The mind boggles. It really does!
I saw another notice today, one which I did like. I was at Trinity Hill and as I went to look in a field I've always liked the look of (having seen a few Redstarts. Wheatears and Whinchats in it over the years) I noticed there was a new stile and a sign by the gate thus..
New permissive paths around Great Trill Farm. I'll certainly be giving them a try.
I'll definitely be visiting the Trinity Hill Beacon Field more often now too.
Trinity Hill Beacon
The highest point for miles around and a good spot for migrants especially in the autumn.
I've managed to add a few common birds to my patch photo-year-list over the last few days...
No.87 Red-legged Partridge
No.88 Great Spotted Woodpecker
No.89 Kestrel
No.90 Blackcap
N0.91 Magpie
N0.92 Raven
My first Small Copper of the year.
6 comments:
Love the blackcap photo!!
next time allow the mind to boggle on who pays for all the great reserve work and how to keep them paying.
Sadly not all taxpayers are birders and somehow need to be engaged with the outside world in order to conserve it.
Thanks Lou Mary :-)
Anonymous, I'm happy to agree to disagree. However, I wasn't aware that barbecues were routinely used as an incentive to keep taxpayers paying their taxes. I thought avoiding imprisonment was the main incentive used.
And if anyone needs to go to a barbecue in order to be engaged in the outside world then there really isn't any hope for us.
Great to see the Small Copper,love this post and the one before.
John.
Dear Karen,
We are glad that you appreciate using the fantastic birdwatching facilities that are on offer at the Axe Estuary Wetlands, though as ‘Anonymous’ suggests, this site (like our many other nature reserves) is intended to appeal to and be used by many user groups, from the serious twitcher right down to folks who just want to get a breath of fresh air.
Part of our remit and our purpose is to work to protect our local environment, and believe it or not the best way we can do this in the long term is to engage with people and to make them care a little bit more about their local patch. If we do that then who knows - we might just change people’s behaviour enough to make a difference to this slippery slope of a 6th great extinction that we’re currently on.
Now while a barbecue might not seem like an obvious way of doing this, food is a great lure, and if the people who come for a good time at the barbecue see what a great place it is, they might come on future events and learn more about the fantastic wildlife we have in East Devon. They might even take up birdwatching, which I know you would strongly endorse. If they do, I hope you can see that when you look at the bigger picture, events such as these are an important part of what we do in order to reach out to everyone, and to change the way they look at our local environment.
Many, many people in the Seaton area still are completely unaware of the gem that’s on their doorstep – this event is aimed at remedying that, so that families know where they can enthuse the next generation of naturalists – as I’m sure you’re aware we in the conservation world have a need to reconnect children with nature, following the recent Natural Environment White Paper. This is what we are trying to achieve!
Best wishes,
Steve Edmonds,
Nature Conservation Officer, EDDC
Steve,
Thankyou for taking the time to comment. I'm sorry that you felt the need to,on the basis of what was a fairly flippant comment about your barbecue idea on my lowly little blog ;-)
Don't get me wrong, I do understand what you are trying to do on the Axe Wetlands but I just feel that you sometimes get the balance between what 'punters' might want as opposed to what's best for wildlife and to me it all seems more like a 'nature theme park' than a reserve.
I also have doubts as to whether trying to engage the young with nature in this way is really worthwhile. From personal experience I feel that a love of natural history is somehow innate in some people. I've always been fascinated in wildlife and the natural world for as long as I can remember but my parents weren't interested and certainly never took me to any reserves. My own children who are now adults are also completely unmoved by natural history despite my attempts to stimulate some kind of interest of it in them. Nothing has rubbed off...sadly :-(
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