This week we have seen the weather return to something
resembling normality, sunshine and the nights creeping out further and further
into the fullness of springtime.
We are into the second week of the trout fishing season and
the river meadows are full of lush grass giving off the most fantastic heart
stopping emerald green beauty that you only do really see in April. Blossom in the hedgerows, birds’ busy nest
building and rearing their young, it is truly a magical time. New life and new beginnings.
We have got quite a few nest boxes around the house and
in the garden but an amusing incident my wife noticed this week on how a very
disgruntled Blue Tit was getting more and more agitated by the visits of the
postman. On closer inspection of
Jackie’s concerns we found that the Blue Tit in question was nesting in the
post box and was seemingly getting thoroughly cheesed off with the bombardment
of mail, mostly junk that was coming their way and disturbing them almost on a
daily basis. Without wasting any more
time and to try to gain parity of the situation my wife decided to make a sign
for the post box saying quite simply, “Blue Tit in residence, please put mail
in the bag by the side of, thank you.” Ingenious, I thought.
The fly fishing season started on April 1st and
finishes September 31st. The excitement of the start of each season
is as great now as it was when I was a ten year old. Then, the only excitement that could compare
to a day’s fishing was when I rolled up my sleeve and delved my arm into a
barrel of sawdust for the annual village fete, Lucky Dip. I just didn’t know what exciting gem or dull,
boring object I was going to draw for myself.
As much like fishing then as it would be today for each visit to the
river I never know what bounties I am going to extract from it. The uppermost constant is, a day’s fishing which
is filled with a beauty and the overriding irresistability of being out and
about amongst nature at her most prolific time of the year. Skylarks that high up in the sky you cannot
see them but their song from the heavens can melt away almost all of your day
to day problems. The Lapwings, Plovers,
Peewits, whatever you like to call them show off so flamboyantly in their
aerial court ship displays and so nonchalantly disguise pathways back to their
secret ground nests in the hope that their feigning of injury will throw their
predators off track away from their eggs and young.
The Moorhens, the Swans, the Ducks and the Kingfishers,
all busy, busy, restocking their countryside with their regeneration of young
to keep the countryside as full and as wholesome tomorrow as we all see it
today.
As I sit on the bank of the river listening to the flow of
water race over a few boulders on its way to a lazy meandering bend I see a
Heron stood on one leg just past the bend, almost in a trance waiting, for that
one fish. It is noticeable how the Heron
fishes where the water is slow rather than trying to fish where the water
babbles along at speed. As I watch, I
think of the Badger cull that is going to once again wreak havoc in parts of
Gloucestershire and Somerset and would like our own Owen Paterson, our
Environment Minister and DEfRA to be a little more like the Heron, to make
policies and determine their course of actions in quieter waters than make ill
judged, adhoc judgements in the rapids.
The future, having seen and listened to the evidence on
combatting Bovine TB is with vaccination.
I was somewhat saddened and disappointed to hear our
Princess Royal’s views as she described to BBC Country File that in her opinion
gassing is the most humane way to exterminate Badgers that could be a threat to
a cattle herd. In reality, the most
humane way of dealing with Badgers and cattle alike is vaccination. Of course, this requires a lot more nouse and
by its sheer nature, more forward thinking, but anything to spare us all, not
least the Badger from the atrocities that were unleashed upon him in 2013 can
only be of benefit to nature and conservation and the whole countryside in
general.
Prince Charles has done an awful lot for nature and conservation
over the whole of my lifetime and without doubt is a great ambassador for nature,
and not just this country’s conservation but the world conservation. I feel
sure that the Princess Royal too shares a lot of his views. I doubt very much that the Princess Royal
will ever read anything of the nature that I write about, however, I humbly
beseech the Princess Royal on behalf of the British Badger to grant the ‘Hard
Man of the Woodlands’ a Royal Pardon, for we, as a nation, simply do not
possess the beauty in such numbers as we can afford to shoot, snare, poison or
even gas one more solitary soul of them.
Watch my short film of a Badger out for an early evening stroll.
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