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I've just posted this on our local village FB page...
Sad announcement - the passing of a villager. For the last couple of weeks, as I drove back and forth up and down the GNR*, I've been pleased to see one our lesser-known village citizens pottering around the hedgerow between Polecat Lane and the bus stop. You'd hardly give her a second glance - she was quite small, dressed in a natty little black suit with white trimmings, green leggings and a little red beak.
Yup, a Moorhen.
I smole at her as I drove into the village this morning at around 11 o'clock, and wondered, in my own inimitable way, what her story was. How had she come to be there, and how was she going to manage through the cold weather?
Now I don't have to wonder any more - her little story has ended in the middle of the road, where somebody, in broad daylight and on a clear day, ran her over. I've just been back down to move her out of the way of other vehicles, and placed her in the hedgerow she used as a shelter.
Gentlefolk All - this might have been an accident, and the person responsible might never have known they had hit her, in which case, it's very sad, but we move on. Or it might have been deliberate, in which case it's inexcusable, and says rather a lot about the person who did it. I've often been accused of over-dramatising things - not untrue - but I feel these little deaths keenly. We are not so well-off for wildlife any more - things have changed drastically over the last ten-fifteen years, as we, who live in the countryside, cannot fail to have noticed. So please, let's take a little more care of the creatures who live with us. It's like the story I read when I was a child, about the kid who stomped on spiders. A passer-by noticed him, and looking him in the eye, said 'Hey, that's pretty neat, squashing that spider. If I ask you nicely, can you make me another one?'
That's something none of us can do. Think about it.
*GNR = Great North Road - formerly the main North-South highway from London to Edinburgh, lost its rationale in the late 50's with the building of a multi-lane highway, now up to eight lanes in each direction in places.....our two villages are joined by the old road - pretty quaint, huh?
Sad announcement - the passing of a villager. For the last couple of weeks, as I drove back and forth up and down the GNR*, I've been pleased to see one our lesser-known village citizens pottering around the hedgerow between Polecat Lane and the bus stop. You'd hardly give her a second glance - she was quite small, dressed in a natty little black suit with white trimmings, green leggings and a little red beak.
Yup, a Moorhen.
I smole at her as I drove into the village this morning at around 11 o'clock, and wondered, in my own inimitable way, what her story was. How had she come to be there, and how was she going to manage through the cold weather?
Now I don't have to wonder any more - her little story has ended in the middle of the road, where somebody, in broad daylight and on a clear day, ran her over. I've just been back down to move her out of the way of other vehicles, and placed her in the hedgerow she used as a shelter.
Gentlefolk All - this might have been an accident, and the person responsible might never have known they had hit her, in which case, it's very sad, but we move on. Or it might have been deliberate, in which case it's inexcusable, and says rather a lot about the person who did it. I've often been accused of over-dramatising things - not untrue - but I feel these little deaths keenly. We are not so well-off for wildlife any more - things have changed drastically over the last ten-fifteen years, as we, who live in the countryside, cannot fail to have noticed. So please, let's take a little more care of the creatures who live with us. It's like the story I read when I was a child, about the kid who stomped on spiders. A passer-by noticed him, and looking him in the eye, said 'Hey, that's pretty neat, squashing that spider. If I ask you nicely, can you make me another one?'
That's something none of us can do. Think about it.
*GNR = Great North Road - formerly the main North-South highway from London to Edinburgh, lost its rationale in the late 50's with the building of a multi-lane highway, now up to eight lanes in each direction in places.....our two villages are joined by the old road - pretty quaint, huh?
