Websailor's Wacky Wildlife World
Created | Updated May 7, 2008
A quirky look at wildlife. To be taken with a pinch of
salt, but with more than a grain of truth!
Don't Fence Me In
When I moved into my house exactly forty years ago, all the gardens were surrounded by privet and hawthorn hedges and many people had their own vegetable patch at the bottom of the garden. Our houses were built on what was previously an orchard, and each house had a fruit tree in the garden: either bramley apple, pear or plum. Down by the river blackberries, rosehips and elderberries grew in profusion, providing a wonderful harvest for wildlife and humans alike. Men vied with each other to produce the best vegetables and women the best jams and chutneys.
The gardens positively hummed with bees, butterflies, birds and the occasional stray dragonfly. At night bats, owls and gloriously coloured moths swooped in and out of the trees. Then the pace of life hotted up.
Cleaning the car became the preferred male occupation on a Sunday morning, rather than the garden. The hiss of hoses, clatter of buckets and revving of engines took over from the hum of lawnmowers, and electric shears took over from clippers. Gradually, hedges disappeared, fences taking their place. Trees were cut down (for sunbathing space!) and lawns were replaced with decking, block paving, gravel, and fancy tubs and pots.
The convenience garden had arrived along with convenience food, and for those of us who watched wildlife closely it became apparent that creatures we had taken for granted were disappearing. High fences with gravel boards at the bottom prevented all but foxes, birds, squirrels and insects from gaining entry. Fewer native plants meant no nectar for bees, butterflies or moths. Greater use of pesticides and slug pellets killed off creatures all the way up the food chain. Manicured lawns left nothing for the starlings, tidy gardens and houses and no trees reduced nesting places, and there were fewer places for insects and invertebrates to breed. Ponds were filled in for 'elf and safety reasons and to save work maintaining them.
Farmers grubbed up hedgerows and farmed intensively with the aid of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides instead of relying on insects and birds to do the work. New, 'better' varieties of crops at times 'out of sync' with nature were planted. Progress was here and there was a price to pay. Cheaper food has been paid for at a high cost to wildlife, and ultimately to human life.
It became obvious to us that song thrushes were declining in numbers, starling numbers plummeted and the nondescript house sparrow, taken for granted by most of us, almost disappeared in certain areas. Certainly, in my garden I have not seen a song thrush for a long time, and only two house sparrows in several years. Hedgehogs, too, are disappearing, though in autumn there seem to be many orphaned baby hedgehogs brought to sanctuaries for feeding up as warmer weather confuses them. The seasons are changing, Man's habits are changing and it seems that some species cannot keep up.
This year is the first time I have not heard a cuckoo in spring. So what is happening? Ten years ago species listed as needing protection and special conservation measures were 577, and 49 habitats were included.
In the last week or so a new list has been published, which has taken over two years to compile. In it, some 1,149 species of mammals, birds, insects, invertebrates, plants, fish, fungi and sea creatures are under most threat of extinction. That is an enormous increase. Sixty-five habitats are also threatened.
Every creature listed is now protected by law and it is disturbing to see the gardener's friend the hedgehog listed along with the said house sparrow, 'my' cuckoo, starling, grass snake and harvest mouse. Further afield, the pine marten, mountain hare and Atlantic salmon are under threat of extinction.
My favourite so pretty moth, the garden tiger, is on the list too. They join the well-known names like the bottle-nosed dolphin and the otter. It has to be said that the otter seems to be on the increase, certainly in the area where I live, but the lesser spotted woodpecker, yellow wagtail and lapwing are joining the new list too. Further investigation reveals that long- and short-snouted seahorses are there too. Such fascinating creatures all, which could be lost if something is not done soon.
The list makes a depressing read, but there have been some successes over the years with some birds increasing in number, such as woodlarks, nightjars, bitterns, stone curlews and corncrakes. Habitat conservation is crucial, and a change in farming patterns, house-building plans and garden construction and maintenance will play a major part in saving such precious creatures. Pollution levels must be brought down, hedgerows replaced and chemical use reduced.
If this sounds too big a subject to get your head round, scale it down to what you can do in your own garden which will benefit wildlife and ultimately humans. Removing decking, slabbing, block paving, even tarmac in small areas and allowing nature to take its course will make a difference. Leave small areas untidy, let leaf litter lie, make a log pile, build a small pond or wetland area. All of these things will help wildlife survive, and will ultimately benefit all of us.
We need to get back our close relationship with the land and nature, and along with it some fresh air and exercise. A couple of hours working in the garden is a whole lot cheaper and healthier than a couple of hours in the gym.
There is another reason for backing off from covering every available inch of soil with a man-made material. We have seen horrendous floods in the UK in the past few months, and we are promised there is more to come. Water has nowhere to go except down drains, which cannot cope, so roads become rivers. Bends have been taken out of rivers, which would have slowed the flow in the past. Rivers and canals get silted up. We seem to gain nothing from experience. Houses are still being built on flood plains with no design to mitigate flooding.
To cap it all, we now hear that the Government is preparing to clear the way for more building on greenbelt land, as if stealing every oasis of a back garden or open space is not doing enough damage.
If we sit back and let it happen without protest then we are truly in for Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, forecast with such clarity in the early 1960s, followed by a silent summer, autumn and winter.
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