Any thoughts?

The Safari is very concerned about the state of Britain's wildlife as are many others after the recent report unfortunate Cameron, Benyon, Paterson, Gove etc don't seem to think the environment matters or that some way it is something best got rid of in case it somehow gets in the way of economic growth or inspires children to ask 'awkward' questions. 

Another Buzzard-gate hit the headlines around the same time? How did they get away with it. I feel for Natural England, I have worked with their staff for many many years and think they are being given the foul end of a very shitty stick  from 'higher up'  at the moment.

There is no way any licences should be given to 'manage' a native species to protect what is essentially a pastime, and that includes shooting and fishing. In fact I would go as far as to say that licences should be obtained for 'sporting' purposes and that the release of none-natives eg Pheasants, Carp, etc should be strictly controlled and done on an area basis of (figures only intended as an example) 10 Pheasants per hectare. Any 'interference' with native wildlife would mean the loss of the licence for x years. And no releases with a mile of an nature reserve, SSSI or Local Wildlife Site (County Biological Heritage Site).

But here's another example filmed recently - what do you do about this?

Is the Fox out in daylight a sign that food is otherwise scarce or  has it taken advantage of the glut of chicks on the nature reserve? Foxes aren't endangered because they can survive alongside man and our activities but Lapwings numbers are plummeting because they can't anymore.

Do we kill the Fox or make sure that the overall Lapwing population can withstand the predation. i know which I would prefer and it's an easy thing to do. Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy - which we as tax payers provide the money for - could be directed to providing far more environmental and wildlife benefits for our bucks. Maybe upland farmers could be paid to produce trees and wildflowers and not sheep, that way we might not have to pay yet more in tax for flood defence and higher insurance premiums to cover flooding. 

Lowland farmers could be encouraged to keep pollutants out of our rivers and stream, increasing the width of their hedgerows and leave field margins for wildflowers

Badgers do not need to be culled, we could - and should - eat less meat meaning less intensive grazing.

If anyone says what about food production then think again, we need to cut out the waste, there is plenty of food for everyone on the planet it's the distribution that is wrong. And the poor of this world don't eat expensive beef they need a variety of easy to grow, cheap and plentiful staples. Cows don't seem to eat much grass these days, they eat Lapwing chicks (silage) and Howler Moneys (GM Soya grown on cleared rainforest) and of course you have to cull Cormorants because they are eating someones prize Carp instead of fishing out at sea where all the fish have been turned into fishmeal to feed - - livestock.

What a mess.

On the other hand this looks promising but if the 'powers that be' don't like something as innocuous as Buzzards how is it ever going to get  off the ground? lots of the usual mis/un-informed nonsense in the comments.

Where has all our wildlife gone...evidence for it at Base Camp and the moths this morning - only one very common micro, a White Shouldered House Moth - very disappointing for the middle of May.

Come on govermint time to wake up and smell the organic fairtrade coffee get your fingers out before you do any more damage to our precious heritage.

Where to next? A very exciting day out tomorrow - weather permitting observations!

In the meantime let us know what this greenest govermint ever is helping destroy in your outback