Pittswood Birds

Cloud, drizzle and at times heavier rain persisted throughout the morning and into the afternoon, making for a disappointing patch visit.

The visit became more than just disappointing though, as I was watching a LESSER WHITETHROAT (46) along the hedgerow at Ashes Lane, I could here the sound of chainsaw and hedge cutters coming from the nearby Greenhouse Grounds. I was then dismayed to see a whole stretch of Hedgerow and the long vegetation that ran up to it being cut right back to the fence line, no thought what-so-ever for any environmental impact, just the need to keep the field tidy, which has now turned from a wildlife rich place, to a sterilised field, covered by a huge black plastic sheet with plastic pots lined up in regimented rows.

Over the 15 years since I started keeping proper, detailed records of the wildlife at Pittswood, I have slowly watched the ruination of many of the habitats here, with the local extinction of species that all that brings, all for the sake of keeping things tidy. I have managed to stay focused however, keeping up my daily visits, if nothing else to record the demise of the wildlife at Pittswood!

Today though, was the last straw. I cant keep going out and feeling depressed and totally pissed off at the way things are here on my patch now, the point of getting out about is to enjoy and be enthralled by nature, but the nature is disappearing fast here now, I have the stats to prove it!

I am now seriously thinking now about quitting my patch altogether, I have been visiting for 15 years at the end of this year, and it seems an apt point to give up. My blog has been kept - almost daily -  for 9 of those years come October, that will also come to an end by the new year.

I will keep the blog and visits going over the Autumn and early winter, but they will probably be fewer, I will however keep the 10 full patch walks per month going, until to the years end, this will keep the 15 years of records all equal.

I may yet have a change of heart, but it is unlikely, unless things change markedly here.

What I will do with my time if i'm not out patch watching I havn't yet given any thought to yet........maybe I can go back to work, (NOT!)

For those of you who enjoyed my photographs, I'll still be posting those on my face book page and other wildlife sites, some no doubt will still be taken locally.