Happy Christmas

On the Wildside December 2015
Weapons of Mouse Destruction
The first performance of the carol ‘Silent Night,
Holy Night’ was the indirect consequence of a
mouse gnawing the bellows of the church organ
in a remote Austrian village, but such incidental
benefits are rare. Church mice may be poor, but they are also troublesome
when hungry.
When the government decreed that all pest species should be killed with
kindness, the pest control boffins found that when they were ‘poisoning the
pigeons in the park’, field mice and house mice also took their final sleep.
The active ingredient induces hypothermia (so long as the heating is off).
Alternatively, the pest controllers may use a bait containing an overdose of
Vitamin D2, ensuring that any such rodent dies in good health.
This month the dozen or so Canada geese on Hedgecourt Lake and other open
waters have been augmented by wintering gulls, and a dozen pairs of heron
stretch their grey legs to stalk frogs, and collect branches with which to build
their untidy nests.
In the fields, wide open spaces and generous gardens, the big grey thrushes we
call fieldfares are arriving from Norway and further north and east, until a
million or more have joined us for Christmas with calls of ‘chack, chack’. They
have a blue-grey head and rump, upright stance and black spotted breast.
They fly high and descend to feed on worms and berries. The rather smaller
redwings, showing off a creamy yellow eye-stripe, will also be feeding on any
juicy berries and can be heard, after dark, calling overhead.
Take care driving through Ashdown Forest after dark any night before or after
Christmas. It’s not the deer in the headlights but the ones following after it
that cause accidents. And it won’t be Rudolph, because all the male deer have
shed their antlers. As for me, I’m going to concentrate on the turkey. And that
mouse.
May we all share the joy of knowing Christ this Christmas.
Peter