hide and did not leave until morning when I was released from my wet prison.

Now I must say with all this effort being put into warming the climate, for us to be having all this rain someone is not trying hard enough! I am sure that there is some one that can switch on another appliance or drive around aimlessly in a bigger car so we can get the Mediterranean climate we all seem to be seeking.

Flippancy over, exhausted I went to bed, satisfied that the Farmer now had independent proof that the Deer numbers were no where as high as the Holiday cottage owner was implying. Further, only two of the Deer had gone into the gardens and they were the gardens of the residents who are not worried or complaining about the deer anyway.

When I woke up though, I was feverish and not feeling well at all. So I thought that I would take a few days off, let my body heal its self. And this was going to plan, until on Sunday just as I was getting out of the bath, the phone goes. Now in my own house there are times when I don't bother with clothes, so I was not self concious of my state of undress. I had dried myself and as the call had come on the mobile I was expecting it to be a short one. I was wrong.

Since last year I have been helping a volunteer group put together a proposal for turn some derelict land into some allotments and a wildlife area. I was initially contacted by the group via my old 360 blog as they had gotten a grant to pay a consultant to put together the proposal and grant bids. But through delays they missed out on two important grants they were hoping for. Therefore they asked me to act as a mediator and advisor between them and the consultant.

What I first found looked to be a bit of a mess as the plans drawn up by the consultant were incoherent to say the least. And the vision the community had wanted appeared to have been ignored. So with a series of site visits I got the people involved to work out what they had in terms of species living there, and we worked out what work needed to be done as well as what species could be attracted if certain plants were introduced. The main emphasise being upon attracting butterflies and moths.

Well all this had been worked out and sent off to the consultant by email. The call on Sunday was from one of the women involved in the group. As there was a strike by Local Government Workers on Wednesday and Thursday this week, the meeting that had been planned for the Wednesday had been cancelled However that was not the problem, the consultant had gone off on holiday, and knowing that the Wednesday strike had cancelled the meeting had not submitted the detailed document to the council. The problem was the local authority had offered them a new meeting on Monday or Friday.

So this community group were desperately trying to get a plan, a document together. The problem was some people had information on one computer other information was on another computer, and as no one had the same software it was all becoming a mess.

The problem was exacerbated by the fact that there were holes in the information, little details that mattered. So I spent an hour looking things up in books and on my electronic library all while on the phone. When I had finished, I look up and there are three children trying to peek into my living room. I quickly shut the curtain, I have a voile up as well but I am no exhibitionist either.

The following day, still feeling grotty from getting wet and chilled, I get another call from the community group while they had gone to the local council meeting on the Monday, the council were not happy with the presentation document. So I was being asked if I could re type it and put it into the format that the council needs. Plus I only have three days to do it in.

Realising how important this all was, I agreed to do it. When I saw the document I realised why the council were not willing to accept it. Even though I have dyslexia myself (I don't suffer from it other people suffer from my dyslexia), I could spot many spelling mistakes and the grammar and punctuation made it difficult to read. Now I am now typist so I got all the content emailed to me from the different contributors. Another aspect had been the number of different fonts and sizes used. That way I could edit it and use DTP to make it all look presentable.

With many telephone calls and emails latter I was able to get it looking good, and clarify parts that seemed to contradict each other. I even had to go and get the ink to print the documents out, and yes they will be paying me for that.

Then on Friday they called and told me that the council had accepted their plan and the council will be giving them a lease for the land. So that was a brilliant result. I suggested that they write to complain about the consultant who has let them down so often, something that the officer from the council also said they should think about doing. However, with the land secured they can get cracking with some of the work, as I know they are doing this weekend, While they await their grant applications. But even if that grant money doesn't come through, there is still a lot they can get done. I was just happy that I was able to help guide them along the way.

However, there is a twist to this as when I went to get the inks for the printer, I was stopped in town by a fellow villager and relatively near neighbour. I say relatively near as she doesn't live that close, but had the cheek to complain about my curtains previously and was questioning my movement when she had obviously seen me wandering about at “odd hours” as she put it.

Well she had heard that I had been seen wandering about naked. I told her that if I was seen I was in my own home and remaining very polite I did tell her that it really was none of her business. She then told me that there was a tale going round the village that there was a convicted pervert living in the village. Now I too had heard this and about the time I first moved to the village. I have no way of knowing if its true, but while people need to careful about who their children associate with, there is a nasty atmosphere developing here. One of the aspects of this village that makes it endearing is that it always has had a fair smattering of eccentrics living here. But of late it seems that anyone who doesn't fit into some stereotyped box is seen with suspicion. This suspicion is being generated by a minority who seem to have their own agenda.

This village has suffered from drug problems, alcohol problems and crime for many years. While those problems are still here they are far fewer incidents that was happening even three years ago. Yet when I first moved here I was told that all the problems were from people who moved to the village, from outsiders, but I have lived here long enough to have seen for myself that more of the problems here are as a result of indigenous wrong doers than from outsiders.

I told this woman quite clearly that I was not the convicted pervert, as I have had to undergo “Criminal Records Office” checks I have documents to prove that, and what ever her problem was with me she needed to get over it.

When I told the woman who lives next door, she was shocked that this near neighbour had said anything. As previously the same woman had said I must be Gay as I don't have a girl friend, my ex wife could quickly disprove that one. Further, this woman is apparently telling every one that I am a peeping tom, why else do I always seem to have a camera. Also she is apparently anxious to know who all my visitors are.

Now I know that my lifestyle is not a conventional nine to five one, but I can not understand why this woman has so taken against me. I have done nothing nor said nothing to harm her. But some people seem to just want to be nasty. Well I just have to continue to ignore people like that as I have better things to do with my time.

Eaten Alive by Midges

One of the reasons that I have no friends is, I very rarely get bitten by midges. When I am out with other people, it always seems that they are the eaten alive while I normally come out unscathed.

Well on Monday, after having been out in someone else's wood, I wanted to see what the Badgers were doing. While I am still waiting on the re granting of permission to access the main sett I have been watching, there are still other smaller setts I can watch. I was on my way to one of these when I saw a chap from the village, he was walking his dog, and he asked me where I was off to, I told him that I was going to see if I could observe the Badgers. He asked if he could come too.

I persuaded him not to try and bring the dog, and I waited for him at a crossroads n the track. As I waited I got a couple of bites. When he came back I took him to a point where I knew we stood a good chance of seeing the Badgers as it was close to a favoured feeding spot. Its very damp and there are a lot of earthworms as well as midges. I even scattered a few peanuts around to ensure they would stop in a place that made observation easier.

While we settled down I told him that he had to remain quiet. I know from experience that he can talk the hind legs off a donkey. After about twenty five minutes, he was getting restless. He kept on shifting about, but even so about ten minutes latter I heard the badgers coming. When I saw them, I reached across touched his arm and pointed. It was still light enough to see them clearly. In a voice far to loud he exclaimed “Badger”

He repeated it adding an expletive, that was untrue as the badger was feeding and not sexually active. The Sow, with her two cubs looked and scampered. I was more amused than anything else, as he was excited but embarrassed that he had scared them off. I told him that it was likely that they or others could return. So we waited for another hour or so. While we waited I was getting eaten alive, therefore I was worried about my companion. While the light had faded significantly, we were rewarded by three sows and five or six cubs, with all the rough and tumble they play it is some times difficult to get a tally on them.

Then after three minutes my companion stands up and says well I have seen them now, I am going to the pub. As you can imagine the badgers fled at this sudden movement. I asked if it was because of the midges? But he told me that he never gets bitten.

I waited another hour but when there was no further sign of the Badgers, I decided I would head back home too. I had suffered that night from the midge bites.

Then last night I wanted to check on the Badgers. While I love that other people are interested in seeing them, experience keeps on showing me that some people don't always have the best interest of the wildlife at heart. I did find the paw prints of dog down in the badger feeding ground. As this location is not near a path, its clear that I made a mistake showing my fellow villager the location. It may be some time before the Badgers return as the scent of dog will deter them.

This was confirmed as I waited a long while to see if the badgers showed up. When the rain started, I stayed for a good half hour, the rain can deaden the smell of dog a little, but it was clear there would be no show, so I wended my weary way home and to bed.

You Meet Some Great People Watching Wildlife

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No Poker Face

It's a good job that I am not a gambler, as if I were I would surely lose at poker. I am not very good at hiding my emotions especially when faced with a confrontation.

This was illustrated yesterday when I went to visit the local greengrocers. I had gone there to to buy some eggs for a dish I wished to make. In previous postings I have spoken about the poor quality of the produce there however as it was only a few items that I needed I decided to make my purchases there.

Recently the greengrocer's in the village had moved in to a new and larger shop unit and I was hoping that they would be improvement in the quality following this move. On the Wednesday when it reopened I had made some purchases and the quality seemed to be quite good. All the produce was fresh. So I was not expecting any problems when I went in on Saturday.

I have been quite busy during the day, so I was pressed for time, and just wanted to quickly make the purchase of the eggs. When it looked for the eggs all I could find were the eggs from the cage birds. Therefore I asked if they had any free range. I was directed to another collection of egg boxes and was told that they were free range. However, I looked at the codes that are printed on the eggs, I thought that the owner had made a mistake as the codes clearly showed they were from cage hens. Now had he just acknowledged a mistake then there would have been no problem, however he tried to con me into believing that these were as special code for locally-produced eggs. Having kept chickens myself and knowing the regulation for marking eggs, I realise that this was not just a mistake but that he was deliberately trying to sell eggs from caged birds as free-range.

Even so I did try and point out that the codes on the eggs indicated that they were form cage production, at this point the shop owner lost his temper and started ranting and raving so I just walked out. As a say, I know I have not got a poker face, and my emotions were written all over my face, and I had given him a withering look however I did not expect him to leave the shop and following me started ranting and raving at the top of his voice in the street.

On previous occasions when I have visited the shop and pass comment on the poor quality of some other produce, the owner has tried to obfuscate the issue by telling me how regularly he is inspected. It was not until think in about these events, that I realised that I have not been the only one that has received poor quality and poor service from this local shop.

While I do genuinely want to support the local businesses in the village, when it comes to food you have to be a trust the supplier that your buying the food from. That trust has totally broken down and I will not be using the shop ever again.

Perhaps I should explain for my overseas reader, that here in the UK and in Europe the Eggs themselves are printed with codes that designate the type of production they come from.

Organic 0
Free Range 1
Barn 2
Caged 3

Apart from the welfare issues of the different forms of production, the main factor here is one of price. caged eggs are the cheapest and the difference between organic and Cage production can be as much as three times the price. That incentive is why he has been selling caged eggs as free range. Further this has not been the first time that this has happened to me, and it looks as though this has happened to other people in the past. the number of inspections have taken place in the shop shows that other people have been complaining about the quality of his produce and his labelling.

As I've said before in previous posts, I regularly go into Consett for my shopping and frequently I'm told of the poor quality of the produce in the local greengrocers. Personally have think this is a real shame that a village this size is so poorly served by a charlatan who only cares about the profits he can make from the village. If he didn't treat his customers with such contempt he could have a really good business as there is a ready market for the service he provides.

Well sooner or later he will get close down as the locals will stop using the shop and complain to the health and Hygiene authorities over this form of mis-selling

To me it is clear that others have already complained, or why would he ever over-reacted in the manner that he did, I suspect he thinks that I have been the person has complained about the shop in the past, well not in the past by will be contacting the local council on Monday to make a complaint.

Local Wind Turbines - Not In My Back Yard

Tuesday night I had to go down the local pub. I say had to; (its a difficult life here) as I had to collect my eggs from a local man who keeps chickens and this ensures I get fresh free range eggs. As I was still excited by my observation of the Red Kites courting flight, I was able to share my enthusiasm for this.

While I realise that I do risk being seen as the Pub Bore, I try to be careful that I don't alienate people. Recently a good friend asked if I see peoples eyes glaze over at the mention of Climate Change, well as my eyes glaze over if I have to mention it... I just cant understand why people don't get it. So while I told a couple of people, I was surprised that many people then started to come over and ask about the Kites. Locally, people are really proud of the Red Kites and their success.

However, something happened that surprised me, one of my local readers, told me he could fix my other video camera. He described exactly how the fault manifests its self, so that gives me confidence. When I took the camera to get repaired previously I had been told it would cost a small fortune. However, it could be that it will be relatively cheep to fix. So I am considering the offer.

One of the other things that occurred was that I was furnished with some useful information about some local wildlife. While I can find the local wildlife myself, good local knowledge can save a lot of wasted effort.

I also got the chance to have a look at the local paper, there was a report about the possibility of four wind turbines being constructed locally. However much of the report was about opposition to the proposal. What appalled me was that all of the reasons that the opposition were putting forward were nonsense. It was a real NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) attitude.

In the past this area was built on Iron and Steel, Consett was a steel town and my village of Chopwell was created by the Consett Iron company purely to mine coal to make coke for smelting Iron and Steel. When the blast furnaces were closed in the 1980s it caused a lot of financial deprivation. However it really boosted the environment. The River Derwent is only as clean as it is because of the fact that these industries are now gone.

So for the NIMBYs to claim that four turbines is a return to industrialisation is nonsense. While some impact will occur, it will not be polluting. The other main objection was that it will effect the Red Kites who are nesting. While the Red Kites do venture to that area occasionally, none of the Red Kites are nesting anywhere near the site of the proposed turbines. They are at least five miles away.

While I feel that turbines need to be sited sensitively so that they don't cause environmental damage, we need the power they generate. I doubt that any of these NIMBYs will be willing to give up their cars or are prepared to suffer power cuts.

While I know that four turbines will not in themselves solve climate change, it is the accumulative effect of many small local projects that will have the greatest impact.

Filming Birds and Village Life

Before I even moved to the village where I now live and I was looking around for a place to live, a location that enabled me to be in touch with the environment, was vital. Partly this was because I find cities such depressing places to live, but also and mainly I wanted to live in a location where I could see wildlife daily.

So when I needed to obtain a video camera to collect evidence of my then landlords appalling and illegal behaviour, I thought ahead and bought one that I could use for filming wildlife. When I took her, my landlord, to court the camera paid for itself as I won the case. However, as one of the many problems with the property was faulty electrics, this damaged the cameras electronics. Therefore, I was not able to film the wildlife in and around the village as I wanted to.

That was until now, as finally I have bought new video camera. It arrived on Saturday morning, I am lucky as my post woman is very reliable, well as she lives just up the street from me, so I was able to read the instructions and get the battery on charge. However, I also needed to get into Consett to get some shopping as well.

Therefore I was pleased that the battery charged quickly. It meant that I could go out and test the camera and still get into town to get my shopping. I was out and not more than two hundred yards from my home, when I stopped to film a Blackbird feeding on the ground. I had only taken the mono pod out with me, so as I discovered my first filing was most definitely wobbly cam! However, I was leaning against the hedge as I (tried) filmed, and just two feet from me a long-tailed tit perched in the hedge. Right in my line of sight. I tried to keep the camera steady on the Blackbird while I also watched the tit. Absolutely amazing.

Filming is very different from taking still images, and I will have to develop my skills, but on the whole I was very pleased with the results I have gotten so far. Playing them back through the television, the picture quality was as good as the images broadcast on TV.

That is why in part I have not been able to post here, as I have been busy playing with my new toy. Also, on Saturday, while looking at a good friends Blog, she tempted me in with a nice snowy scene... and wham she gets me with a snowball!

As I said previously, I also needed to go and get some shopping. While I have supported the local greengrocer in the village since I moved here, I find the quality really poor. On the last three occasions when I have bought from there I have found the items have gone bad by the following day. Its not that I am storing the items poorly, it is the fact that the produce is just not up to standard. Therefore, I was prepared to pay the extra cost of travelling into town to get better the quality.

Well I was pleased that I did as even with the cost of the bus fare, I only spent what I would have in the village. However more importantly the quality was excellent.

While I do want to support local businesses and support local food, the quality has to be there though. It does annoy me that food businesses don't do more to ensure quality. While I will criticise the supermarkets the one thing they have got right is the quality of the produce they sell. The local shop, could do well but almost everyone I talk to say that its the poor quality that has stopped them from using the shop. What amazes me is that the people running the store don't even know much about food, they don't have the passion for food they need to succeed with a food business in this day and age.

While thinking about this, on the radio yesterday there was a programme that enlightened me. The Food Programme, BBC Radio 4, was talking about wholesale fruit and veg markets, and it confirmed my long held suspicion that many greengrocers buy the junk in the hope of a quick profit. Well the local greengrocer has lost my custom by doing that.

However, I was pleased to find a much better greengrocer in the town.

The trip back caused an interesting incident too. Apart from the fact that on the bus was one of the cantankerous and obnoxious residents of the village, it was for me without incident.

However, when I went to the Pub that evening, I have not been for many weeks as I was saving for the video camera, this cantankerous and obnoxious person was there. He greeted me by saying what am I lying about now. I long worked out that he is jealous of the fact that I have seen more wildlife in the woods in the couple of years I have lived here than he has all his life. Well you cant see wildlife if all you do is sit in the pub getting pissed. Anyway, when I had gotten off the bus, I had allowed this woman with her child to get off first. I had also made a joke about the unicorn hobby horse the child had.

Well, this cantankerous old bugger had been running around telling everyone that he had seen me with a woman. Now I know that in villages all over people get very nosy, but it did amuse me that so many people are so interested in my love life. As we have real problems with crime and anti social behaviour, why cant they worry about that?

Well if they want to know, I am not seeing anyone at the moment... but I am open to offers!