a sanderling and a bluebell
There was a bit of a treat at Brent Res over the weekend with a Sanderling showing well on the mud (although if you look at the picture you wouldn’t think so). Nice little bird in summery plumage, good patch tick and a London tick to boot. An unusual species to have at a place like that and looking at the lists on the hide wall, there are a few big hitters that don’t have Sanderling on their Brent Res list too! Although they do have plenty that I don’t I have to say...
While we are on the subject of Springwatch, I have to get something else of my chest. I may come across as some kind of Springwatch hater, but it is not intentional and I’m not. Blubells. Protected species yes? Illegal to uproot or offer for sale under the auspices of the Wildlife and Countryside act of 1981. So why, when trying to show how acidic the formic acid coming from an ant’s nest is, use a bluebell? And then ask why one would need litmus paper when you have bluebells? What kind of lunacy is this? What the presenters seem to forgetting is that there are a lot of children watching this programme (by design), and if children think that something is cool they will copy it. Getting bluebells to change colour over an ants nest is cool, but it would have made much more sense to use some bloody litmus paper and keep the bluebell info under the radar rather than having the possibility of loads of kids finding bluebells, pulling them up and then running around to find ants to wave them at. C’mon guys, it’s a great programme but do have a think about what you are broadcasting!
A Sanderling doing very tickable indeed.
1 comments:
Mate, it's moments like that which make staring at Coots and mud worthwhile. I gotta muddy bit on my patch... 9 times out of 10 all you see is Shelduck, Mallard, Canada Geese and Cormorants... then once in a while... he, he
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