New e-Petition to End the Badger Cull Instead of Expanding it to new areas

As many of you will know the Government has been carrying out pilot badger culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire since 2013 and extended the cull to Dorset last year. Today it has been announced that seven new licences have been granted for parts of Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Somerset and Dorset. Up to 10,000 badgers could be killed this year.

Regular readers of my blog will know how strongly I feel about these slaughters. I am not going to turn this into a long rant and repeat all my reasons for being so anti-cull but will just say that independent badger experts and scientists are against the culls, the vast majority of badgers slaughtered will be healthy and an independent panel in the first year of the pilot cull came to the conclusion that the slaughters had been inhumane and ineffective. None of the badgers killed have been tested for bTB and monitoring of the slaughters has been virtually non-existent. The main cause of bTB in cattle is due to cattle to cattle transmission - the badger (a protected species) is just being used as a scapegoat. The way forward is not the mass extermination of badgers in such an inhumane way but better biosecurity, improved cattle testing and movement regulations, vaccination of badgers (and eventually cattle).

Since 2013 the slaughter of badgers has cost the tax payer £25 million and yet DEFRA's own statistics show that, despite badger culling, the number of cattle slaughtered because they are infected with bTB continues to increase both in and around the cull zones. Scotland became officially bTB free without killing a single badger and badger vaccination (not culling) in Wales has resulted in new herd TB incidences decreasing by 14% in the past year. Ireland, having slaughtered badgers for years, has now decided to stop this policy and vaccinate instead.



There is a link here to an article in the Guardian last week by Dr Brian May.



The main purpose of writing this post is to ask you please to consider signing a new Government e-petition put forward by Simon King to end the badger cull instead of expanding it to new areas. The link is here



Already 8000 people have signed this petition and I would also ask please if you could consider sharing it on facebook/twitter and ask family and friends to sign. We have to give badgers a voice and let the Government know how we feel about these senseless slaughters otherwise 1000's of badgers could be killed for no reason.

Thanks so much.

A Walk Along the Grand Union Canal and Garden Moths

A visit to Upton House and Gardens was planned for last weekend but on the day E was too tired and B was at a crucial stage of redecorating the hall, stairs and landing, so the visit was postponed. Instead D and I decided to go looking for blackberries along a section of the Grand Union Canal at Catherine de Barnes.

We parked near "The Boat". Catherine de Barnes is an interesting little village - the name is derived from Ketelberne - a 12th century Lord of the Manor, although these days it is often referred to as Catney Barnes or just Catney. An isolation hospital was built here in 1910 to tend to patients suffering from contagious diseases such as diptheria, typhoid fever and smallpox. As these diseases died out it was used as a maternity hospital but then in 1966 it became the national isolation hospital and was kept on standby. The last known person in the UK to die of smallpox - a Mrs Janet Parker - was treated here. In 1980 the World Health Organisation declared smallpox extinct and, following fumigation!!, the hospital was turned into a housing development.

To those who enjoy the Edith Holden "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" and "Nature Notes", Edith mentions visiting Catherine de Barnes on several occasions in her nature journals.



I digress - back to the canal walk

with lovely views over the Warwickshire Countryside.

There were lots of signs of fast approaching autumn in the hedgerows.

Ivy flowers are starting to form - these will provide a valuable source of nectar for many insects, particularly butterflies and bees, prior to hibernation

A good selection of seedheads which will be used as a food source by finches.

Hawthorn and elderberries are beginning to ripen. Years ago my father used to make the most delicious elderberry wine.

Blackberries are also beginning to ripen - we managed to gather enough to fill an icecream container. The berries will become even more plentiful so hopefully we'll visit our favourite local blackberrying spot within the next few weeks.

We walked as far as a bridge which carries the M42 motorway over the canal - in this area many footpaths seem to lead either to the M42 or the airport!

On the return journey we left the canal for a while to walk along a lane to Henwood Mill and Ford. The mill dates back to the late eighteenth century and ceased production in the early 1930's.

Himalayan Balsam (an undesirable non-native plant) was growing all round the ford and stream

Dappled water reflections on the underside of a bridge - unfortunately the photo did not turn out the way I hoped but at the time it was a very pretty effect.

We saw a lot of mallard along the canal with youngsters of varying ages including these tiny ducklings

Garden Moths


Saturday 16th August

Min temp 14.1
15w Actinic Skinner Trap

Numbers of moths trapped are starting to drop with the cooler weather



Flounced Rustic (Luperina testacea) x 6

Mother of Pearl (Pleuroptya ruralis) x 1 (new for year)

Yellowshell (Camptogramma bilineata) x 2 (new for year) - a really beautiful moth

Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) x 1

Copper Underwing (Amphipyra pyramidea) - new for year. This species has a beautiful copper coloured "underskirt"

Orange Swift (Hepialus sylvina) x 4

Willow Beauty (Peribatodes rhomboidaria) x 2

Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) x 8

Marbled Beauty (Cryphia domestica) x 3

Straw Dot (Rivula sericealis) x 1

Lesser Treble Bar (Aplocera efformat) x 1 (new for year)

Lesser Yellow Underwing (Noctua comes) x 1



Yesterday morning I was thrilled to see a Vapourer Moth (Orgyia antiqua) on the kitchen window. This is a new moth species for the garden and one I have never managed to trap. Sadly, a poor photo as, even after a few hours in the fridge (this doesn't harm the moths by the way) it was still exceedingly lively and I could only manage a picture of it in a pot.

Badgers

On Tuesday evening I went along to a meeting of the Badger Warwickshire Group where the guest speaker was Dominic Dyer the newly appointed Chief Executive of the Badger Trust. I have heard him speak before at the March against the Badger Cull in Stratford earlier this year and again he gave an excellent, entertaining, well-informed and passionate speech on badgers. Sadly, despite the departure of Owen Paterson, it appears likely that the killing of badgers will recommence in the cull zones of Somerset and Gloucestershire immininently. I won't harp on about it all again as I am sure everyone knows my feelings on the matter but I can say that I have never been so angry about an issue before. The anger just never goes away.

Packhorse Bridge NR, Checking out a Site for Butterflies and Another Plea on Behalf of English Badgers

D and I paid a visit yesterday to a small nature reserve we have been meaning to explore for ages.

The reserve comprises part of the River Blythe (a Site of Special Scientific interest as its a superb example of a lowland river on clay), hedgerows, wet woodland (carr) with many alders and willows and a waterside meadow.

The Reserve is situated on the other side of the Railway line to Marsh Lane NR and you can make out Marsh Lane reserve in the distance through the arch of this bridge.

The Packhorse Bridge itself is interesting - it was built in the fifteenth century and has 3 stone segmented arches. Its fascinating to stand on the bridge and think of all the many people who have passed this way over the centuries.

There were dozens of Banded Demoiselle damselflies on the river bank. Unfortunately, apart from wading across the river, there was no chance of getting a photo.

The HB engraved on this stone marks the boundary between the Hampton and Berkswell Parishes.

Himalayan Balsam and Meadowsweet

Unfortunately, there were many many Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) plants along the side of the river. This is a non-native invasive plant which has spread from gardens along river banks and damp areas. It is very attractive to pollinating insects but there are concerns that this may result in less pollination of native plants. The plant, which grows up to 2.5 metres high, spreads quickly forming dense thickets which suppresses the growth of grasses and native British plants. It is listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act and it is an offence to plant or cause this plant to grow in the wild.

There have been several attempts in and around the Coventry area to eradicate Himalayan Balsam and replace it with native plants to help water voles.

We saw many butterflies on the walk - Peacocks, Whites, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Speckled Wood and this Comma which was the only species prepared to pose for a photo!

We walked along a public bridleway.

Lots of Meadowsweet flowering here and this lovely purple flower - I am not sure of the species but I do know I have seen it in marshy areas at Brandon Marsh in the past.

It was quite a surprise when the path emerged at Barston Lake - I hadn't realised this was so close to the area where we were walking.

Greater Reedmace

Bindweed was trailing along the sides of the paths and among the hedges.

White Dead Nettle

On the way home we made a detour to a public footpath not far from the airport (where we waited recently for a Spitfire to appear in the skies). We walked through crop fields - in the distance you can just see an area known as "Castle Hills" which I've noticed from another local blog is a very good site for butterflies. It was further away than we thought and we were running out of time but I will return to this area at some stage in the future.

Scentless Mayweed

Ragwort - no sign though of any Cinnabar moth caterpillars

The usual planes going over en route for Birmingham International Airport!

We stopped off at the village of Bickenhill on the way home - this telephone box has an interesting story. A few years ago BT were thinking of removing phone boxes as, due to the advent of mobile phones, they were no longer used. The villagers were reluctant to see their local telephone kiosk disappear so the Parish Council bought it from BT for a £1.

Badgers

The good news for English wildlife is that a certain Owen Paterson has been given the boot as Secretary of State for DEFRA but the bad news is that Elizabeth Truss, Paterson's replacement, is determined to continue to treat badgers as scapegoats and plans to continue with this year's pilot culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire. Anyone who has read the IEP Report following the badger cull last year will know how inhumane and ineffective the slaughters were. I've done several posts in the past on this topic so I won't be ranting on again too much about this issue. A quick look at the DEFRA twitter feed suggests that the vast majority of the new SOS's trips and meetings so far have been connected with farming, Game Fairs and fishing so it doesn't take much imagination to see where her sympathies lie. I can't see one mention of a meeting with an environmental/conservation/wildlife group.

I find it very sad that the Wildlife Trusts who have a combined membership of over 800,000 (and yes I am one of them!) have only managed to get 5,563 people to send an email to David Cameron urging him to drop the badger cull. So, please, if you are against the slaughter of badgers in the misguided attempt to prevent bTB then please visit www.wildlifetrusts.org/dropthecull and send an email - it really does only take a minute or so. Thanks so much.