Saturday 20 October 2018

Slow Reveal

I awoke this morning to thick fog clamped down upon the land. But early on patches of watery sunlight started to break up the greyness. Down by the River Ouse in Little Paxton though the fog lingered on deep into the morning.


It's pleasant enough walking here even with reduced visibility. There's a lot of birds out there somewhere and maybe we'll see some later, but at present we'll have to make do with the honks of the geese filtering through the gloom.


If this looks like a natural landscape then think again: the ground here has been browsed, plundered, dug over, built upon and burrowed into by the busiest little animal ever to walk the earth - that endlessly destructive and infinitely creative creature, the human being. Search England all over and you won't find any areas that are untouched by human presence or past endeavour.


The ponds and lakes here all result from the excavation of gravel and sand to be used for building. But now it's returned to nature, a state of affairs for which many human agencies like to take credit but which could not have been attained without the co-operation and resilience of Nature herself.


There's nothing exceptional in this; in England we even have a National Park that has been formed by mankind's digging and delving - the Norfolk Broads are entirely the result of peat-digging during the medieval period. Well, medieval peat-digging and six-hundred years of natural re-colonisation.


Maybe this is the way we should be thinking these days. It's all very laudable to set aside wilderness areas, but that shouldn't give us licence to then destroy everything else with impunity. Maybe we should be declaring the whole nation as a national park and take care of it all. Why not? As I mentioned earlier we are not only the most destructive species ever, we are also the most creative. We are responsible for symphonies, great art, temples, cathedrals, worldwide charities, digital technology......


Surely it should be possible to live alongside nature without destroying it. All the arguments seem to have been made, now it remains to be seen whether we do anything about it.


There was a time when I used to travel all over Europe and even into North Africa in search of beautiful photographs. It wasn't difficult to find them, but in the process I was leaving a dirty great carbon footprint, though no one spoke in those terms back then. Nowadays I'm content to wander around in the fog peering at spiders' webs - now, they must be there all the time but, until the fog highlights them, they go unnoticed.


So for now we'll wander on in the foggy, foggy dew, noticing the little details and doing my best not to tread on too many while taking my photos. 


But slowly it seems to be brightening up with occasional sunbeams breaking through. This area is also slowly becoming a better place to be a bird-watcher - and of course a bird! These old gravel pits in the Ouse valley are but a part of the jigsaw. 


The Great Fen Project based around Holme Fen is attempting to return 9,000 acres (3,700 hectares) back to its natural state.  The National Trust has plans to create an reserve of 13,000 acres (5,300 hectares) to the NE of Cambridge by 2099. The RSPB has created a reedbed of 740 acres at Lakenheath which has already attracted breeding Bitterns and Cranes. Then there's the Ouse Washes and Grafham Water reservoir, both of which attract birdlife even if not specifically designed for that purpose. There are also several farms in the area which are working on more eco-friendly ways to farm.


In the interest of fairness and balance I should also say that contractors are making an incredible mess while widening the A14 road, there are big building projects at Eddington and Northstowe, and Cambridge is growing rapidly itself. So not everything is rosy by a long way.


So what birds are here today now that the mists have cleared? 
Grey Heron, Little Egret, Great White Egret, Cormorant, Great Crested Grebe, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Wigeon, Gadwall, Black-Headed Gull, Green Sandpiper, Moorhen, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Wren, Dunnock, Blackbird, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Pheasant, Chaffinch, Long-Tailed Tit, Jay, Magpie, Rook, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose.


Take care.



22 comments:

  1. Now wouldn’t that be something if the entire country was declared a National Park with everyone having responsibility to take care of it? It’s not going to happen though. We continue to ignore nature’s warnings and I think there is little doubt that we have already sown the seeds of our own destruction. And in the USA they continue to roll back every sane piece of environmental legislation enacted over the past thirty years. Go figure.

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  2. Thanks for your environmental consciousness. I would guess that most people who spend time recording nature scenes must have a bit of it, and this kind of reminds me of my own efforts. I now carry my own silverware and mug to places that provide only plastic ware for eating, so I've reduced that tiny element of plastic in the world. Friends have been refusing to use straws for months...it's just a drop in the ocean of pollution. What else can we do?

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  3. Beautiful photos and a bit comforting to know places can heal somewhat . There are only 1/3 as many birds here now as there were in the 1960s. There are even fewer insects , and plants are being bred to repel or kill insects. I turned away from flats of fall flowers that were tagged as such. I plant for butterflies and birds.
    Some times I just can't stand to think about it. I've spent a life time recycling and living minimally and can't see where it made any difference.

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  4. As usual John I am blown away by your photography.

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  5. We ignore these warnings at our peril - I have constant fears for the future of our beautiful world and what is happening to it especially when I think about the future for our younger generations. My husband and I attended the first Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 where he campaigned on behalf of the UN for the protection of our oceans. 120 governments signed up to Agenda 21, a serious action plan for the 21st century. It is now 26 years later and just look what a terrible mess both our seas and the terrestrial environment are in. We have both lost faith with the state of progress.
    Love that first image - it is such a beautiful composition.

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  6. The mist gives everything such a wonderful atmosphere

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  7. Hi John - wonderful to see your photos and to read your thoughts ... we are so destructive aren't we ... yet nature does return the lands - which always amazes me. But I'd love it if we could leave unplundered some ancient lands ... woodlands preferably, but heaths, meadows too ... so they can be true to their nature. Thanks for these - cheers Hilary

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  8. I love the idea of caring for the whole world like a park! The spider web in the fog is my favorite of all these wonderful foggy photos. I'm not sure if that's the builder in the upper left corner or his lunch.

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  9. Misty mornings make for better images John.
    Yes these humans shouldn't be allowed.

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  10. That first photo is exceptional. Love it!

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  11. Wonderful photos of a lovely area. Thank you so much for sharing.

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  12. I love the idea of declaring the country a national park, makes me think the entire planet should be so declared and protected. Yes to all you say about our human impact on our one and only Earth. Beautiful photos, John, and I like seeing the fog there. It looks so much like ours here!

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  13. You made wonderful photos in the fog, John. It's a beautiful area for hiking.

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  14. Sorry to hear about your email issue. I'll be careful. Thanks for the warning.
    Great photos here. I love misty conditions but am rarely up early enough to catch them!

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  15. The fog makes great photos. a country wide National Park, what a brilliant idea. But would we be trusted to take care of it, pick up our rubbish etc? I see so much rubbish on the roads and in the ditches and in the parks here, I hope England isn't the same.

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  16. A beautiful morning to be outdoors :)

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  17. Really enjoyed this post John. Apart from the gorgeous photos, as always, your observations about human nature are truly succinct. I have ivy growing in my garden and I often wonder if my house was left abandoned how long it would take before it was engulfed in ivy.. nature always takes back if left alone to do so ✨

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  18. Beautiful photos. Thanks for taking us along on your hike!

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  19. I love walking in the fog. It's fun light for photography and colors are surprisingly bright. We've got plenty of land set aside by the government here, especially in the western states. For us I think it's necessary to preserve it...people can be so selfish and thoughtless.

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  20. Wonderful photos, John. Fog is not very common here and perhaps also because of that I find it so enchanting.
    Humans and their environment... Sigh. I guess in England you are already going to the better direction. Here (in Finland) we sell, no, we almost give away our natural resources to multinational companies and keep happily the (toxic) wastes.

    I'm still dreaming of seeing a Long-Tailed Tit. :)

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  21. I just love fog photos! Driving in thick fog, not so much fun.

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