Countryman banner

Home
Magazine
Subscriptions
Store
Countryside Diary
Countryman Profile
Blog
Readers' Gallery
Your Letters
Services
Farmers' Markets
Countryside Directory
Information
Advertising
Contacts
Links


Blue Tit

 
 
 

Countryman Diary - September 2007


Let's not forget local knowledge in flood prevention

My heartfelt sympathy goes out to all those affected by the dreadful flooding during July. The incessant rain brought devastation and heartbreak to many in the countryside up and down the land. We can only hope that lessons have been learnt by those who plan and build housing and those whose job it is to make sure our flood defence plans are adequate.

Country people’s knowledge, gained through generations of observing the behaviour of streams and rivers and their relationship with flood plains and surrounding countryside, is invaluable and consultation with these ‘experts’ is vital if we are to cope with further disasters.

Too often the views of ordinary countryside people are ignored or considered insignificant by developers, bureaucrats and politicians who have different agendas. The force of nature should never be underestimated – nor should its healing powers or ability to help us. By using nature’s resources, such as wetlands, and the planting of grasses, trees and shrubs in appropriate places, we will also find solutions.

Of course it’s terrible when floods hit our homes but it can be catastrophic for farmers who see their crops ruined and their livelihoods threatened. I asked Humphrey Phelps how he has been affected and his pertinent account is this month's issue. With further bad news emerging just days later for livestock farmers regarding foot and mouth disease, all in all it’s been a bleak summer for many in the countryside.


Pay change to limit lark rise?

Woodlarks are returning to bred on England’s farmland in greater numbers than at any time in the last forty years. A new national survey has found woodlark numbers in the UK have risen by eighty-nine per cent in the last ten years. The rise has been driven by work to provide suitable habitat by improvements to the size and condition of lowland heaths and good management of forestry plantations.

Increasing numbers of the birds now appear to be moving on to farms to breed, with many nesting on set-aside land. There are fears, however, that the imminent loss of set-aside, because of changes in the way Europe pays its farmers, could limit the woodlark’s spread unless suitable alternatives are provided.

The results of the survey, carried out by the BTO, RSPB, Natural England and the Forestry Commission, show an estimated 3,084 breeding pairs of woodlark, compared with 1,633 pairs in 1997 and the low point of just 241 pairs in 1986.

Traditionally a bird of heathland, farmland and more recently forest plantations, the woodlark was red-listed as a species of conservation concern in the 1980s because of a drastic decline in its range over the preceding twenty years. Much of the decline coincided with the loss of traditional, mixed farmland in the south, west and Wales, along with the loss of heathland habitat throughout the UK. Today, the bird’s strongholds remain England’s lowland heaths and forestry plantations, where they thrive in clear felled areas.


Stork arrives at cranery

A broody bantam hen has been the perfect foster mum for a Sandhill crane born at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve near Fakenham in Norfolk. The Sandhill’s mum, a juvenile aged two, laid two eggs in May as building work for her new home, the Pensthorpe Conservation Centre, was nearing completion. Cranes do not normally reach sexual maturity until age four or five, so a fertile egg was not expected (the male bird is three). Cranes are very protective of their nests and would have been disturbed by the construction activity, so just in case the eggs were fertile, they were placed under a broody bantam hen.

Miraculously, one of the eggs was fertile. The bantam incubated it for twenty-eight days and continued as foster mum once the chick hatched. Both foster mum and chick are both doing very well. Once the Sandhill chick can maintain its own body temperature, it will be moved to an area where he/she can associate with its parents in the cranery.

The Pensthorpe Conservation Centre, features a purpose built cranery, housing the largest collection of cranes in the UK, including eight of the world’s fifteen species. Sadly more than half the crane species are considered endangered or threatened either directly or indirectly by man.

Pensthorpe: tel 01328 851465, www.pensthorpe.com


Fliberty gibbering

I have a great fondness for dialect words, phrases and sayings and I’m lucky in that being editor of a countrywide magazine means many new (to me, anyway) regional delights head my way on a regular basis. Sometimes I don’t know what’s more difficult – working out what’s being meant when it’s written down, or when it’s actually spoken in the ‘natural’ tongue. An accompanying translation is usually most welcome. In this issue Madge Green reminds us of some long-used regional names for plants (and I’m sure you have many more to add). She lists Fliberty Gibbet as an alternative name for mallow – I remember a female acquaintance being described as something of a ‘Fliberty Gibbet’ by an elderly relation. I took it to mean she was someone who rapidly flitted from one thing to another – what this has to do with a mallow or how the phrase originated is beyond me. Perhaps readers could let me know.


A real countryman

I was saddened to hear of the death of Phil Drabble OBE on July 29, aged 93. He was a real countryman, and wrote some marvellous pieces for this magazine. Raised in the Black Country, he later lived in – and wrote mostly about – the countryside of north Worcestershire and at Abbots Bromley in south Staffordshire. The former One Man and His Dog presenter and his wife Jess purchased a derelict cottage and ninety acres of neglected ancient woodland and turned it into the Goat Lodge Nature Reserve.

Paul Jackson

 


Diary Months:

THIS MONTH

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012

October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012

January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011

March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

August 2010

July 2010

June 2010

May 2010

April 2010

March 2010

February 2010

January 2010

December 2009

November 2009

October 2009

September 2009

August 2009

July 2009

June 2009

May 2009

April2009

March 2009

February 2009

January 2009

December 2008

November 2008

October 2008

September 2008

August 2008

July 2008

June 2008

May 2008

April 2008

March 2008

February 2008

January 2008

December 2007

November 2007

October 2007

September 2007

August 2007

July 2007

June 2007

May 2007