Wild life worries
It has happened again.
“Road closed,” it said.
But this time it was not for road works or filling potholes.
It is for the toads. At this time of year toads are on the move, walking en masse to their breeding grounds and it just so happens that I came to a road
that crosses a path on their migration route. The road has been closed
temporarily for about six weeks so that these amphibians can cross in safety.
This is an official ‘toad crossing’ without the zebra markings. More than a
thousand will use it in these next few weeks.
You would think that our new garden was an official crossing
for birds. We have a bird table which we have hung with all sorts of treats,
peanuts, fat balls and mixed seeds. Added to that I offer titbits from the
kitchen like breadcrumbs and cheese morsels. But the blue tits and other little
birds turn up their beaks and fly over to the other houses. Is their bird table
smarter than ours? Or is their food more delicious than mine? Whatever the
reason the small birds are not visiting our garden.
I watch as they settle on our holly tree and then purposely
ignoring us, pretending we are not there and not looking sideways they head off
for more upmarket feeding stations. They remind me of drivers who do not want
to let you in, who drive straight ahead. They do not look, ‘I can’t stop
because I can’t see you’. The little birds are the same they go past with
blinkered eyes.
Magpies, however, do look and big black crows love the food,
especially the fat and cheese. I am hoping that eventually we will be able to
interest the small birds. But did you know that wild birds are on the decline? A
DEFRA study has shown that since 1970 the woodland bird population has fallen
by about a third and farmland birds by almost double that. No wonder we have fewer
birds in our garden.
Should we care and what should we do? Well, the loss of
birds is probably a sign that other things are going wrong like the loss of
insects. It could be to do with our modern farming and there is nothing I can
do about that. But I can alter our garden and leave neglected areas and some
scrubby land. Garden ‘weeds’ could be encouraged. Perhaps we could leave the
weeds to seed in our new neat lawn. The birds
would love us then.
But I am not sure our neighbours will approve, as unwanted
plants will spring up in their gardens and anyway, they have enough birds.
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