Tidy, tidy, tidy .........AAAAAAAAH!

Blimey, how fed up am I with the constant noise of strimmers, hedge cutters, mowers and even chain saws. 

The majority of the garden hedges in my village have had their summer trim to make them look tidy. Sod the myriad of insects and caterpillars living there, as well as of course, all those nesting birds. 

Oh, but our garden must look neat and tidy at all times. We don't want anyone in the village to think that we are letting the side down. 

Unfathomably, these nesting birds are of course the same ones that we fed and cared for all through the winter months. Tales are told in the pub of the delight at seeing so many squabbling Goldfinch and handsome Greenfinch feeding on the bird table. How we loved the song of the sweet little Dunnock in spring, the handsome Blackbird that waits each morning to be fed and of course "our"  Robin which has become so tame, it will snatch a meal worm from the hand!

Well guys, tell me where those little birds, yes, those that you enjoy so much from the comfort of your sitting room or kitchen window during the winter months, all come from? 

I will tell you, because it appears that not many of you have given it any thought whatsoever.

Many are currently little babies, sitting in nests, tucked away in hedges and grassy banks. These sites are chosen specifically by the parent birds, because the nests are hidden away by the summer growth canopy.  

That is until you come along and remove that protective green cover, leaving the nest exposed at best, (thanks say the Magpies - so much easier to spot now - yum, yum) or actually smashing the nest up completely with your latest new shiny garden tool.

What about that lovely bank, full of Cow parsley and waving grasses, that has the Robins nest hidden away and where the Slow worm lives? Well that was getting far too scruffy, so a trim was an absolute must. 

I know Slow worms live there, because the owner told me that he "strimmed one up" last year! But despite that - strimmed it was again this year.

Meanwhile, did you know that farmers (the same folk that constantly get blamed for the massive declines in wildlife) are not allowed to cut hedges between March 1st and August 31st? Only areas where growth from a tree or hedge would impinge on health and safety, such as a road junction are allowed to be trimmed. 

I think the same should apply to ALL hedges and trees, wherever they happen to be.

Farmers are not allowed to cut hedges during the summer months

So, come on gardeners and local councils - loosen up on the tidiness fetish, before our country's wildlife becomes even more impoverished. 

1 million

Congratulations to everyone who signed the NFU petition - it has now gone over the 1 million mark.

We will see if MPs take any notice - they bloody well should! 

National Farmers Union Petition

I have written twice about UK food standards in connection with future trade imports (See below - 16th & 27th May). 

Well, now the NFU has brought out a petition which has already reached 750,000 votes. It would be fantastic to hit one million, so please go to the link below and caste your vote, unless of course you are not particularly fussed about animal welfare.  


https://www.nfuonline.com/news/latest-news/food-standards-petition/ 

Thanks.

Sexton Beetles

Although a bit of a novice at this, I am getting really fascinated with the family of beetles known as Silphidae – their common names often being Sexton beetles, burying beetles or carrion beetles.

There are 21 species in the UK and the name “Sexton” literally means a person who looks after a church and churchyard, typically acting as bell-ringer and gravedigger. Well, they do the last bit anyway!

Sexton beetles have an exceptionally good sense of smell and can smell a carcass up to a mile away.

I have recently been setting pitfall traps around something “smelly”. A pitfall trap is simply a plastic beaker or pot sunk into the ground, which the beetles then hopefully stumble into and cannot climb out of because of the slippery sides. The smelly thing can be anything allowed to go off somewhat, such as chicken giblets, fish or roadkill!

The offering can be something quite small, such as a mouse, which brings me onto something else of interest. Many sexton beetles carry tiny mites which apparently do them little or no harm. These mites use the Sexton beetles to hitch a lift to these dead food sources.

When both the beetle and mites arrive at a given body, the mites do not eat the dead body, but instead eat fly eggs and larva of anything that is not a carrion beetle. They help to clean the carcass of the potential competitors, so that the Sexton beetle's larva can have the body largely to themselves. That could be important if the food source is no bigger than a mouse!

Here are a few photos showing some of the beetles that I have discovered.  

Black Sexton beetle - Nicrophorus humator - showing a number of mites hitching a lift

Sexton beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides

Oiceoptoma thoracicum - these beetles can sometimes be found sitting on 

Stinkhorn fungus, attracted by the smell

We must not allow politicians to negotiate our high standards of animal welfare in Britain away.

Since I wrote about an amendment to the Agricultural bill being voted down in the Commons (See Blog below - May 16th), I have delved a little deeper into why this amendment was defeated.

It appears that the International Trade Secretary, Liz Truss (A former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) believes that the UK needs to accept lower standards to strike a deal before the US presidential election in November. Truss believes that the Americans are unlikely to accept any trade deal which does not include complete liberalisation of trade in food.

So, what are the facts about food produced in the USA, and what sort of food may soon be arriving in the UK if Truss gets her way? Let us take a look.

The sale of antibiotics to American farms jumped from 5,559 tons in 2017 to 6,036 tons in 2018 – a 9% rise (latest figures available). Meanwhile over the same period, antibiotic sales in the UK fell by 9% from 248 tons to 226 tons. Experts warn that the routine use of antibiotics on American farms (not allowed here without Veterinary recommendation) risks making once effective medicines for us useless, as bacterial resistance builds. It is reckoned that the US uses a whopping 5 times more antibiotics per animal than in the UK. 

US cattle farmers can use steroid hormones to speed growth by up to 20% - a practice that has been banned in the EU since 1989. 

The biggest US intensive beef farms, known as “Feedlots”, have up to 150,000 cattle kept in out-door pens with little or no shelter, while the largest US mega-dairies boast 30,000 cows.

There are at least two pig farms that each have an astonishing 800,000 animals.

The biggest chicken farms can house a million chickens in vast hanger-like facilities. You can perhaps begin to see why many need to be washed in chlorine to make them OK to eat!

There is no federal US legislation governing the welfare of animals while they are on the farm, and only weak and patchy regulations at State level. The rules governing slaughter are even less detailed and do not exist at all for poultry.

As a result, only 10 States have banned pig sow stalls (banned in EU since 1999) and battery cages for egg laying hens (banned in the EU in 2012) are still widely used.

Since 1997, animals have been recognised within EU law as “sentient” animals – which means that it is acknowledged they are able to feel pain and suffer. In the States there is generally a resistance to acknowledge sentience in farm animals.

Now let us take a look at plant-based agriculture in the States. Just three words might make you think a little – Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). GMOs are heavily restricted in the EU but are widely used in the States. For instance, currently 94% of Soybeans and 80% of Maize grown there is genetically modified. Staggeringly, this does not have to be declared on labels.

I could go on about the way that the USA produces food but will leave it there.

In post Brexit trade negotiations, we will of course be dealing with many other countries besides the USA. I can only start to imagine what I might find when I delve into food production in China for instance!

UK farmers are truly dismayed at what could happen over the next few years.

UK farmers care deeply about how their animals are raised

Minette Batters, the National Farmers Union (NFU) president said, “Brexit was meant to be about the creation of a bigger, better Britain, not turning us into a pariah state with no consideration for animal welfare”.

Another NFU spokesman said “UK farmers would be asked a question they would never want to have to answer: Do they just let themselves go out of business or do they just lower their standards. In other words – a race to the bottom”.

What do the general public think about all of this? Well, the first thing to say is that most do not know what is happening, because the ONLY news currently being provided is about Covid 19. How convenient for the Government.

However, according to a Which poll, 93% of Britons want our high food standards to be protected in post-Brexit trade deals. So naturally, one would imagine that our elected politicians would follow the will of the public and vote accordingly.

DON’T BE NAIVE.

The Tories were totally to blame for this amendment failing. It is obvious that pressure is being applied from on high as even George Eustice, Defra secretary and MP for Camborne and Redruth and Defra farm minister Victoria Prentis, who is Conservative MP for Banbury, voted against the amendment. Ms Prentis attempted to allay fears that UK farmers will be undermined in any future trade deals.

Ms Prentis said: “I was elected on a very clear manifesto commitment – one that the prime minister has reiterated since – that in all our trade negotiations we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards. This government will stand firm in trade negotiations to ensure that any deals live up to the values of our farmers and consumers.”

That last line says it all. As wishy washy as they come. If they meant what they said, they would have no hesitation whatsoever of supporting this amendment. But of course, they do not.

What can you and I do about this dreadful situation? If, like me, you feel that the Government is betraying the British public and perhaps more importantly, our farmers and farm animals, then we need to shout out our disgust – very, very loudly.

You are most welcome to forward this blog (and the one on the 16^th May) to whoever you feel might be interested (93% of Brits apparently!). Also contact your MP and write letters to newspapers etc.

The Bill will be voted on in the Lords on the 10th June, before going back to the Commons for a final vote. Post Brexit, these trade deals are obviously hugely important, but sometimes the cost is too high and we need to stand up for what is right.

Over to you.

Phragmidium rosae-pimpinellifoliae. Now that's a name and a half!

I came across this outstandingly orange fungus yesterday. I could see it way ahead of me as I walked along the path, and immediately thought that someone had thrown their discarded orange peel in the hedge! 

On closer inspection though, I found that it was in fact a rust fungus, that goes by the snappy name of Phragmidium rosae-pimpinellifoliae, which occasionally infests the wild Burnet rose. 

The Burnet rose (Rosa pimpinellifolia) can be seen in flower in Britain and Ireland from May until the end of August and are the thorniest of all the wild roses. 

They have five-petalled white flowers, sometimes splashed with a little pink. They can look a little like wild Dog Rose, but later in the year, their hips are coloured purple, unlike other wild roses which have red or scarlet hips.

The strikingly coloured Burnet Rose rust

I'm glad that I do a written Blog rather than a spoken one, as I would have to practice how to say the scientific name of this fungus for some time to get it right!