Sunday 16 November 2008

Habitat destruction

After working all day today I went out with my mum for a short walk around the fields where I live. Over the road from where I live are two rather big fields, that over the years have become a fantastic habitat for wildlife. On the way back home after having a lovely walk, I walked past these two fields. There were a few Hawthorns with lovely red berries, I could hear a lot of bird activity within, so decided to see what was about, and to my surpise there were about half a dozen Redwings feasting on the berries. Blackbirds, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Greenfinch were also amongst the Redwings, they to were enjoying the good food source. It's amazing to think that a few Hawthorns next to a busy road are providing a good source of food for a wide variety of birds. I'm going to keep check on these Hawthorns over the next few days to see what other birds arrive, you never know what you'll get, maybe a Waxwing! There's apparently an influx of Waxwings this year.
After watching the Redwings for a good 15 minutes we walked back home along the two fields. Within one of these fields is a pond, which in the summer time provides a great habitat for dragonflies, damselflies and breeding birds. I felt really happy, until my mum said there were plans to re develop the local primary school onto one the fields (the one with the pond), this got me very, very annoyed. By buliding a school on this field all the wildlife will go, and could potentially ruin everything. I've thought for a long while about contacting the owner of these fields and asking them if they wanted to turn it into a breathing place, yet now I think it may be to late. Yet I'm going to do all I can to stop the building going ahead. These fields are the only decent wildlife spots in my village, if they are destroyed, well...... Something has to be done!!

3 comments:

Cheryl said...

I am with you on this one.....to many wildlife habitats are being used for development, with no consideration at all for the flora and fauna there........

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a rant, but I see your point. There is quite a lot of habitat destruction going on around here, too much. And doesn't it sound a little bit sad knowing all the types of bird in the hawthorns? LOL! :-)

James Owen said...

I suppose you could go search the site for Great Crested Newts. More realistically, it may be worth asking your local council what, if any, environmental measures are in place to mitigate for the development.