Sunday 11th January

A happy new year to all! This is the first blog in a month, blame the weather (cold), a trip up to Sheffield, and more cold. Warmer weather and rain has arrived so maybe I can start my bike rides again soon. Not Monday though, whilst I'm writing this it is pouring with rain outside.



On Sunday I put on my walking boots, took up my camera and binoculars, and walked over to Sea Walls, the strong wind made it feel a little colder than it was. En route a flock of Starlings, Black Headed Gulls, and a mixed flock of Crows, Jackdaws and Rooks were busy feeding off the soft Plateau grassland. For the last couple of weeks it has been hardened by frost. At Sea Walls it was low tide so I was pleased to see some of my old friends on the mud - the Redshank. At the Peregrine Watch a couple of flights of Mallard flew low and fast up river, but there was no sign of Peregrines. The Jackdaws were flying around, making a lot of noise, and landing in 'their' tree.

Peregrine watch scrub clearance
The side of the Peregrine Watch has been cleared of scrub, fine, it gives better views so we can see the foxes below again, but I can't help feeling that this 'clearance' is more drastic than in previous years. The birches and whitebeams have been spared, but the rest is much more open. It will be difficult to creep up on any Peregrines should they perch on the silver birch at the edge of the open area.



Over Enthusiastic Scrub Clearance, some might say Vandalism
I object very strongly to the "scrub clearance" now enacted at the top of Walcombe Slade and beside Circular Road. Several yew trees have been hacked about, but far worse, it is now possible to see right through from the leafy glades just beyond the roadside, and onto the road, where we have the pleasure of both seeing cars passing, parked, and hearing them. Clearing site-lines means clearing sounds lines. How much longer (with such disproportionate acts of scrub clearance) before there will be no places on the Downs, or in the sides of the Gorge, where we can escape from motors?



The picture shows a very fine old yew tree (possibly the oldest and largest on the Downs?), on the edge of a leafy glade just in from Circular Road, and before the slopes of Walcombe Slade are reached. So far it has been spared the chain saw and mechanical flail. Click on the image(s) for larger views.