I should imagine that my regulars will be wondering what I have been up to this last few days so here's an update. I have had a few personal problems with my band this last week and then when the dust settled, my family came down to stay which kept me away from the wildlife. Having said that, on Friday last I took my son and his wife to have a look at the caravan hide. As we walked up along the edge of the wood, I immediately saw a Buzzard feeding in front of the hide. We froze in our tracks and watched it before it realised and off it flew. We sat in the caravan and I had hardly said "we won't get another Buzzard down now" when there it was. Unbelievably the really light bird that I call Blondie was there and stayed for 20 minutes feeding on the remains. My daughter-in-law Carrie is lucky with birds, when we went to look for Kingfishers, 2 turned up and then when we watched Dippers they were just in front of us..... and now 2 Buzzards from 15 feet, how lucky is that. To make the point, on Tuesday I waited for literally 7 hours and neither Buzzard came to feed. Then today I watched for 3 but then all hell was let loose!!!!!!
The adjoining maize field harvest had started. At first I thought it was going to be interesting to see what impact it might have but then I realised that the peace and quiet was totally shattered and I heard a shotgun being fired nearby. I suppose the owner of the field has the right to do what he likes but there is a considerable contradiction in what I am doing and what anyone with a gun is doing and it does stick in my throat quite a bit. I packed up and then had the problem of getting back to my car which meant that I had to walk in front of the marksman! It's always intimidating to walk past anyone with a loaded gun. Having watched the wildlife around my hide for the last 12 weeks or so I was quite troubled by the potential slaughter and the obvious disruption. I expect it will be several weeks before everything settles down again. It will have no impact whatsoever on the small birds but I wonder how many foxes will be shot this afternoon. Very sad. I can't imagine that the buzzards will be too troubled either, once everyone departs the scene. I chatted to the 'gun" for a while and asked him what the attraction was and asked if he ever feltl any remorse? It turned out he was only 16 so I guess at that age you are just influenced by your peers. As we chatted his grandfather turned up and told me he had been shooting in the wood for the last 40 years and I didn't get his point really He said, 'live and let live" which is fair enough I suppose but is a bit of a contradiction really because the shooting fraternity don't let live do they? But I got his point. But just one thing, when I shoot something it flies or runs away and then everyone has the chance to see it a second time but when they shoot something it's taken out of the environment and then robs both me and them of course, from seeing it again. It doesn't belong to me, or them but they rob me of the pleasure of watching it in the future. There is no catch and release with shooting!!!!! I have had my arguments with the shooting fraternity on several occasions and you can never win, they are so entrenched that only drastic legislation will put an end to it. This may happen in the future but not all the time we have a parliament packed with the landed gentry who enjoy the delights of blasting pheasants out of the sky.
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