Some of you may be aware that I am currently reading George
Monbiot’s book ‘Feral’. It’s a book I have been meaning to read for some time
and although I know the central precepts of his thesis I am finding it interesting.
In my youth I found Monbiot somewhat of a fool. I lauded his ambition and
common sense but shook my head sagely as I read his ideas that seemed unwieldy
and impractical in todays world. In recent years I have softened towards George
and have begun to come round to his way of thinking and in particular his views
on re-wilding, both of the wider ecology and ourselves.
I have yet to get the crux of George’s central point in the book;
he is still building up the picture in a series of Bear Grylls like encounters,
but something he did elude to was something I encountered today; the connection
with wildlife and the outdoors. I am lucky, I grew up in a family that
appreciated nature. Weekends were spent walking in the country and holidays were
spent in this country in a caravan. Camping of an kind inevitably brings you
closer to nature, even if it is just the mosquitoes in the gloom, the
harvestmen on the ground sheet or the occasional frog in the welly. I therefore
am one of those people comfortable with wildlife, I would go as far to say I am
more comfortable with wildlife than I am with people. Sadly this isn’t true for
all. I can recall meeting someone who on going to Wales saw their
first ‘Wild’ Cow! Or the children I work with who cannot complete a Food Chain
worksheet because they don’t know what the animals are on the sheet let alone
what they eat. I would like to stress
that their lack of engagement is not to do with boredom or apathy merely
circumstance. When I have taken classes out bug hunting or surveying nearly all
light up and find themselves enthralled, the tadpoles in the pond are a
particular favourite. It just took someone to take the time to explain to them
what they were looking at. To turn over the stone revealing an ants nest and to
show how the workers frantically worked to drag the eggs below ground.
In one of the early chapters George described searching for
a certain place. Somewhere he found tranquil and energised him. For him it was
in a canoe out in the sea in Cardigan Bay, Gannets above him and Mackeral
beneath. My place is my local patch that I have visited weekly for the past 13
years, but I can get that same attachment, that moment of calm and awe at any
moment.
This week is part of Butterfly Conservation's Big ButterflyCount
and I headed this morning to the local park that I knew would be good for
Butterflies. With camera in hand I spent an hour coming the long grass chasing
crickets, all of which turned out to be the southern invader Roesell’s Bush
Cricket, and identifying butterflies. I paused to sit on a rock in the baking
heat beside a brook. Here I watched as an Emperor Dragonfly hawked along its
length and attacked the preening Banded Agrions. Whilst sat quietly a Peacock butterfly
fluttered into view and made a beeline, well as much of a beeline as
butterflies are able towards me. It alighted on my knee, its tongue
outstretched probing my hairy legs. I assume scientifically it was attracted to
the salt in my sweat but alongside that analytical thought came the engagement
with the animal itself. I could gaze into its swirling eyes and watch as the
tongue rolled and unrolled.
From this encounter I sought the shade and remembered a few
lines in an old book that claimed that in the 1970’s the park had a colony of
Common Lizards. I had tried to see if they still existed before but thought
today’s heat might help. I sought out the old walls and fallen trunks that seemed
likely spots. As I ventured down one of the mown strips in the grassland I came
upon a mother with two five year olds sat in the shade of a tree. They each
carried little fishing nets, the kind you buy from the seaside and were
gleefully chasing butterflies in the vain hope of catching one. The mother
called them together and showed them how to take a bark rubbing from the cherry
tree that offered them protection. It was at that moment that I had one of ‘those’
moments. A moment of peace despite the squeals of children, the discarded beer
can and the noise of the traffic only metres away. It was a realisation that
despite the struggles we interested in nature conservation face we have a lot
to be thankful for. We all need and should have a moment or place, ideally both
that energise us before we are worn asunder by the reports and government
decisions, somewhere that nature can touch our core. It was also reassuring
that there were at least two more budding ecologists who knows what they could
do now that their mother had taken the time to show them what was out there.
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