People must think I'm following up every time someone posts, but I just sat down and read your post Philippa.
I totally agree regarding simply training cats, none I owned wanted to go outside, they had all had bad experiences of being outside hence why they ended up at the Blue Cross in the first place. One a feral kitten, another had fallen into a vat of chemicals.. it just goes on and on. Cats only go outside because they are allowed to, end of story. I hope those that say they are 'impossible' to keep in, well I hope they never have a toddler to care for.
The more I learnt about the impacts of cats on native wildlife, the less I liked the idea of owning cats ever again. Though thanks to my neighbours it seems I'm not even given that choice.
The pattern seems one can have a cat appreciation thread where anything negative must not be said. Yet a thread with solutions to cat problems is open to cat owners to come on and say we are all hysterical, irrational or have the problems other people's cats bring totally out of proportion.
It does not seem so when two of the contributors to the thread felt they had to move house and a third started the process as well. I still think a move will be my only long-term solution.
No, no Gemma, you're not answering everyone, you just do bigger posts than some, which shows you really think about things and have a lot to say. There were two more items I would add to your list of things wiping out wildlife. Roads, (the "oops, well I couldn't break safely for that one - squash factor) and Climate Change. Climate change is almost certainly due to us, and it looks like nature is going to be shovelled up and tossed onto the compost heap along with everyone else in many areas quite soon. My money is on a lot of things adapting, but a lot of things being wiped out. All the animals are vulnerable - many, many of the plants. We as a species have been good at adapting, but we in the west are also used to very cushy environments to live in, which are all tied into our big economic project, so we are probably not going to adapt that quickly. This is a very personal thing to admit, but I have extended my belief in neutering cats to humans lately. I never thought that I would think that way, let alone say it; but I've told my son and daughter-in-law how I feel, and it turns out they fully agree - no grandchildren. Maybe the prospects will look better some years down the line, one can only hope.
Roads I've found a mixed bag when it comes to wildlife.
On the one hand there are the obvious mortalities we see and the less obvious effect roads have of isolating species into fragmented populations. They can very effectively prevent gene flow within populations of mammals, reptiles and amphibians which cannot simply fly over the roads, so once isolated the population faces eventual extinction from inbreeding.
On the other hand motorway and A-road verges often reveal wildlife populations that would rival any nature reserve, with rare visits from people and minimal disturbance, the wildlife thrives and the construction of new motorways can provide habitat corridors through otherwise poor habitat. Sadly there is now a trend towards road widening, so even much of that habitat is being lost in widening schemes locally, such as sections of the M25 and A12.
On the adaption topic my view is we as a species are able to change the environment at a much faster rate than most animals can adapt. There are exceptions, badgers, foxes, magpies, rats all being examples that have adapted quickly to changes in human activities. Smaller creatures which rely on distinct microhabitats have little hope though of adapting in time before they become locally extinct.
As for producing humans, I made the decision that one was quite enough to bring into the world. I had doubts if it would be a world worth bringing a child into in terms of the environment he may face in the future, but one thing we always have as people, as you say, is hope. If every couple (or at least a good number) chose only to produce one child, theoretically at least the population will in time drop and continue to do so, but of course we are all now living much longer too thanks to medical advances.
The world has faced mass species extinctions before, sadly we seem to be the first species that actually knows it is happening, that we may well have contributed to it, and it may well be too late to do much about it.
As a bit of an afterthought I was considering where the cat issue fitted into my last post.
The one thing I felt I could do was to provide microhabitats for the species most at risk. This is really I think the essence of wildlife gardening.
We did so with a great deal of success. Unfortunately all the hard work in creating habitat, a purpose built reptile hibernation bund, a wildlife pond, an amphibian hibernation bund, compost heap for grass snakes to lay eggs in, bird and bat boxes etc was very quickly undone by five cats. This is really I guess why the whole issue gets to me at such a core level.
I see the huge arable field at the back of my house and know it provides little or no wildlife habitat. I see the hedgerow running alongside being flail cut out of season ridiculously hard in the name of 'tidiness'. I see development on a daily basis through my work.
The one little area I had some control over and to a large extent 'proved' could work was destroyed almost overnight by new neighbours who choose to let their cats free roam. It is almost impossible to keep them out, as anything that benefits wildlife will also attract cats. One ends up in total frustration over the issue, yet it could simply be solved by the cat owners not allowing the cats out to free roam.
Surely that is what gardens are, they are that one little bit of paradise we can decide how things should be, in all it keeps many of us sane and able to deal with the world on the outside.
Nobody should be able to spoil or take that away should they? It is no wonder we must all appear like raving loonies on the cat thread, we probably have been driven to being like that, and so would most gardeners be, if someone else chose to change or destroy that bit of personal paradise through selfish or just plain ignorant actions.
Morning all erein Muns ,its quite bright and winds about 200mph or so it seems, had a walk around the exterior of our garden yesterday its a bridal path unadopted, and being on a corner quite long, We pulled out 4 black doggy bags from the hedge, eleven when we first started on the exterior a few weeks ago, actually thought of a cctv but in winter its happening after 4PM ,nearest dog bin only 40 yards away, considering a sign, fancy going to all the trouble of buying the proper bags ,using them and then throwing them onto someone elsaz ( no spelling help ) property, Right coffee ,nothing to do with gardening ,anyone buying central heating radiators PM me iv just got the deal of all and free UK del, ,I will give you the name,
Alan with CCTV you can use infra-red night vision cameras, I have several as wildlife cams. In the day colour, at night, in pitch darkness, clear black and white images.
There are plenty on the market but I have used this supplier:
The issue of people lobbing bags of dog's mess into other people's hedges seems to happen all over the place - it really is the most ridiculous form of petty littering I can think of. We have lived in 2 different houses on popular dog walking routes and had the same problem at both.
Each time we have carefully collected all the bags and left them in a nice big pile where the perpetrator could not fail to see them. Amazingly all the bags were collected & the problem did not recur. I think it was just a single thoughtless idiot who did not realise that 'somebody' has to cut that hedge - &, because they were probably nice people most of the time - they were suitably shamed by their actions - I hope so!
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Posts
People must think I'm following up every time someone posts, but I just sat down and read your post Philippa.
I totally agree regarding simply training cats, none I owned wanted to go outside, they had all had bad experiences of being outside hence why they ended up at the Blue Cross in the first place. One a feral kitten, another had fallen into a vat of chemicals.. it just goes on and on. Cats only go outside because they are allowed to, end of story. I hope those that say they are 'impossible' to keep in, well I hope they never have a toddler to care for.
The more I learnt about the impacts of cats on native wildlife, the less I liked the idea of owning cats ever again. Though thanks to my neighbours it seems I'm not even given that choice.
The pattern seems one can have a cat appreciation thread where anything negative must not be said. Yet a thread with solutions to cat problems is open to cat owners to come on and say we are all hysterical, irrational or have the problems other people's cats bring totally out of proportion.
It does not seem so when two of the contributors to the thread felt they had to move house and a third started the process as well. I still think a move will be my only long-term solution.
No, no Gemma, you're not answering everyone, you just do bigger posts than some, which shows you really think about things and have a lot to say. There were two more items I would add to your list of things wiping out wildlife. Roads, (the "oops, well I couldn't break safely for that one - squash factor) and Climate Change. Climate change is almost certainly due to us, and it looks like nature is going to be shovelled up and tossed onto the compost heap along with everyone else in many areas quite soon. My money is on a lot of things adapting, but a lot of things being wiped out. All the animals are vulnerable - many, many of the plants. We as a species have been good at adapting, but we in the west are also used to very cushy environments to live in, which are all tied into our big economic project, so we are probably not going to adapt that quickly. This is a very personal thing to admit, but I have extended my belief in neutering cats to humans lately. I never thought that I would think that way, let alone say it; but I've told my son and daughter-in-law how I feel, and it turns out they fully agree - no grandchildren.
Maybe the prospects will look better some years down the line, one can only hope.
Roads I've found a mixed bag when it comes to wildlife.
On the one hand there are the obvious mortalities we see and the less obvious effect roads have of isolating species into fragmented populations. They can very effectively prevent gene flow within populations of mammals, reptiles and amphibians which cannot simply fly over the roads, so once isolated the population faces eventual extinction from inbreeding.
On the other hand motorway and A-road verges often reveal wildlife populations that would rival any nature reserve, with rare visits from people and minimal disturbance, the wildlife thrives and the construction of new motorways can provide habitat corridors through otherwise poor habitat. Sadly there is now a trend towards road widening, so even much of that habitat is being lost in widening schemes locally, such as sections of the M25 and A12.
On the adaption topic my view is we as a species are able to change the environment at a much faster rate than most animals can adapt. There are exceptions, badgers, foxes, magpies, rats all being examples that have adapted quickly to changes in human activities. Smaller creatures which rely on distinct microhabitats have little hope though of adapting in time before they become locally extinct.
As for producing humans, I made the decision that one was quite enough to bring into the world. I had doubts if it would be a world worth bringing a child into in terms of the environment he may face in the future, but one thing we always have as people, as you say, is hope. If every couple (or at least a good number) chose only to produce one child, theoretically at least the population will in time drop and continue to do so, but of course we are all now living much longer too thanks to medical advances.
The world has faced mass species extinctions before, sadly we seem to be the first species that actually knows it is happening, that we may well have contributed to it, and it may well be too late to do much about it.
As a bit of an afterthought I was considering where the cat issue fitted into my last post.
The one thing I felt I could do was to provide microhabitats for the species most at risk. This is really I think the essence of wildlife gardening.
We did so with a great deal of success. Unfortunately all the hard work in creating habitat, a purpose built reptile hibernation bund, a wildlife pond, an amphibian hibernation bund, compost heap for grass snakes to lay eggs in, bird and bat boxes etc was very quickly undone by five cats. This is really I guess why the whole issue gets to me at such a core level.
I see the huge arable field at the back of my house and know it provides little or no wildlife habitat. I see the hedgerow running alongside being flail cut out of season ridiculously hard in the name of 'tidiness'. I see development on a daily basis through my work.
The one little area I had some control over and to a large extent 'proved' could work was destroyed almost overnight by new neighbours who choose to let their cats free roam. It is almost impossible to keep them out, as anything that benefits wildlife will also attract cats. One ends up in total frustration over the issue, yet it could simply be solved by the cat owners not allowing the cats out to free roam.
Surely that is what gardens are, they are that one little bit of paradise we can decide how things should be, in all it keeps many of us sane and able to deal with the world on the outside.
Nobody should be able to spoil or take that away should they? It is no wonder we must all appear like raving loonies on the cat thread, we probably have been driven to being like that, and so would most gardeners be, if someone else chose to change or destroy that bit of personal paradise through selfish or just plain ignorant actions.
Morning all erein Muns ,its quite bright and winds about 200mph or so it seems, had a walk around the exterior of our garden yesterday its a bridal path unadopted, and being on a corner quite long, We pulled out 4 black doggy bags from the hedge, eleven when we first started on the exterior a few weeks ago, actually thought of a cctv but in winter its happening after 4PM ,nearest dog bin only 40 yards away, considering a sign, fancy going to all the trouble of buying the proper bags ,using them and then throwing them onto someone elsaz ( no spelling help ) property, Right coffee ,nothing to do with gardening ,anyone buying central heating radiators PM me iv just got the deal of all and free UK del, ,I will give you the name,
Alan with CCTV you can use infra-red night vision cameras, I have several as wildlife cams. In the day colour, at night, in pitch darkness, clear black and white images.
There are plenty on the market but I have used this supplier:
http://www.wildlife-cameras.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=6&product_id=40
Gemma im looking Nice one matey I will, keep you informed
The issue of people lobbing bags of dog's mess into other people's hedges seems to happen all over the place - it really is the most ridiculous form of petty littering I can think of. We have lived in 2 different houses on popular dog walking routes and had the same problem at both.
Each time we have carefully collected all the bags and left them in a nice big pile where the perpetrator could not fail to see them. Amazingly all the bags were collected & the problem did not recur. I think it was just a single thoughtless idiot who did not realise that 'somebody' has to cut that hedge - &, because they were probably nice people most of the time - they were suitably shamed by their actions - I hope so!