Jack Harrison

[NickB]

..... and the Grey Squirrel next..!
Felix.

Ugh! Tree-rats!

[NickB]

Scheduled Monuments and SSSI's are really tricky...
Serious example- Scheduled Ancient Monument and SSSI overgrown with trees and bushes which support a healthy (sic) population of rabbits and a good variety of butterfly species, including a few chalkland specialists, with residual chalkland fauna.
Cut down the bushes and reduce the rabbits and you have preserved the monument, for now; the SSSI (chalk grassland indicator species...) does not really regenerate, it simply gets covered in clematis, bramble and privet, unless it is grazed - difficult as it lies on a public footpath - or intensively managed (3 or 4 work-parties a year). The bird numbers have declined (no habitat) as have the variety and numbers of butterflies, which thrived in the micro-climates the bushes and varied habitat provided. There is no " seed-bank" waiting to spring to life, so a few species of flowers dominate and do well, but nothing like a "real" chalk downland. And on a windy day where I used to count butterflies by the dozen, I am lucky to find more than one or two, so open to the wind are the places that have been cleared. I do find a few more chalk-land species, in areas which are still grazed by rabbits, but that is certainly at some cost to the other species and animals that used to live there.
On balance, I am not sure that it does warrant so much effort when the real result is so far from the predicated results which drove the clearance project forwards in the first place.......
N
Did I mention there is a badger-set there too...?

[Jack Harrison]

"Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run Run Run,
Here comes that Felix with his Gun, Gun, Gun"

Not my suggestion but I am delighted to pass it on.

Jack

[Piers]

"Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run Run Run,
Here comes that Felix with his Gun, Gun, Gun"

Absolutely, rabbit is delicious. Beats buying some crappy meat from the supermarket, produced through some intensive method whereby the animal lived most of it's miserable life in agony.

Enjoy your meal, Jack.

[Susie]

I wonder if rabbits is the real reason though. I have heard of farmers digging up ancient hedges because they can get a government grant for planting new hedgerows.

[NickB]

I do get worried by the over-sentimental reaction to hunting. One of the best local reserves, and consequently, one of the best places for birds, insects and some flowers and butterflies, is a privately managed area of preserved fen and carr next to a remnant of council-run chalk pasture which runs down to it. The owner cuts the reed-beds on a 5 year rotation and it is home to marsh harriers and occasional hobby, herons and water voles, deer and a variety of marshland warblers and tits as well as numerous waders and ducks that inhabit the scrapes the owner has created. On one or two occasions a year, he and a couple of friends take their dogs and guns, and walk-through the reeds, where snipe and woodcock, as well as duck can be found.
It is a sustainable harvest from an area that has been improved to support those sorts of birds, but benefits a huge range of wildlife. I have met the owner - he has a deep attachment to the countryside. Not as something that is preserved in aspic, but as a dynamic working environment that can be sustainable and is to be enjoyed by all.
If we had more landowners who are as sympathetic and empathetic to the places they manage, our countryside would be a better place.
N
(I wonder what badger, rabbit and squirrel stew might taste like, eh Felix? )

[Piers]

Nick,

I hesitate to say this because I don't want to ruin the moment , but I think that we have found something upon which we agree, dare I say 100%...!

'The countryside' is (in this country at least) pretty much one hundred percent man made. It is a working, living, breathing organism fashioned by the hand of man, not the illustration on the front of a chocolate box; and for many people it is their livelihood and their larder.

What upsets me is situations such as in the New Forest, where the Rangers have to do their squirrel and magpie culls at dawn in the summer, so as not to let the visiting public see because of the outrage that would ensue upon the sighting of a trailer being driven around piled high with corpses.

Felix.

Ps: It was only a generation or so ago that in some areas (Gloucestershire certainly) that 'Badger Hams' were a popular food stuff, and the rendered badger fat was used for preserving. I have never been convinced (because of the animal's diet mainly) that badger would produce a particularly palatable meat; and an old brock would surely be as tough as old leather..!

[Piers]

I wonder if rabbits is the real reason though. I have heard of farmers digging up ancient hedges because they can get a government grant for planting new hedgerows.

That's an interesting thought Susie.

Would the grant, I wonder, cover the entire cost of grubbing out, replanting, and the associated heavy-plant and labour costs, while still leaving a 'profit'? If not, then surely it would not be worth the land owners while. If it did leave a profit after all costs have been considered then there is something desperately wrong with the grant system..!

This may be just an urban myth...

Felix.

[NickB]

Felix "I hesitate to say this because I don't want to ruin the moment , but I think that we have found something upon which we agree, dare I say 100%...!"

[Jack Harrison]

I’ve just been to look. The digger is no longer there, the bottom hedge hasn’t been touched (yet). The nearest hedge where the rabbits are believed to have their warren has been thinned but not completely cut down as it seems have been the original plan. Some mature trees have been left. If this is the final outcome, then this isn’t too bad at all.

I cannot say whether people-power forced the change in plan. I would like to think so but maybe the landowner/farm manager didn’t explain their intentions adequately in the first instance. I haven’t subsequently met any of the fellow protestors. Anyway, at the moment, there cannot be too many reasons to complain. Fingers crossed.
Temperature +5C, ie about 2 degs below long temp average. The battle between the cold air to the east and the mild air to the west should be over in a couple of days with the mild air eventually winning. But very dull today as the photo shows.

Jack

[Susie]

I wonder if rabbits is the real reason though. I have heard of farmers digging up ancient hedges because they can get a government grant for planting new hedgerows.

That's an interesting thought Susie.

Would the grant, I wonder, cover the entire cost of grubbing out, replanting, and the associated heavy-plant and labour costs, while still leaving a 'profit'? If not, then surely it would not be worth the land owners while. If it did leave a profit after all costs have been considered then there is something desperately wrong with the grant system..!

This may be just an urban myth...

Felix.

It could well be an urban (rural?) myth, as I have heard of it but never seen the evidence first hand. That the grant system can be a bit bizarre at times goes without saying though!

You can add me to the list of people who do not subscribe to the "fluffy bunny" mentality.

[Jack Harrison]

Aimed at the "non-experts" in our village:

http://www.greatchishill.org.uk/subpage ... flies.html

Jack

[Jack Harrison]

First garden butterfly of 2011, initially spotted by wife Suzie. 12th March, temperature 12°C

As usual, first sighting was on a big patch of ivy.

Jack (South Cambridgeshire)

[Zonda]

Nice one Jack. Talking about urban myths, is it true that we get New York's weather a month later? I think i know what the answer will be, but i have heard this from several sources and on a few occasions over the years.

[Jack Harrison]

14th March - single Comma Great Chishill in usual hollow. Temperature 12°C and 10 knots wind. Grid Ref TL 426 395

It almost looks like the summer form hutchinsonii but that is no doubt the effect of the light.

Jack

[Jack Harrison]

Zonda asked:

Talking about urban myths, is it true that we get New York's weather a month later?

Not total nonsense.

For example, in autumn, the tail-end of a hurricane might then cross the Atlantic and reach the western shores of the British Isles three or four days later bringing strong winds. It is thought that scenario is responsible for many of our Monarch sightings.

The atmosphere is often a series of waves that sometimes travel west to east. It can well happen that New York is in the cold part of the oscillation and we in Britain get the cold a few days later. That isn't strictly "New York's weather" but who cares - the effect is the same.

Jack

[Jack Harrison]

Zonda had a picture in his diary of an immaculate Small Tortoiseshell. I have yet to see a Tortie this year, but this Comma today was in superb condition.
It was in its favourite little hollow - a totally reliable spot every March.

Jack

[Zonda]

Well,,, what can i say? Nice work Jack.

[Jack Harrison]

24th March
Violets now in full flower. As I mentioned in another thread, many are white (but note the colour of the unopened bud)



Now I see them both on screen, I have to wonder: are they in fact the same species?

Jack

[Jack Harrison]

First Small Tortoiseshell for me this year in the favoured sheltered hollow keeping out of the "gale". Temperature 16°C. Only other sighting today one Brimstone in garden.

Jack