Desolation Road

 It really gets to me. The way people feel the need to have a tidy countryside. I can see no other reason for destroying the wonderful verges along Southorpe Road. Instead of long grass, Red Campion, Cow Parsley, Hogweed, Great Willowherb and many other species of plant

 we have this...

Southorpe Road devoid of habitat for invertebrates

I walked along here a few days ago and the flowers and grass were showing good signs of insect life with several bee species, hoverflies and damselflies on the plants. Now, they have no where to go, so they leave for other locations (hopefully). However, many other locations do the same thing - long grass and lovely plants for insects? No - it looks untidy, how much nicer and tidier to have short grass. There is no safety hazard in many of these places so really no excuse for destroying the habitat. No wonder our insects are disappearing.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Brown Hares are showing well these recent mornings.

Brown Hares along the south side

Although the butterflies and dragonflies have been scarce due to low temperatures in the mornings, I saw two species of orchid this morning.

Orchid in second field, probably Northern Marsh (Dactylorhiza purpurella)

Common Spotted Orchid

Elders are flowering now and I spotted a single flower head from elder that had lodged on a grass stem.

Barn Owls are out and about in search of food, with luck for their young as much as for themselves. They are such magnificent birds and they are a joy to watch.

Barn Owl

The Jackdaw is also a lovely bird, especially in spring and summer when the grey plumage is much more prominent than usual.

Jackdaw

A final word, unfortunately as downbeat as my first words on this post. The smell coming from the Mere is absolutely dreadful. I went to the viewing platform this morning and was met with a wave of awfulness that was stomach turning. It smells like sewage quite frankly. The water quality has been shocking over the last couple of weeks with the outflow down Stream Dyke looking like green pea soup rather than water. What is the cause? I'll try and find out.