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| Vanish Inquisition |
By the time this note appears in print the yearıs longest day will be upon us once again. The leaves will be thick on the trees, wildflowers will grace the lanes, and the hot sun will make summer a special time. Each year we wait for spring buds to show again after a long winter, as green takes over from grey, and the migrant birds come flocking back... But will birds always return as they used to do? Records show a massive drop in numbers arriving in recent years, with some species declining sharply. There are several possible reasons for such a disaster, which experts are still discussing: but we can only judge by what we can see and hear each spring as we look for the regularsı to reappear in their usual haunts. Yes, the first swallow arrived on 4th April, and warblers were singing soon after round Broad Colney Lakes (Willow Warbler, ChiffChaff and Blackcap competing with the resident chorus) and late species like swifts should be here any day now. However, numbers are down again, and house martins are becoming rare here, along with many other types, like the once-common Turtle Dove, Yellow Wagtail, Cuckoo and Nightingale, When did you last hear them calling in nearby woods and fields on quiet summer evenings? Or watch a Skylark rise singing from its hidden nest?
What is happening to drive them away - or are they just not surviving a long journey across arid Africa or trigger-happy Europe, or the tricky sea crossing beset with confusing signals which disrupt natural ability to navigate safely? Would you care if mobile communication systems were to blame for millions of birds going off-course into the Atlantic Ocean instead of making landfall where and when they should do? Does it matter if our countryside may now be too hostile for wildlife to thrive here? Must we have more roads and houses instead, with agricultural methods that remove all non-commercial features from the landscape, using some suspect chemicals to delete most insects, and so weaken the food-chain of many creatures? Are we right to worry about Climate Change affecting humans, yet not see what is still happening to the other animals living alongside us? Is their fate also ours? Rachel Carsonıs challenging book, Silent Spring, was a warning about the way our profligate lifestyle endangers Earthıs fragile ecosystems, even if weather patterns donıt alter. As dominant animals, we have to reduce our demands and restrain our behaviour - or we shall be obliged to live our selfish lives without the Dawn Chorus, a glimpse of deer in bluebell woods, or a fox caught in the headlights. It may all become a sad memory on a DVD: with that last hedgehog crushed by a speeding car: or a lonely blackbird trying to find a mate as numbers fall to extinction levels... Perhaps itıs up to you.
Ken Peak
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