It may have been a beautiful end to the day at Pennington Flash but for me it was totally depressing. There is no place for wildlife at the flash these days, two more people on the spit today in front of Horrock's hide and in the center of the nature reserve, this is a daily occurrence now. No apparent reason for them to be there, probably just went for a walk but don't tell me that they didn't realise they shouldn't be there, they had to walk past a hide, a "nature reserve please keep out" sign, climb over a fence and wade across a moat to get there. Every other day there are fishermen in Ramsdales, often canoes in Ramsdales, photographers on the spit, photographers crammed together trying to photograph kingfisher nests. Hides get burnt down, East bay and Lapwing hide the most recent. The car park was so full this afternoon that it was closed to any more cars because they couldn't fit in, I'd love to know how much social distancing was going on but I didn't dare go near the place.
Dog walkers allowing not just one, but two or three dogs to be off the lead and to crash through habitat such as reed beds, scrub and grasslands where skylarks attempt but fail to breed every year. But don't dare ask the owners to control their dogs even if they jump up and bark at you, you're liable to get a mouthful of insults. Occasional fun fairs, iron man competitions, weekly running groups, yachts, organised swimmers going back and too across the flash until 8pm at least last night and from at least 7:30am this morning.
There's no respite, no time or space for wildlife and if wildlife does dare to show its face humans seem to go out of their way to destroy it, either directly or indirectly through selfish arrogance or self entitlement. It's a miracle there is any wildlife at the place. People tell me it does their mental health good to connect with nature, it doesn't do my mental health good, every time I go out I'm reminded of how badly we as a species have failed, how badly we trash everything we touch, how much we've already destroyed and lost, how little there is left and how little most people care. If all you know about are mallards, swans and Canada geese then yes they may appear to be thriving, but if you want to see anything else then you're already very nearly too late.
What I find particularly frustrating is that nature reserves, as Pennington Flash used to be, get forced to become country parks for the community to use because it's the only way they can get funding but then the community don't just use it, they abuse it. The wardens who used to look after the place get made redundant and the nature reserve part gets neglected and eroded away year on year until it's virtually disappeared and anybody who walks around with a pair of binoculars or tries to put forward the case for wildlife gets looked upon with disdain as if they're trying to spoil everybodys fun. It's really disheartening.
Somebody once said that walking through the countryside with no knowledge of nature was like walking through an art gallery with all of the paintings facing the wall. It's worse than that these days and not just at Pennington Flash but virtually everywhere. The paintings have almost all been ripped out and all we are left with is an art gallery with empty frames.
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