Rural Ramblings BY GEOFF WHARTON
Which colour will it be tomorrow? We, as a nation, get a great deal of pleasure from the garden birds we feed and it was interesting to see the reaction, from one family member, upon seeing the shredded remains of an empty feeder spread about on the ground. We had assumed that the attack and damage must have been caused by some hungry fox, but some days later we were proved to be wrong, when we saw a grey tail twitching in the branches of a nearby tree. The owner of this appendage was soon to appear and proceeded to bound towards the copious amounts of delicious sunflower seed hanging from the shrubs. The gymnastic agility required to access and remove the food from the feeder was more than impressive and generated praise indeed, but this was soon to be replaced by concern when the seed level started to fall dramatically and pieces of chewed plastic started to accumulate below the expensive feeder! Now the dilemma was - do we allow access by all visitors to the feeders or do we choose which ones “deserve” our charitable offerings and will not misbehave. The discussion about which animals were to be allowed to eat at our table continued for several days when another visitor showed up. (The word had obviously got round). This time it was black and re-started the whole debate . Even as a child, I can still remember having been told about the damage caused by foreign, American, non-native grey squirrels following their introduction and how they were busy pushing out our pretty native reds by being more aggressive. In order to control their numbers, I was particularly impressed at the offer of a financial reward for each fluffy grey tail which could be bagged. (biological control?) I hear that the black form of the grey squirrel is even more aggressive and is better adapted to surviving cold weather and is therefore continuing to spread from it’s initial location 90 years ago in Hitchin or Letchworth where it was thought to originate from escapes from a zoo. As it is still relatively uncommon and rather
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cute, will it be seen as a welcome rare garden visitor and encouraged, or seen as another alien pest to be removed? Then the debate may focus towards the white form which is even more rare (I didn’t even know this form existed!) and now I hear that in America (where else!) a PURPLE form has been seen !!! but possibly covered in powder paint??? I can see that for some entrepreneur, the opportunity of developing a new range of garden ornaments must include together with the chubby robins, lambs and fishing elves …the funky squirrel range-pretty pink, glowing orange and of course passionate purple. Getting back to reality, the question is - if an animal is perceived as being common, ugly, aggressive, destructive, foreign etc. are our reactions towards it always reasonably objective or are we sometimes excessively influenced by big brown eyes?
Geoff Wharton Gardening Services Reliable, experienced, well qualified. General and specialist garden work: Jungle clearing, Pruning, Hedge and grass cutting, Regular maintenance, Licensed waste disposal. Full public liability cover. Geoff Wharton - BSC honours Hort.Science Email:geoffwharton@hotmail.com
Tel: 01767 261727
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