Desirable Area

But house prices are to be reckoned with.

'Thuggery'?

Bracken is now well established reminding us that we've moved from spring into summer. The least liked of native plants and worthwhile asking why. It spreads and dominates large open areas which might otherwise in "ideal" circumstances be home to more variety. Already some walkers have expressed their distaste by attacking the pathside bracken fronds with sticks.

One university academic with something of a vested interest has labelled Bracken alongside Bramble as 'thug plants'. Funding from the herbicide industry may go some way to explaining why. Even so it's a bit rich for humanity, responsible as we are for more destruction of nature than any other species to talk in this way of native plantlife.

Standing against Bracken is its assymetrical, and therefore subjectively less attractive, appearance. Nobody could claim it to be pretty. Other ferns now in full maturity easily beat it in the beauty competition.

Yet Bracken's apologists might well point to the fact that it is merely being opportunist, something that humanity has itself specialised in. Those places where Bracken dominates are in fact the very places where man has exploited over centuries clearing native woodland and if man would just back off for a long period Bracken would lose its vigour as trees returned. Rewilding is the best solution.

Once the attacks, verbal and physical, on Bracken from conservation and farming interests were justified by an exaggerated narrative to the effect that wildlife found no use for this plant. Now that opinion has been revised and it's conceded that plenty of wildlife lives happily alongside it.Various fungi and a select group of wild flowers manage to thrive in and around this 'thug'. And it provides excellent shelter for various birds and mammals. One example from this morning, pictures a few seconds apart:

Fashion Choice

Maybe brown is the in colour this year. In which case this handsome slug is a cool mollusc. And he could at the same time be black. The Common Black Slug or Garden Slug is not always black and quite likely to be brown. Confusing.

Cheery

I don't know any other common wild flower more guaranteed to cheer us up. Ragged Robin is now open and adding to the delights around the neglected car park.

Hearing and Seeing

 
A few weeks ago it was fairly easy to see the little warblers calling in the trees. Now it's a lot harder, even when they are just overhead. And even harder to get photographs of them.

The Stonechat on the other hand makes it a little easier even when further away.

Machines Make Work

The only reason I can think of for cutting a swathe of roadside verge in June is to make it easier for the very small number of people who choose to walk alongside the main road. But representations have been made in previous years complaining that many wild flowers are being unnecessarily chopped down reducing the roadside appeal. So it's evidently been agreed that they will only cut a narrow strip, some two/three feet or so, leaving in most of the roadsides some remaining uncut verge where wildflowers can grow.

Until a couple of years ago there had been no cutting (maintenance) at all and some excellent flowery scenes could be observed throughout the summer months. Obviously some jobsworths have decided this half and half solution is a jolly compromise. And to add a dollop of goodwill somebody planted some - guess what - daffodil bulbs along a section of the verge!

I can't pretend I like this. But anyway whatever is the excuse for what we see in the picture above? There's already a bare patch going well back from the kerb so the machine operator, frustrated to be denied his right to have something to cut has gone further beyond that and cut well back into the vegetation.

There comes a point when machines make work for themselves. Man is almost powerless to resist the lure of mechanisation from a kitchen gadget to huge JCBs. If they exist somebody just has to use them. I'm as sure as I can be that if we lived in a world free from chainsaws there would be a lot more trees in the world both in Sheffield's streets and out in our so-called 'nature reserves'.

Sigh of Relief

Not sure that foxes and badgers actually sigh but it's not been a bad day for the wild mammals in the countryside. At least it will now be a lot harder for the government to reintroduce hunting or to ratchet up any more the badger cull.

And  congratulations to those who worked to unseat Andrew Bingham, vocal supporter of driven grouse shooting, from his Derbyshire High Peak constituency.

Ah, just spotted ....

Foxes can breathe a sigh of relief today, says our director Philip Mansbridge https://t.co/kqjVkOm0SS pic.twitter.com/iulrwIHYRY

— IFAW United Kingdom (@IFAWUK) June 9, 2017