NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Guess who said: "There's much more reality here (in New Zealand). Everyone's much more clued up to diseases. The world isn't like The Wind in the Willows." and "I get slightly bored with these rather high-profile public entertainers sort of bossing around on this stuff." Yes, it's Cabinet Minister for the Environment Owen Paterson, speaking in New Zealand about the proposed badger cull in the UK and a very thinly veiled attack on Dr Brian May. This is the same minister who stormed out of a debate on the cull in the House of Commons saying "I can't stand any more of this". Well, do you know what matey, I can't stand any more of you pal. If you cannot discuss this cull like an adult, if you cannot talk with reason, if you cannot behave like the public servant you are meant to be, then please resign. And take your self-serving mate Benyon with you. Wildlife is not a commodity . Listen to the impartial scientific expert...

A good friend of mine, after considering that my recent posts were of a 'reflective' nature, asked me if I was OK. This took me by surprise, so I asked my wife (who also finds the time to read my waffle) whether she thought that his observation was correct. She agreed with him, adding that my posts often betrayed a whiff of 'unfulfillment'. Blimey... I took a look back through the past few months worth of my posts and I have to agree with them. There is a lot of wistful thinking, looking back, shoe-gazing and self-analysis. Is this something to concern myself about? Is it healthy? Am I guilty of doing it right now? (No, yes and very much so are my answers to those questions by the way). This blog has never been about 'went there, saw that'. There is nothing wrong with those sort of blogs at all, especially when they are backed up by superb photography and boys-own adventures in the field. If I followed that format I would very soon have nothing to say! I'...

With the rise of ownership and ease of use of digital cameras, the number of birders wandering the field armed with the means of taking a photograph has never been higher. The quality of the results is, as to be expected, mixed - from the professional quality seen on some blogs to those blurred shapes that float in a sea of noise defying identification. This vast tide of image has had many benefits, one of them being a number of good species that have been nailed, that would have, in the past, got away... Beddington Sewage Farm has been fortunate to have Roger Brown patrolling the lakes with, rather than a telescope, a telephoto lens (that is longer than most small children). He is also blessed with the sharpest pair of eyes that I have come across. Small dots in the distance to most mere mortals appear as frame fillers to him - and he most probably was able to pick these dots up a quarter of a mile further away than the rest of us. But I slightly digress. Roger has a habit of seeing a...

With the south-east having been awash with good birds - Roller, Red-rumped Swallows, Terek Sandpiper - I did the sensible thing and went looking for plants - I'm nothing if not utterly predictable in my perverse choice of where to go and what to do. My location of choice was Juniper Bottom (where the Hawfinch flock was earlier in the year). The flowering season is, without doubt, behind where it should be. The Bugle (pictured above) was showing well, with plenty of spikes offering themselves for insects to feed upon. The trouble is, the insects are largely missing. Only a few bees were seen, and butterfly numbers, too, were depressed. I did see two Dingy Skippers and a single Grizzled Skipper, but it was hard work. Moth-wise up to a dozen Speckled Yellow were on the wing. Along the road by the car park there is a major botanical rarity - Green Hound's-tongue. A few plants were starting to flower, the picture above showing the muted dusky-pink colour of the petals. It ...

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." That is the final sentence from F Scott Fitzgerald's book 'The Great Gatsby' . In my humble opinion it is one of the finest 'last lines' in literature - economic in structure and oh so true. Why do so many of us reminisce and frequently visit the land of nostalgia? This is not something that everybody that I know indulges in. Some people shun it at an act of neediness or a clear sign that the present is not fulfilling enough. I quite enjoy wallowing in the past, and find myself doing so as a celebration of happy times - notice I didn't use the word 'happier'. Today's good moments will, with the passage of time, become tomorrow's nostalgia. When I look back at my own cherished 'natural history' moments, very few are about rarity. They are largely about feeling at peace, at ease or at one with a place, with the plants, birds and/or insects becomi...

So, Richard Benyon, the government minister responsible for wildlife protection at Defra (Department Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), puts the welfare of the introduced Pheasant, (and the wishes of the shooting lobby), ahead of the legally protected Common Buzzard. You can read all about it here . The article spells it all out - Mr Benyon is a monied landowner with interests in shooting and fishing. What possessed 'the powers that be' to employ this sort of person to look after our wildlife when that very same person has vested interests in suppressing (or controlling) said wildlife for personal gain is beyond me. A bit like asking bankers to police the banking system...

Least Black Arches - a total of five, this being the strongest marked. This species has taken off locally over the last three years - it used to be quite notable for the garden. Pale Prominent - just the one Waved Umber - a single trapped