Welcome to family, friends and visitors. Here you will find interesting (hopefully) pictures of my part of the world, news of our household and probably, long ramblings about anything that catches my interest.

Monday 16 March 2015

Grey.

Such a shame to get to the top of the drive and see a dead badger on the verge. The farmers hate them because they carry TB and pass it on to cattle leading to whole herds having to be destroyed. Unfortunately the government decided that the solution to the problem was to kill all the badgers in certain areas. As any ecologist could have told them this didn't work because not only was cull cruel, inexpensive and inefficient, the minute you remove the badgers (or any component of an ecosystem) more will migrate in from outside the area. It would be better to tackle the disease itself by immunising the badgers and/or the cows but there are difficulties with that as well.
On a more prosaic level it's now going to get very stinky up there as I've noticed that badger corpses are left alone by the birds of prey or other scavengers that normally dispose of roadkill. 
The weather has been much the same; cold and clammy. This morning it looked as if it would rain at any moment so for once I rearranged my morning routine and went outside straight away to shift barrow loads of soil from the compost bin to the wall. In the end it didn't rain until late in the afternoon and then not very much. I taught in the afternoon, more music and reading with the reception children. Afterwards I went into town to change my library books and buy some Easter cards.
Coming home I saw a small group of hen pheasants up in the field which has been recently harvested. Their speckled brown plumage blends in well with the soil and dry vegetation. 

2 comments:

happyone said...

Too bad about the badgers. You're right, seems better to deal with the decease than to just kill them.
We've had a nice sunny day today for a change. : )

Billy said...

I agree with you on how to fix the badger population. Too bad they can't do more about it.