More than 4,500 people who live or work near the rivers along the Welsh-English border have signed up to take part in what's being seen as a landmark case against Avara Foods and Welsh Water.

Their lawyers say it's the biggest case ever brought in the UK over environmental pollution in terms of the number of claimants and its geographical spread.

Avara, which dominates chicken farming in the area, and Welsh Water, have respectively called the claims "misconceived" and "misguided".

So the two defendants imply fairies or some other previously unknown factor are the issue, not the feathered denizens of the farms.

Let's see if sanity prevails and the once pristine Wye can return to its triple si status.

They would say that, wouldn't they.🙄

😃

I was going to use that very expression!  Maybe I’m getting more cynical but I do find that ‘corporate PR speak’ increasingly irritating.  They’d be better just keeping quiet.

One of the people involved in the court case was interviewed on Today this morning. Besides describing the state of the river she posed the question whether raising 20 million chickens in huge warehouses could even be called farming.  I think it’s obscene personally; can you even describe their existence as ‘life’?

From what I've learnt is that even the 'free range' bird shxt contribute to the malaise of the watercourses.

Taking inspiration from Rogers' post from the Woods, if a hundred other people and I were to have a mass dump in the gardens of the two defendants' Chief Executives, you can bet the police would be called pronto for causing a pollution hazard.

It does make my blood boil, though, with this case and many others like it. 

I’m sure you’re correct; the issue is the sheer scale of chicken farming. But if they were all free range, and better still, raised to the standard of organic farming, there’d be far fewer of them.

It’s amazing how the chicken has gone from rare, expensive treat to staple food in, what, 2-3 generations?

We only buy organic or free range, both chicken and eggs.  It costs more but having seen what battery farming looks like I couldn’t buy their output.  Of course, sometimes when you eat out you can’t be entirely sure.

https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/news/first-eggs-for-new-osprey-pair-at-loch-of-the-lowes/ 

https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/watch-wildlife-online/loch-of-the-lowes-webcam/ 

https://www.lenpicktrust.org.uk/owl-project/ 

See:

https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/watch-wildlife-online/loch-of-the-lowes-webcam/ 

and 

https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/press-office/latest-news/ 

https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/watch-wildlife-online/loch-of-the-lowes-webcam/ 

One of my ‘projects’ concerns Sea Kale, a halophytic plant that the Victorians managed to denude from coastal areas around the UK. It’s quite easy to cultivate/propagate more from root cuttings than seeds and it shows an incredible visual diversity when you look at it from ground level and close up.

I’ve been planning this particular part of the portfolio for almost a year and I knew I would have to travel a bit for the last two images. From my records, I know that a good time to do this is early May so I pencilled in yesterday as a suitable time. All weather dependent of course but the forecast look OK. I was up early and made the drive to the first beach, a National Trust site near Bridport. The spits of rain looked like they wouldn’t amount to much on the radar so I took the gamble and set out before sunrise. The issue was I’m not a member of the Trust right now and the ticket machine here is cashless and card-less would you believe! They want you to scan your membership card which of course I don’t have. They show a phone app that doesn’t work because there is no mobile signal in this area. WTFNT. I’m cashless these days and I would have thought the Trust would have caught up by now that many people are. I could see the flowering sea kale too, in all its white glory, down below me on the shingle. 

Sod this, so I went back east to another beach managed by the local wildlife trust. The council run a cash generating car park ticket machine that doesn’t open till 8am. All good for early birds like me so I had free time to have a ‘little’ hike to the sea kale. The issue was it was flourishing but not yet in flower, all of it too. So back to the car and further west to Abbotsbury beach which has developed quite reputation with people receiving parking penalties from a cavalier car parking company in recent years.  One machine was out of order but the other works! So I imputed my car reg, scanned my credit card and got a ticket for five hours. Easier than I thought it would be! Off again for another trek to where I knew the sea kale grew. Bingo! A single flowering plant in perfect condition not too far along the back of the shingle bank and no poo. So I set up gear and began work. It's all macro material for this part of the project, and I spent an hour or so working hard at it.

Sea Kale location image

I then decided to head east to the border where the Swannery begins. Even more sea kale in different stages of growth so I spent another hour at work. It’s hard work lying on the shingle looking through a viewfinder or on screen and you place yourself in another world especially when looking at plants so close up. Suddenly I hear footsteps on the shingle that came from nowhere. People herald their advance for several minutes but these were just there. I looked up and a couple of deer were watching me with interest from a few feet away.  Once they saw me watching them they retreated higher up before continuing watching me and then moving off. 

At the far end are a line of Dragons Teeth and block houses built in a hurry to deter real Nazi tanks many years ago.

The builders used aggregate made partly from shingle taken from the beach and it’s still visible in the blocks. There is a swannery not so far away to makes the news most years when the concentration of swans encourages a bird flu hotspot. A lot of other birds in the reeds of which I recognised a reed warbler. I’m no expert though. I think I saw a little tern which nest this time of year on the shingle in the out of bounds part east of the Teeth. 

An interesting thing most visitors will ignore are the blocks of Beaver Peat. One for the Beast if he reads this.

https://wessexcoastgeology.soton.ac.uk/chespeb.htm 

So back home after what I hope was a successful shoot with an image cull ongoing.

Male turned up at 8am without a fish and is trying to ingratiate himself with a bit of half-hearted twig adjusting.

She is not impressed! Note latest "bunch of bedding" lies untouched. 

https://apis.mail.yahoo.com/ws/v3/mailboxes/@.id==VjN-KIVRVXhgQaiPLX8Pae2NietzrLwOa-QgGvQZRSzrgfP5d9CN-q9tlUhWzbvxFLqiOhlIgOsK-VEEKqVdp3kLGg/messages/@.id==AAHRifhXDHmyRjRF9rFZovZAaJ4/content/parts/@.id==2/thumbnail?appid=YMailNorrin 

"Get me a bloody 🐟!" He's off - I wonder if he got the message?

No, he's back and after some canoodling! What a plonker!

https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/watch-wildlife-online/loch-of-the-lowes-webcam/ 

https://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/osprey/osprey-webcams/ 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/dorset 

The only "incoming fish I've observed was half hidden under the female, Nick - so I could only see its body. I'd have said "salmon" in a general way on appearance and size - but I'm not sure. Could have been a sea trout. Did you get a look at it? Let's watch for what comes next.

https://atlanticsalmontrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/atlantic_salmon_recognition.pdf 

https://www.ammanfordangling.co.uk/fishy-facts 

02.20pm - He's just brought her a fish - looked a bit like a trout. She's flown off to deal with it - it was not big to enough want to share it! Meanwhile he is taking a turn at sitting. I've never watched them do a swap-over like that! Great. 👍

Almost certainly Nick - you could perhaps track back and see if the video has it. I've tried that but can't quite get to the time. 😬

Spotted in interesting plant in  the next door churchyard today. An Italian Arum. I'll email you a photo. I assume an escape.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arum_italicum 

Indeed that's what it is. For anyone thinking of planting these, it might be a good idea to think twice as they can be invasive.

Yes, you need to dig out their tubers which can easily be 20cm down; if you try and pull them out they just snap off (and yes, I'm trying to get rid of it from my garden before it takes over)

Skunk cabbage can be a problem too I read.

I noticed that but other sources (more accurate IMO) say naturalised as a garden escape

Indeed, but apparently there is a sub species of italicum (also italicum - botanical namings eh?).

https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.ycz 

But less redstart about I think. Wonderfully we are rather overrun by swallows though house martins do (concerningly) seem to still be in slow decline. No greenfinches (all rather obvious), lots of goldfinches, a few yellow hammers, bullfinches and more linnets. And we have a resident stone chat who (they seem like polite birds to me) urges us to get out of his patch of scrub/moorland 👍