Wildlife discrimination

"She's up at 6 am, looking out of the bedroom window, on heron patrol," says PD in Geriatrics' Corner. A heron has taken to early morning fishing in the pond in their garden. "If it appears, she's off down those stairs, arms flying, determined to scare it away."

We remember our close encounter with a heron when we lived on the edge of the Leighton RSPB Bird Sanctuary. We opened the rather thin front door to find the heron on our doorstep, about to knock on the door. We saw the villainous beak, gently backed away, closing the door behind us, giving it chance to move along. That beak could easily have speared its way through the hardboard door, not to mention our legs.

"She fancied a wildlife garden, so I agreed. She wanted a pond with natural wildlife in it. She's loves showing the grandchildren the water boatmen and so on. But she complains about the heron fishing, & the sparrowhawk hunting. She's no happier about the wild rabbit that hops along in. It ventures into her veg plot. Lord knows what would happen if a fox decided to visit & chase after the bantams."

PD cannot understand this discrimination against some wildlife. "It's all part of nature I tell her. There's a mix of good & bad. You have to accept both sides."

It is true enough. Nature is a war between predator & prey half the time. Personally I would be thrilled if all that wildlife wanted to visit our garden. Though I will admit the visit of a sparrowhawk does tend to result in a distinct absence of birdlife for a while afterwards.