Birding, cruelty and the cycle of life

28 August 2013

We finally did decide to we go birding yesterday starting at Brandon Marsh and then on to Coombe Abbey as I mentioned on Monday.  However we left it a tad too late and only managed to do Brandon.  But it really didn't matter because ...

   

This chick is I think a young swallow or a house martin.  We saw it as we left to go down to the reserve. 

There's a photo on the front page of today's News has a photo of a litter of kittens that had been dumped somewhere in the town.  I just can't believe that anyone could do something like this!  Yet it happens every day doesn't it, all too often.  Why do these people bother to have any pets at all.  It really does bug the life out of me.  But let's face it, there are people who get their jollies from digging up badgers for dogs to rip to bits.  Hare coursing is another and of course the biggie ... fox hunting!  It's still happening now, ignoring the current ban just doesn't worry them; why should it?  There's no real penalty is there?

You see, we both love all animals; of course we have our favourites and least favourite.  My hates are snakes and wasps; for Jan it's just wasps.  Birds are at the top of both our lists.  We are members of a number of wildlife charities with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust added to the list yesterday.  RSPB, RSPCA, BTO, Wetlands Trust, Norfolk Wildlife Trust ... and so on.  It's all interlinked really, from mosses to insects (even wasps are food for others), to birds and so on.   

Eventually we humans became part of it all as well, but we're not the end of it are we.  We go to the loo and our waste products became food for microbes at the sewage farms; when we die some of us are buried and became food for moor microbes and so on.  Those who are cremated usually have our ashes spread around in a favoured spot.  Those ashes become part of the nourishment for plants and flower, which feed insects ... ... ... 

See, it's all part of one very large cycle.  That is why I don't like to see or hear of animals being neglected or being dumped as were those kittens in the paper today. 

Enough of all that ... here's another bird shot ... 

a black headed gull.  Sorry, I can't remember where I got it though.

And another one from the Sage ...

An elderly man in Queensland had owned a large property for several years.  He had a dam in one of the lower paddocks where he had planted mango and avocado trees.

The dam had been fixed up for swimming when it was built and he also had some picnic tables placed there in the shade of the fruit trees.
One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the dam to look it over, as he hadn't been there for a while.  He  grabbed a ten litre bucket to bring back some fruit.
As he neared the dam, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee.  As he came closer he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his dam.

He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end.
One of the women shouted to him, 'We're not coming out until you leave!'
The old man frowned, 'I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the dam naked.'
Holding the bucket up he said, 'I'm here to feed the crocodile.'

 Moral: Old men may walk slow, but they can still think fast.