Job for yerz all

The Safari has little to report this morning - we didn't get out to check for any vis going on - but two Peregrines were on the tower both chomping their breakfast.

On another tack we've got a total bee in our bonnet about the state of the nation's hedgerows and put a question out on the Autumnwatch messageboard:-

"Nice to see Chris (Packham) do a (short) piece about our thousands miles of hedgerows and their capacity to hold upto 10,000 berries per metre. Unfortunately all this food has already been lost round our way, along with any hidden insects and shelter from adverse weather. I did a 100 mile round trip, mostly rural off motorway, in north Lancs last weekend and noticed almost all the hedges have been flailed to within an inch of their lives, both roadside and between fields. Whilst I appreciate it is important to keep signs and sight-lines clear much of the rest just seemed so unnecessary. What is the your situation in your area - is there anything left for the redwings and fieldfares etc? On a slightly disturbing note I heard of a southern agricultural college (thanks Warren) doing some severe flailing - surely they should be teaching best practice to their students in conjunction with their countryside management modules."

Again thanks to Warren for sending the pic albeit a while ago now - sums it up nicely don't you think?

"Thanks everybody for your comments so far, it seems like a national 'problem/pastime'. At the moment I am incapacitated after an op and while I have the time off work I'm going to try to devise a simple survey we can all do over the next couple of weeks and by the end of the series hopefully we'll have a reasonable national dataset perhaps for Chis to present on the show giving the state of the nation's hedges this winter and perhaps try to change attitudes for next winter at least. With all the commotion about fuel prices, spending cuts and carbon counting it seems to be an illogical waste of time and money as well as a huge natural resourse our winter wildlife depends on. There will be some driving (or cycling for the fitter among you) involved in the survey to cover enough of your local countryside to get a fair representation of our hedges - watch this space for full details......"

We hope once we've devised the survey you'll take part and add your results to the national picture.

Where to next? Surveys-R-us for some ideas!

In the meantime let us know, unscientifically, what the state of your local hedgerows is at the mo.