Wild Surprises

Blacka Blogger has tried to make it clear in this blog that what he values in this landscape is that it is changing. It does not stay the same year on year. A progression is happening and this brings surprises. All is dictated by the interaction of different natural processes often competing with one another. The joy of it all is that it is not dictated by that bane of modern life managerialism - office dwelling clones whose purpose it is to control everything, and when they are not controlling they are justifying themselves in weasel words.

Change is disturbing to many people who fear that what is round the corner may be what they do not like. Blacka Blogger deals with this worry very simply. We live in a world where change is unavoidable, a kind of change that is driven by human agencies and the economy. And depressing it usually is, dominated by greed and various forms of self interest. In nature the forces of change dance to their own tunes defying the best efforts of motivated and "driven" humans to control them.

The steep incline on the east side of Blacka Moor has changed when the managers were elsewhere with their eye off the ball. Heather has been replaced by bracken and birch and this has brought in other creatures, larger mammals who welcome the very absence of human management. This morning brought just the kind of surprise that wild landscapes bring. I recently drew attention to the way that light snow clings to paths leaving them white while the rest of the taller vegetation remains apparently untouched. Here is an example:


The delightful surprise this morning was the revelation of animal tracks normally unnoticed all over the eastern incline of Blacka, all picked out in the snow. Deer and badgers and foxes walking through the bracken litter have created their own routes and compressed the dead plant remains only for it to show up in high contrast when light snow picks it out. What joy.