Saturday 6 February 2010

Purple Sands to the Rescue


After a brilliantly sunny early morning where I noticed the first 2 Snowdrop plants were flowering in the garden.
I went out birding and the fog rolled in all of a sudden, typical! Looking from Asda, a Kestrel perched on the grain silo and a Great Crested Grebe was seen amongst a a group of 50+ Black- headed Gulls.
Nothing in Hamilton Dock. At Ness Point, 6 Turnstone were on the seawall and 6 Purple Sandpipers fed on the "finger" only around 20 feet away. 
The accompanying pictures shows a local farmer's opposition to the plan by English Nature to re-introduce White- tailed Sea Eagles to the East Suffolk coast. I, for one, would be in favour of the re-introduction provided they will be self- sustaining, although whether this project will reach fruition is very much in the balance. I suspect there will be lots of opposition from farmers, landowners and maybe even some birders (who will argue disturbance to some of our rarer breeding species such as Avocets & Bitterns). Archaeological evidence has proved that these magnificent raptors used to inhabit East Anglia and were at the very top of the food chain until they were driven out by man). They surely deserve a second chance to regain their East Anglian foothold, but what do you think?


2 comments:

Danny Porter said...

Peter, I'm running a Sea Eagles poll on my website, maybe you could plug it a bit for me!!??

Thanks,

Danny

Peter Ransome said...

Thanks Danny. Will do.
Peter