well done wandlebury

Well done Wandlebury and Cambridge Past Present and Future for getting a Green Flag for Wandlebury Country Park in 2013. You deserve it its a lovely park and now you know you manage it well.

World Ranger Day

Those who know me will already know that I was a ranger for a number of years. As with some other professions, once a ranger always a ranger, its a vocation to help the wildlife on this world wherever you are working and to help people enjoy there natural surroundings. But in this country on the whole we have it easy, in other parts of the world it is very hard and you dont know if you will see your family at the end of the day or next patrol.

The list below contains the names of rangers who have died in the last year! They died while protecting the environment of this world. There are three things that upset me about the list; first we dont know the actual real total because some countries do not belong to the international association and we dont get to hear about them, second we dont know the names of some of those killed they are just unknown and finally the number of deaths that are the result of interactions with poachers and others up to no good marked as Homicides.

I know in this country we are heartened to know that both Prince Charles and Prince William recognise the role of rangers around the world.

Please read the list and remember them when you next see a wildlife programme , if you want to help there families please donate at;

http://www.thingreenline.org.au/


INTERNATIONAL RANGER FEDERATION IRF
WORLD RANGER DAY 2013 – RANGER ROLL OF HONOUR IN MEMORIAM

Alfredo Almueda (59) Philippines Homicide
Angel Kobusheshe Uganda Homicide
Dr Anthony King Kenya Accident
Ashutosh Gautam India Homicide
Atamato Madrandele (43) DRC Homicide
Ba dusi Mugaotinikoni DRC Homicide
Benoit Karvante (32) DRC Homicide
Benson Bwambale Uganda Homicide
Bhagchand India Homicide
Brah im Kha mis Chad Homicide
Bruno Chevugi Paraguay Homicide
C.Sashi India Animal
D. Padmini (55) India Animal
Dabbanna Gullappa (53) India Animal
Daoud Aldjouma Chad Homicide
Dewani Ram India Animal
Djibrine Adoum Goudja Chad Homicide
Dmitry Vladimirovich Kazakhstan Homicide
Dobryansky Vasily Yuryevich (55) Kazakhstan Homicide
Dorcas Rumbagi Tanzania Homicide
Edwin Sibuyi South Africa Accident
Emmanuel Bemazaki Uganda Accident
Ernesto Aparicio Esteve (50) Spain Fire
Esdras Nsengiyumva Rwanda Homicide
Fermin Ba tal (52) Philippines Homicide
Fiston Ma dawa DRC Homicide
Fredrick Ga limoto (34) Malawi Animal
Gheesu Ra m Singh India Animal
Guesh Ahmed Ethiopia
Hassan Djibrine Chad Homicide
Hillary Lotyang Uganda Accident
Haydee Va ldiviesoy Navarette (53) Philippines Homicide
Humphrey Ekwenye Kenya Animal
Idriss Adoum Chad Homicide
Irene Tusiime Uganda Animal
Jairo Mora Sa ndoval (27) Costa Rica Homicide
Jessie Comendador Philippines Homicide
Justin Knackstedt (23) Canada Accident
Kalisto Abolungimoe Uganda Accident
Kalyangiri Adhika ri (39) India Animal
Kamango Tambwe DR C Homicide
Kanta Prasad India Homicide
Kwadwo Wireko (56) Ghana Homicide
Madhusudan Patil India Homicide
Mahadev Siddi (35) India Homicide
Mat Sarcino Philippines Homicide
Mathew Oyoo Odongo Uganda Homicide
Md Rafiqul Islam (30) Bangladesh Homicide
Merab Arevadze Georgia Homicide
Mizanur Rah man (40) Bangladesh Accident
Mulalo Nemakha vhani South Africa Homicide
Octave Kibela DR C Homicide
Oscar Magbanua Philippines Homicide
Oscar Miguel Cruz Ramirez 24 Costa Rica Accident
Paluku Matembela DRC Homicide
Panayot Evstafeyvich Zaharopulo, Kazakhstan Homicide
Ratan Kumar Dey (52) India Homicide
Rogelio Miang (50) Philippines Homicide
Rolando Intas (57) Philippines Homicide
Sayar Singh (50) India Homicide
Sean Prendergast (52) UK Died
Shagin Ivan Alekseevich (66) Kazakhstan Homicide
Stany Ezoa Aderedbho DRC Homicide
Suresh Rai (40) Nepal Homicide
Taweesak Chomyong (33) Thailand Homicide
Tavus Momberg (29) South Africa Animal
Tran Thanh Tung Vietnam Accident
Turishchev Dmitry Petrovitch (38) Kazakhstan Homicide
Unnamed Game Ranger Kenya Homicide
Unnamed Game Ranger Kenya Homicide
Unnamed Game Ranger DR C Homicide
Unnamed Game Ranger Nigeria Homicide
unnamed Park Rangers Nigeria Homicide
unnamed Park Rangers Nigeria Homicide
unnamed Park Rangers Nigeria Homicide
unnamed Park Rangers Nigeria Homicide
unnamed Park Rangers Nigeria Homicide
unnamed Park Rangers Nigeria Homicide
Unnamed Forest Guard India Accident
Vitaly Fedorovich Sinyakov Kazakhstan Homicide
Wilner Pelos Colorita (52) Philippines Homicide
Zakaria Ibrahim Chad Homicide
Zakhele Mphofu Swaziland Homicide

Good news but

Very good news that we have a new royal prince. Not very good news that that good news is being done to death by media with what's ifs anything to fill time.

You can only get a headline like this in Cambridge

Hit and Run Punt Shock - Cambridge News 22072013

A very nice walk and have I mentioned sand martins

So there I was this morning bright and early walking that I am surveying for the RSPB as one of two volunteers assigned to the site just in the Fens.

On this farm they grow an enormous amount of salad crops as well as your usual wheat, potatoes and sugar beet. They have recently flooded a 20ish hectares section of the farm to control nematodes and now, well its looking good and the birds have found it, waders, wildfowl and sand martins.

The land will be flooded for another couple of months now and hopefully it should prove very attractive to passing waders and ducks as the seasons change.

This morning it was great Skylark, Yellow Wagtail and Corn Bunting plus 60odd Lapwing, then we get to the other two really nice sightings, a lovely family party of 5 Little Grebe the adults calling away to keep the group together and did I mention Sand Martins 200 plus. There they were flying around one of the flooded fields, a swirling mass of them, they looked great from a distance but close up, they were flying about less than a metre from our faces before settling in the redshank and fathen growing on the spoil banks. Absolutely lovely to see and felt very privileged to be so close to them.

I know this picture isn't great but it does give an idea of the birds, the picture in my mind though is perfect.

Whats your idea of fate

Meeting death in the market place, losing that lottery ticket.

For me its somewhere I would love to be this weekend Festival at the Edge, the storytelling festival. Have a good one folks, I will be reading some stories and thinking of you.

Boris goes on and on and on

He was in Cambridge this week going on about it, he is on the news this evening going on about it. What is he going on about, airports or more precisely international hubs. Yes its that man Boris. The mayor of London, the future prime minister!

Boris says if the island doesn't go ahead then Stanstead or Gatwick or wherever must expand. Why? Business leaders say we need a hub, why? I thought all this technology was going to save people having to travel to do business.

We need it because we are Great Britain, oh we must have it then, lets have two.

And the water voles say..... its nice ere init....

Serious now, so after the glove I sees this lovely water filled ditch. Heaven for water voles on a ditch bank, bank cut every other year, south facing, lovely grub in the ditch and on either side. What more could you want.

You know youve been waiting for it here it at last Glove 5 I think.....

Out on an ecology job and stumbling around in the bushes I see it languishing in the bottom of a ditch, gasping and just managing to speak, water water, sun tan lotion.

Well it could have been saying that I certainly was!

are they shouting wolf

So today we have a fuss about a payrise for MP's in 2015. Then we have all the main party leaders falling over themselves to say its wrong etc etc.  Finally you hear that the pay rise would come with cuts in pension, golden goodbyes and who knows what else.

So the question has to be what do our MP's get now in total, salary and extras, more or less than the proposed new rate. I think we need to know.

robin page in paper yesterday has he got a point

Cambridge News July 4th to publicise new book. Political correctness is intellectual fascism, it is stopping us discussing real issues such as over population.

Has he got a point, certainly at times you have to wonder if those at the top avoid certain topics because the answers are clear but not going to be popular.

what can you say, are words necessary