Saturday, 31 October 2020

Lockdown 2.0

I started writing this blog shortly before the first lockdown was implemented on 23rd March 2020 and I had a retrospective review 6 months on .... see here.

But here we are again .... lockdown 2.0 is about to start.

Yet again, even after the experience of the first wave of the Covid-19 virus, this Government has followed (late) rather than led. It has already given us world-beating failures in its response to Covid-19: a poorly functioning NHS (actually the private sector outsourcing company Serco!) track and trace service, an inconsistent and incoherent communication strategy and dodgy procurement of services and equipment favouring the "chumocracy" (friends, supporters and donors), all accompanied by the biggest economic hit in the western world and that even before the adverse impacts of Brexit.

The Government ignored representations from the scientists, other political parties and the majority of public opinion for an earlier return to nationwide lockdown given the inexorable rise in recent weeks in the level of Covid-19 infections, admissions to hospitals and deaths. It ignored what some other European countries were doing in their attempts to deal with the second wave of the Covid-19 virus.

However, a decision was finally taken today to implement lockdown 2.0 from 5th November 2020 to 2nd December 2020.

Let's hope that at least nature and wildlife can continue to provide some solace and comfort during these immensely challenging times for our local communities, our country and our world, albeit we are faced (in the Northern Hemisphere) with shorter and darker winter days with more adverse weather rather than the incredible weather that we experienced during spring, the season of re-birth, re-emergence and hope.

"The days are getting shorter and colder but I ask you to remember this: even as the winter comes in, there is hope and there is light." - Seamus Heaney

See also ....

"The Consolation of Nature: Spring in the Time of Coronavirus" by Michael McCarthy, Jeremy Mynott and Peter Marren

Dreading a dark winter lockdown?

More on a Scandi approach to a dark winter lockdown

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature



Tuesday, 27 October 2020

"The Consolation of Nature: Spring in the Time of Coronavirus" by Michael McCarthy, Jeremy Mynott and Peter Marren

I recently finished reading "The Consolation of Nature: Spring in the Time of Coronavirus" by Michael McCarthy, Jeremy Mynott and Peter Marren.
























Spring 2020 will live long in the memory for the best and the worst of times.


We experienced many days of beautiful warm and sunny weather (possibly the loveliest spring in living memory) juxtaposed with the rapidly evolving human tragedy and calamity that was, and still is, the Covid-19 pandemic.


What a huge conjunction of mixed emotions!


How should we have dealt with that?

 

Was it OK to experience and enjoy the wonders of the natural world when thousands of people were dying and when our NHS heroes were sweating for long hours in their PPE to try and keep as many of our fellow citizens alive?

 

The Covid-19 pandemic hit us when the Northern Hemisphere was entering springtime. It is not difficult to imagine how illness and bereavement and the challenges and stress of lockdown would have been greatly intensified if the first wave had emerged and progressed in the dark, cold and wet days of November and December rather than during springtime, the season of re-birth, re-emergence and hope (unfortunately, it appears that the second wave is occurring exactly during those later months).

 

The authors of "The Consolation of Nature: Spring in the Time of Coronavirus" are 3 naturalists: Michael McCarthy, Jeremy Mynott and Peter Marren. Their book primarily comprises their personal diaries of their encounters with nature and wildlife in their local areas during the springtime period of the Covid-19 pandemic and their personal response to it.

 

The diaries cover the period from 21st March 2020, 2 days before the national lockdown was implemented, to 31st May 2020, when the first measures to lift the lockdown restrictions were being confirmed.


The book begins with a short description and a sketch map of each of the local patch sites visited by the authors.

 

Michael McCarthy: Richmond Park and the River Thames towpath between Richmond Bridge and Kew Bridge in Greater London

 

Jeremy Mynott: the area around the villages of Little Thurlow and Great Thurlow in rural west Suffolk

 

Peter Marren: the area around the village of Ramsbury in the valley of the River Kennet in the North Wessex Downs AONB in Wiltshire

 

Before a short contextual chapter from Michael McCarthy, “Spring in the time of Coronavirus” and the diaries themselves, the following quote appears ….

 

There is something to be wondered at in all of nature” – Aristotle 

 

In the diaries, all 3 authors observe and describe their local areas and the nature and wildlife that they encountered. It does seem like that their senses and their appreciation of their local areas were enhanced by the rapidly worsening Covid-19 pandemic and the response to it and there are occasional references to the external events going on at the same time.

 

My first blog post was published on 17th March 2020, just a few days before the diaries in the book commence. Therefore, I have been on a similar journey in observing and describing nature and wildlife at my 2 local patch sites at a time of the developing Covid-19 pandemic.

 

However, for anyone not writing a personal blog or keeping a personal diary, "The Consolation of Nature: Spring in the Time of Coronavirus" provides a vicarious diary which may serve to jog some memories.


My blog post on 18th April 2020 refers to the importance of keeping a diary.

"The Consolation of Nature: Spring in the Time of Coronavirus" is a remarkable and highly recommended book. I read it alongside revisiting some of my own blog posts and it was a bit of a jolt to return to the intensity (good and bad) of that period. Many of the authors’ experiences matched my own.

There are a few passages towards the end of the book which were particularly meaningful for me.

Jeremy Mynott: “Much has changed since we began this project but the sense I recorded at the outset (21st March) of oscillating between two parallel worlds has persisted, indeed intensified. One of unrelieved horror, the other offering some hope and consolation. The restrictions rightly placed on us in the national crisis have created their own matching compensations. I’ve gladly embraced the discipline of travelling only as far as I can walk and found great freedom in exploring just one familiar area. At least, I thought it was familiar until I really looked. Our patron saint Gilbert White again: ‘Men that only undertake one district are much more likely to advance natural knowledge than those that grasp at more than they can possibly be acquainted with’.

Jeremy Mynott: “We can be forgiven for feeling confused and disorientated by the extreme contrasts in this extraordinary spring: between the record-breaking sunny weather and the looming climate crisis; between our innocent and inspiring experiences of nature and the tragedies in human lives wrought by the pandemic; between the many individual acts of solidarity and kindness and the cynical calculations of political discourse. We seemed to have learned so much and so little.

Michael McCarthy quoting the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: “I think we’ve got this extraordinary moment in time. The so-called green recovery – there is an enormous opportunity to do that, around the world, and I hope it happens. But it requires leadership! It requires far-sighted, excellent leadership and I don’t know whether we are going to get that or not. I just hope that all this has given humanity a little dose of humility. I think as a species we believe we are masters of everything, that everything can be controlled and shaped to our will – and broadly speaking that’s true. But every now and then, whether it’s an Icelandic volcano going off, or an earthquake, or now this pandemic, we are reminded that there are forces out there that we can’t control, at least not in the intermediate term, and our ability to control them has very profound consequences on our lives.









💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature



"Dawn Chorus: A sound portrait of a British woodland at sunrise"

Finalising a blog post this morning, I listened to this CD which I recently bought from the RSPB:
















The CD is a 73 minute 4 track recording that captures the magical awakening of bird life at daybreak in the British countryside. It offers a selection of British woodland recordings taken from the collection of the wildlife section of the British Library sound archive.

There is no commentary but the CD inlay sheet does detail the bird species (plus sheep, dog, Peacock and bees!) for those that are challenged by who is singing 😀.

On a grey and rainy October morning, it provides a beautiful reminder of the diversity and volume of bird song at my 2 local patch sites in late April and early May and especially the amazing experience of International Dawn Chorus Day on 3rd May 2020 .... see here.

Whilst Robins and the occasional Wren have resumed singing following their breeding season and their summer moult, it will be some time yet before we are able to hear widespread bird song again.

Let's hope that the weather and nature in spring 2021 will be as lovely as this year but that by spring 2021 we have made significant progress in tackling the huge tragedy of Covid-19 which was also a feature of spring during the current year.

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature


Monday, 26 October 2020

Visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas – 26th October 2020

Date: 26th October 2020

Time: from 8:30 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny, moderate wind, 8°C to 11°C

With regard to birds, there were a number of highlights during my visit. 

As I accessed the site from Larkins Tyres, I immediately heard a Goldfinch singing and then saw 5 or 6 of these birds as they flew off. This was my first sighting of this species since the spring or early summer.

Shortly afterwards, a flock of at least 150 Woodpigeons flew over and during my visit I continued to see smaller fly-over groups. Autumn is a period when large numbers arrive in the UK for the winter months from Europe.

I was again able to watch a very active and calling Green Woodpecker in the western section of the cemetery and I was able to get much better photos than those on my last visit. I also heard another calling Green Woodpecker and a calling Great Spotted Woodpecker in the immediate area around the church.

As I returned home via the track towards Larkins Tyres, a Sparrowhawk flew directly over me although my view was partially obscured by tree cover.

With regard to mammals, I had 2 very brief sightings of Red Foxes this morning, the first running through the central area of the cemetery and the second in the area immediately behind the church.

During the spring, I was able to take many excellent photos since I was aware of reliable locations to "watch and wait" for the Red Foxes. It is very difficult now to guess where a Red Fox may appear around the site and my sightings are usually brief and result in photos with rubbish composition and/or a lack of sharpness and/or just the rear end of the animal, albeit a nice bushy brush is the sign of a healthy animal. These photos demonstrate a typical encounter ....

Photo: Red Fox .... rubbish composition and lack of sharpness! 













Photo: Red Fox .... rear end with a nice bushy brush


Photo: Red Fox .... rear end with a nice bushy brush

However, I have had chance encounters with Red Foxes on each of my last 3 visits when I have seen them behind the church and I am thinking that this may become a new "watch and wait" location, perhaps with some suitable bribery (dog biscuits or tinned dog food).

On my visit this morning, I had unusually extended views of a male and a female Reeves’ Muntjac (males have short, backwards-curving and unbranched antlers). Both animals initially appeared from the bushes at the extreme western edge of the cemetery and walked slowly in to the central section of the cemetery before disappearing. This enabled me to take several photos, albeit I missed the opportunity of a Magpie perched on the back of one of the deer.

I saw 4 Grey Squirrels this morning: 2 together in the wooded area approached along the track from Larkins Tyres and 2 individuals in separate parts of the cemetery.

Finally, given the very cool temperatures this morning, I had the surprising sighting of a very active Red-tailed Bumblebee in the cemetery. This is a distinctive and common and widely distributed species in the UK. Queens emerge from hibernation in March and workers are present from April onwards. Males emerge later in July and mate with new females who are prospective queens. The males, the old queen and the workers die in the autumn (usually by early October) but the new queens hibernate.

Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):

Blue Tit
Robin
Dunnock
Wren
Goldfinch
Starling
Sparrowhawk
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Jay
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Woodpigeon
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull

Red Fox
Reeves' Muntjac
Grey Squirrel

Here are some photos from my visit:














Photo: Red Fox














Photo: Green Woodpecker














Photo: Green Woodpecker














Photo: Magpie














Photo: female Reeves' Muntjac














Photo: female Reeves' Muntjac














Photo: female Reeves' Muntjac














Photo: male Reeves' Muntjac













Photo: male Reeves' Muntjac














Photo: male Reeves' Muntjac














Photo: fungus species



























Site totals to date:

Birds = 50
Mammals = 6
Butterflies = 21
Dragonflies and damselflies = 7
Reptiles = 1
Amphibians = 0

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature