Countryman Diary - June 2009
Cats. You either love 'em or hate 'em and the last thing I want to do is spark another debate amongst Countryman readers about feline nature - we've been there often enough, thank you very much. But the Scottish wildcat is a different matter - in fact, it's a totally separate breed from your street-wise domestic moggy.
Some experts believe there could be as few as 400 pure-bred wildcats left in Scotland, making this feline even rarer than the Bengal tiger and probably Britain's most endangered mammal.
Though polar bears, pandas and, closer to home, red squirrels and sea eagles have caught the public's imagination, the Scottish wildcat has drifted off our radar. And one group of conservationists say it's vital to get the wildcat back into the public consciousness, so alongside a range of practical conservation initiatives, a communications 'brand' has been established - Highland Tiger.
Working with a wide range of organisations including Scottish Natural Heritage, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Scottish Gamekeepers Association, Forestry Commission and Royal Zoological Society for Scotland, Highland Tiger will try to revive the fortune of one of Scotland's cultural icons.
Wildcats get accidentally caught in snares and they get killed on our busy roads, but ironically the biggest threat to the wildcat comes from people who have a love affair with domestic cats which can interbreed. When they do, the true Scottish wildcat gene pool becomes diluted and may be lost for good.
The wildcat';s main sources of food are rabbits, hares, voles and mice, and they favour wooded landscapes, especially semi-natural woodland, conifer plantation and scrub, but will patrol moorland and pastureland. Although they have been recorded at over 2,500 feet (800 m) above sea level, they are usually found below 1,600 feet (500 m).
To find out more about the plight of the Scottish wildcat and how you can help, visit or write to Highland Tiger, Ballinlaggan Farmhouse, Duthil, Carrbridge, Inverness-shire, PH23 3ND or click here to visit their website.
The Scarlet Tiger
For this year's Garden Moths Count (20-28 June 2009), the public, gardeners and their families are being asked to keep a special lookout for the amazing peppered moth and the beautiful scarlet tiger.
The peppered moth is known to many as one of the world's best-known examples of evolution by natural selection, Darwin's great discovery, and all the action happened (and continues to this day) here in Britain. In heavily-polluted cities the normal, pale, speckled forms of the peppered moth were no longer camouflaged from predators on the soot-blackened trees.
Black (called 'melanic') versions of the peppered moth thrived in these situations and the normal form became quite rare. In recent decades, as pollution has been reduced, the balance swung back the other way. Now black moths are more obvious on the lichen-encrusted tree trucks and so the speckled peppered moths have again come to dominate populations.
But all is not well with Darwin's moth. Despite its amazing ability to survive the worst of the industrial revolution, numbers have fallen by 61 per cent since the late 1960s. It is not clear what is causing this decline but Butterfly Conservation, who organise the count, need the public to find out more.
In contrast, the beautiful scarlet tiger moth, which flies in the daytime, seems to be doing well. It is thought to be spreading from its traditional homeland in south-west England and South Wales, probably in response to climate change. However, it is not known how far the species has got.
For details about the count, visit or write to Butterfly Conservation, Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset BH20 5Q; tel 01929 400209.
Midsummer in Coquetdale
Since prehistoric times, the great sandstone ridge of the Simonside Hills and the Coquet Valley below have echoed to the gathering of people for the summer solstice. This year, the first Rothbury and Coquetdale Midsummer Walking Festival will be drawing crowds of walkers and country-lovers to the this beautiful part of the Northumberland National Park.
The new event in the walking calendar is one of a series of special activities in the national park this year marking the sixtieth anniversary of the act of Parliament that brought national parks, national trails and nature reserves into being for people's enjoyment.
From Saturday 13 until Saturday 20 June, a broad range of guided walks from three to twelve miles (5-19 km) will take place during the day and evening. The walks will be led by local experts including national park rangers, local guided walking businesses and trained volunteers, and will feature topics such as ancient haymeadows, bumblebees, birdlife, history, Christian heritage and some plain good stretches of the legs and lungs in the clean, clear air of this stunning open countryside.
Suggested donations for the walks range from £5-7 per person but are not obligatory, and all the money raised from the festival will go into the 'Good Nature Fund' for conservation projects in Northumberland National Park.
Competition winners
The winners of our Crick Boat Show competition in March were: Paul Durham, Aylesbury; Evelyn Booker, Sutton-in-Ashfield; Geoffrey Sheard, East Sussex; Kevin Jenkins, East Ham, London; Ann Ryan, Winchester; Richard Jarvis, Leicestershire; Mrs G Bou-gourd, Petersfield; Ann Harvey, East Sussex; Lorraine Fishwick, Selby; Anthony Michell, Shipston-on-Stour; Liz Gibbs, Wells, Somerset; Mrs R Irven, High Wycombe.
What's in a name?
I must have been in a complaining mood when I bumped into a farming friend the other day. "Farm products" I remarked testily, "cost a good deal more than they used to."Of course they do," he agreed. "When the public insists that a farmer must know the botanical name of the crop he raises, the zoological name of the insect that eats it and the chemical name of the insecticide that kills the insect - someone's got to pay."
Paul Jackson |
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