What to worry about

 

“Cronk, ronk, ronk cronk”

The nasal noise overhead last night was deafening. We rushed to the window to see what it could be. We soon saw the ‘culprits’. They were Canada geese forming a huge flock dividing the evening sky in their familiar V shape like cyclists in the sky.

It has happened again tonight just as the sun was setting. The loud honking drawing me to the window then the gasp from us all as they split the sky once more. Their long loping wings pushing their determined straight beaks and long necks to find corn already ripe in our farmers’ fields.  So luckily every night we have a Peter Scott sky.

I know we have these geese honking each night, but I expect you have noticed that there is hardly any bird song now. Lots of birds have finished breeding and have no need to be singing to attract a mate.

Have you heard that our Harper Adams University in Shropshire is a pioneer in detecting our birds by their call? It is the Green Box Project and it is using birdsong to discover which birds are in Shropshire. It is all new high tech and uses AI to identify the bird species. One of the sensors will be at Venus Pool near Shrewsbury. I sometimes go there so will look out for it, but I do not know what they look like so that could be difficult! What I do hope though is that through knowing more about our birds and their needs we can protect them more and understand their movements.

I read that after WWII our Canada geese spread across the UK. The reason is not clear but it is clear that not everyone likes them because of the damage to crops.  WWII conversation cropped up when I was selling my books at a craft fair in North Yorkshire last week. I was born just as the war ended so knew nothing of it, but we are 80 years since VE day and VJ Day is not far away. There were people even older than me recalling their experiences.

A Birmingham resident during the Blitz recalls the bombs falling.  Birmingham was targeted because it made military vehicles and peoples’ houses were destroyed.

‘I remember being carried to an air raid shelter,’ the man told me. ‘It was a way of life it was all I knew’. In South Wales a woman remembered her mother telling her that the planes overhead were trying to bomb the oil storage tanks and when they hit the slates on their house roof blew off.

How wonderful that all I am disturbed by overhead is a flock of geese.

 (Taken from my column in the Shropshire Star)