No book review this week – I’ve had rather little time for reading, I’m afraid.
As I travelled down to London last week I kept an eye open for Red Kites on the stretch of line south of Luton station. The man of the couple opposite me may have been doing the same as he spotted one that I didn’t see, and mentioned it to his wife. A few moments later, I pointed one out to him and the three of us got talking about first Red Kites and then birds in general.
This couple, retired I guess, came from Kettering and enjoy the Red Kites they now see above their home. The man thought that they were purely carrion eaters and I told him that was not completely right but pretty much so. Red Kites are primarily scavengers but will take a wide variety of small prey – birds, rodents, amphibians.
And then we got onto the state of birds in general. These two pleasant folk feed birds in their garden, like so many of us do, and were pleased by the numbers they now saw, although (common remark at this point in the conversation) all that bird feeding costs them a fortune.
They were surprised to hear about the declines in many bird species of the wider countryside but immediately assumed, correctly, that an important cause of these declines was intensive farming.
The couple were off to London on one of their occasional visits to enjoy some exhibitions and events.
I enjoyed our 20 minute chat. They were the type of folk with whom the conversation could have lasted for an hour or more very pleasantly. I’d guess that they vote Conservative but feel happier with the Ken Clarke end of the party than the George Osborne end of it. I’d be surprised if they do not give to charity in a fairly generous way according to their modest comfortable means. They may be in church this morning.
I mentioned that I had worked for the RSPB and they didn’t say that they were or weren’t members but I imagine they are, vaguely, supporters and could easily have been recruited to membership. I would hazard a guess that they have never seen a Red Grouse let alone a Hen Harrier but would be on the side of the Hen Harrier if someone talked to them about the crimes that occur in the hills. They would also vote for Bob if asked because they enjoy nature and would want us to be a bit kinder to it. I guess there are a lot of people like them.
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Pleased to hear that kites are now visible from the Midland main line, my old stamping ground.
I will be looking out for them on the Great Western line next week in the Didcot and Reading areas. Hope I have some interested fellow travellers too. The Conservation agencies are sometimes criticised for reintroducing big ‘iconic’ species, but they do grab the public’s attention. That said, Cirl bunting and Corncrake hardly come into that category.
Trains are surprisingly good for birding, but it’s there and then gone; around Reading good for red kite, 50/50 with buzzard
I love to see kites fly over our ordinary Corby council garden each day. We are so lucky.
This is the problem Mark, there are a lot of people out there who care but for whatever reason choose not to get involved above a certain level. Maybe they don’t have time, maybe they care a bit, but not enough, maybe they just haven’t found out what great things they could help with if given a little nudge to. We could really do with edging them toward caring that little bit more and to help the wildlife they love so much in many more ways.
With many economies failing the chance of extra cash for conservation is going to get harder to find. Like wise for people to join organisations. I always remember a friend who said that she paid out £50+ a year for bird food and that was her subscription to the RSPB. If it is just a numbers game then that 1.1 million is now around 5 million in active members!
There are thousands of people out there that would do more if made aware of the issues. I don’t think money comes into this at all as you don’t need to spend a penny to help. Providing an environment in your garden to encourage wildlife, volunteering on a local nature reserve or signing a petition costs nothing. I must at this point have a moan. When reading about wildlife issues on the RSPB website you will always find a link at the bottom that says ‘how can I help?’. Click on it and it takes you to a donations page instead of giving alternatives of how you can help. Look at their home page, asking for donations, join us, leave us some money in your will. All of this asking for money will be putting people off, I know it does me.