It looked like the Alex was going to be The place today, as myself and Mr Lethbridge approached we had 2 Wheatear on the path and a Whinchat in one of the nearby bushes. OK it went down hill steadily after that, and not even Jono leaving helped matters. For once. Did get a Reed Warbler and the Garden Warbler again, and that was it.
Not a shabby day though:
5 Whinchat, 3 Wheatear (one a sparkling male–the first returning one of the autumn), Common Redstart (m), 3 Yellow Wagtail, Garden Warbler, Reed Warbler, 5 Lesser Whitethroat, Swallow...
We think we have problems on the flats: dogs, doggers, joggers, bikers, hikers, tippers, tipplers, rough-sleepers, flyers and barbequers... ... and of course the completely out-of touch Corporation, but at least we have an act of parliament to help safeguard the future of east London's finest dog toilet. Everywhere else appears to be under threat. Council cut backs, the government's removal of protection against development in sensitive areas, and hare-brained and costly schemes, theme parks, housing: it appears no where is safe.
- Walthamstow's reservoirs are to undergo a makeover to encourage more of the people you wouldn't want in the first place, and their dogs.
- Barking Bay is a development waiting to happen
- Galleon's Reach is targeted for a new river crossing
- Dagenham Chase has lost most of its rangers and is at the mercy of the mindless
- Swanscombe is threatened with theme park development (as was Rainham)
- Beddington is to get a incinerator
- The west London reservoir complex and the moors between is under the cloud of Heathrow expansion
- Wormwood scrubs could be turned into part of the HS2 fiasco even though the project was spawned on the back of a fag packet
- And not forgetting the megalomaniacal ideas of Boris
There are undoubtedly more environmental disasters out there in the process of happening, or happening now added to which are the incomprehensible management from organisations that should know better (not naming any–City of London Corporation–names). Government and business alike know there will be protest, but encouragingly for them it is splintered, many voices but not with one voice. And that is the only way to stop these twats.
Why for example were the RSPB and other organisations not having Stop the Cull petitions prominent at visitor centres? To date 286,000 plus have signed that petition, massive 0.25% of the population approximately, that must have the government shitting themselves.
The RSPB has recently been criticised for trying to increase its membership through less exclusivity and more inclusivity. It boasts over 1 million members, that's nearly 2% of the population and absolute crap. What needs to be done is all vested interests unite under one umbrella (there are synergies here. That means more money going to conservation and less on the expense of raising it): keep your local products, your local Wildlife Trusts but have one overriding organisation with a punch of many more millions. It is mainly down to money. Just look at how much the Norfolk Wildlife Trust has been stiffed for a few hundred acres at Cley, because an alternative buyer might have gained shooting rights (I am guessing here).
If things stay as they are the "wild" we know of here in London and elsewhere will (are being) chipped away and eroded, bit by bit. If you want to know what a world without birds, wild flowers and insects is like come to Canary Wharf.
https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/london-mayor-s-office-save-our-scrubs
http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/beddington-farmlands-ecological-melt.html
Totally agree, Nick. London does seem screwed at the moment, but we'll still keep fighting.
ReplyDeleteYou can add Greenwich Peninsula to the long list of councils and politicians destroying our land and wildlife for the profits of a parasitic minority. The Ecology Park there is threatened by a totally superfluous giant developer's tower block that will overshadow it for most of the day.
Those in power know the resistance to this tidal wave of madness (that's how it does seem at the moment) is uncertain and splintered and more co-operation between groups and more umbrella organisations, combined with clever direct action, is urgently needed.