Nature Notes

[deebee]

A pair of large buzzards spotted over Hampsfell this morning - keep an eye on your small children tomorrow

[Mrs H]

Lark rise at Cranham today

[Wayward-O]

Whilst trailing my young daughter a couple of weeks ago at the BL district event in Coombs Wood, we both stood still for a couple of minutes and watched as a deer walked through the wood maybe 15 to 20 metres from us.

[Ed]

saw a wild boar bathing in a ditch (or rather heard splashing noises, rustling noises and then saw the big black piggy) on Saturday morning.

it was cold, raining and there was still patches of snow. rather it than me!

[EddieH]

Awk, red kites have been associated with man from biblical times. As carrion feeders man's detritus has always attracated them. Hence the ease with which they were almost exterminated by man in Britain surviving only in a samll part of West Wales - Was this because unscrupulous English landlords never ruled the rooset there?

[Big Jon]

Methinks some of the above contributors must have been partaking of the reindeers' favourite food - "magic lichen" to come up with that gibberish

[EddieH]

Well my favourite training run of all time when mydog was still young and fit. I was crossing a field and saw a fox coming towards me. I stopped dead still but the dog carried on. For 15 minutes I stood still whilst dog and fox played bouncing round each other but never quite getting in touching range. Eventually the cold made me move and off went the fox with dog in close attendance.

[Harley]

Every day for the past week at around 1/2 past 3, a Jay sits on the rotten log (placed just for this sort of purpose) just by our french-window.

And then today when I went out onto Sandwell Valley for my occasional stumble I happened upon a large white canis staffi bullcanis running free - no owner in sight. I was 1/2 way up an old oak before they hove into view - irresponsible b*st*rd.

[geomorph]

Spring is truly here; the white visibility replaced by lemon green, the white run fading into light green as the bracken and brambles emerge.

The bluebells carpet the floor of much of my local woods, but for how much longer?

The excesses of wildflower picking in the middle of the last century have been replaced by the excesses of the wheeled reaper - off-road bikes and quads.

They are, I think, of the motorised kind, but once their tracks are established the pedalled type follows behind, opportunists.

In the past two years the number of tracks in the woods has tripled, and significant damage done to the bluebell groves (more than the forresters ever do)

The landlord is absentee.....

Do you have this problem and is there anything legal that can be done about it?

[Copepod]

Geomorph - It might be worth talking to (in no particular order):
(1) Police - in some areas, they are keen on catching those illegally using trail bikes on roads eg on the way to woods
(2) Local Access Forum - local group of rights of way professionals and volunteer users (I was a member of Cambridgeshire LAF until it became incompatable with my work patterns, but when I left, there was still one orienteering and one canoeing friend on the LAF)
(3) County Council countryside team (or whatever it's called in your area)

Good luck. In the meantime, take photos.

[geomorph]

Copepod

Many thanks
The bikes/quads come in vans.... yep it is organised. They even come with chain saws to clear the fallen logs. Several Deer runs through 'walk' have been cleared of low level branches to provide trails.
The police, as you say, are keen on these things and do patrol - 0900-1730, every now and then. I've had several discussions with the patrols and they are making some progress, BUT its the out-of-hours stuff that is doing the damage, and for that there is no/little funding.

Does LAF have the right level of influence?
Do the County Council Countryside team have any powers on private land?

The most difficult thing is retaining anonymity; as a regular in the woods, and wishing to continue, I'm probably known visually to these people so photos are out of the question.

[EddieH]

Quad biking used to a big thing in the dunes south of Fraserburgh. Polite notices went up and did little to stop them.

Then the notices became very much more serious with very large penalties promised - they also added concrete blocks making it impossible for quad bikes to get down their tracks, though not impossible to make new ones. Whether there was any actual policing and big fines I don't know but now there are no quad bikes at all.

[redkite]

Wild boar were seen near the finish at the BOK Trot yesterday.