What's all this then?
Whilst this is the ranting space for the 'Fatbirder' and I describe myself as a 'grumpy old birder' this BLOG will not just be about birds, but about anything I want it to be about...
Mind you, as birding is my passion it will be up there and may well be what sparks my imagination or ignites my ire.
I hope to add in a feature or two as time goes on, starting, as soon as I can be arsed to get to grips with the technology, with a PODCAST or two.
But, for now, its just me and my opinionated screed...
If you want your say why not join my Facebook Group - Fatbirder Fan Club [I was accused of being egotistical and pretentious setting this up my self... pretentious? Moi? Egotistical? Well jealous people would say that, wouldn't they? :-) ]
6th September 2008
As posted on my local mailing group - Kent Ornithological Society...
I never have had much sympathy for the shooting lobby although I concede that some areas managed for shooting here in Kent co-incidentally create great habitat and plentiful food for lots of species.
What I find totally incomprehensible is how anyone can express horror about one bird killing another and how it diminishes the number of birds that they can kill themselves! Has there ever been such hypocracy? Well, yes, it seems there has, if it really is true that conservation organisations are translocating sparrowhawks.
When seeing a pigeon taken out of a flock by a stooping peregrine, or a coot harried by a Marsh Harrier, or a chaffinch virtually disintegrate under the assault of a sparrowhawk one does have mixed feelings... but only briefly. A few of us that admit to a twitching past will have had mixed feelings en route to a twitch only to hear that the target bird was more effectively targeted by a sparrowhawk or kestrel. But such anthropromorphism is just silly - we have to judge the wild world in its own terms not paste onto it emotions only appropriate to human interaction.
Because we know its all about balance. Sometimes humankind has so upset the balance that intervention is justified, but only in order to restore that balance. If predators are becoming more numerous it is surely because the equilibrium is swinging back in their favour and we know that it will swing again, naturally, if they become too numerous and favourite dinners get too scarce.
The other day on the 'one show', now watched by many as it regularly uses a group of birders and other naturalists to inform the nation about our own environment, I heard Claris Dixon-Wright slag off the RSPB as an organising refusing to consider culling birds of prey. No one bothered to challenge her - no one seems to be in the least concerned that here, like in almost all countries, the shooting lobby is small and yet far too influential as it seems to include more members of the establishment than just about any other. Moreover, she defended her shooting as she only 'kills for the pot'. Whilst this could be defended if the hunter is poor I guess it could be stretched to include others but its just not true. Those 'killing for the pot' sanction the killing of rivals and imagined rivals like Hen Harriers, Rooks and many other innocents.
Those who own huge tracts of land only can because someone in another age stole it from the rest of us. That a small group of people can pursue an incredibly selfish pursuit is bad enough, but when that selfishness diminishes opportunities for the majority it is truly intollerable. When the elite kill a bird of prey they are stealing from us all and yet we collectively kow tow and show precious little ire. When it looked as if the very top of the establishment had killed birds of prey on their estate the protests were quietened by assurances that it had all been rumour and supposition... yet one is left wondering if it was another case of the crass actions of the so called 'nobility' being tidied up by the Privy Council.
So far as I am aware, over and above the use of a vehicle, there is nothing about birding which can in anyway impinge upon the opportunities of other folk... except those who would wontonly kill anything that stands between them and their sport.
Late August 2008
Sorry folks - life's exingencies [no need for the details of my personal dramas] have intervened to preclude time for rantings... but in the immortal words of one of the greatest actors of the 'total lack of method acting, in fact completely wooden' school. "I'll be back..."
Meantime see what else I've been working on... New Website
May 2009
How crap a BLOG is this?
Months and months between entries and even then its not much of a read!
Excuses? Well there have been lots of life's exigencies but I won’t share that stuff… too gloomy even fro an old grump.
The there has been lots to do – albeit none of it earning me a living wage! We have nearly put ‘The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals’ to bed – just got to proofread the printer’s version before it goes into production and we have to finish [‘The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles’ by the end of the year and the publisher now wants us to cut the text in half as the credit crunch hits them too.
I’ve been to Florida too – more of which if the article gets published [or for that matter rejected] as I’ll put it on line too.
The bottom line there was a Florida list of 159 and 23 lifers – not bad as it was really a family trip to the delights of Disney etc, which, needless to say, I did not partake!
On top of this my arthritis is being a particular bitch right now and I’m not getting out much – what a saddo!
Truth is I don’t really have the time to BLOG – but hey, why should that stop me… at least I’ll go on posting my articles etc.
March 2010
Still a crap BLOG - but here's another announcement - yet another New Website
Fatfisherman
