TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON
There's an ancient Chinese blessing that roughly translates as, “May you live in interesting times”. The twist is that the ancient Chinese people also used the same phrase to curse their enemies. Living in interesting times is not necessarily a good thing. Whichever way you choose to look at it, we are certainly living in interesting times right now.
As I write this week's blog the UK political system is in a state of turmoil. People are quitting their posts, people are being replaced, people are being investigated over things that they may or may not have done and rules are being changed for reasons that I'm too ignorant to understand. It's all very confusing and, to be frank, I'm not enjoying watching it at all. Wake me when it's all over and it's time for me to have my say.
Thankfully the changes that are going on in the natural world are much more predictable and much more peaceful – to these human eyes at least. I'm sure it's not very peaceful if you're a Bullfinch on the spiky end of a Sparrowhawk's talon.
When I was born in the mid-sixties, the number one single in the pop charts was by an American folk-rock band called, appropriately enough, The Byrds. They later went on to have a hit single called 'Turn! Turn! Turn!', the first line of which is the title of this blog. The song was all about how everything in nature has it's time, and how the seasons change.
We're at one of those changing points right now. Spring has most definitely given way to Summer, and all the natural world has noticed. As my friend Dragonfly David has said in his recent post, we're at the time of peak dragonfly and damselfly activity and species diversity at the moment. There are loads of them around our reserve right now. Please come and have a look, but make sure that you're well hydrated and have a hat with you. It's hot out there. Have fun but look after yourself. Heatstroke is no joke.
The warmth of the summer sun has brought butterflies and bees out in abundance. We've also been fortunate to have a swarm of honey bees take over one of our bird boxes here at Old Moor. The tadpoles have almost all grown into froglets and our newts are teenage-sized too. I just learned that, just as young frogs and toads are tadpoles (from the original term 'toad-poles'), young newts are referred to as 'newtpoles'. Isn't that great? Every day is indeed a school day.
The birds have got on with what they're supposed to be getting on with at the end of spring too, with the result that we have chicks, fledglings and young birds all over the place. Avocet, Oystercatcher and Lapwing youngsters are all starting to look like small versions of their parents now. The Bearded Tit younglings are zipping all around the entrance to the reedbeds at the Bus Stop section of the reserve while their exhausted parents look on and ping their exasperation. The Marsh Harrier quartet are all learning to fly and hunt along the river at the back of Old Moor too. I pity their poor parents. As teachers they are models of patience but they carry on feeding and teaching, feeding and teaching. It must be exhausting.
They're not alone. At this time of year all the parents are worn out and looking a little worse for wear. All the chicks are full of energy, finding their way in the world, learning what to eat and how to avoid being eaten. The world belongs to the young, if they survive long enough to enjoy it.
The regular fights out on the mere are happening just as frequently as ever. However, they are no longer brought about by territorial claims but by survival, as parents try to protect their offspring from the predators that have always got an eye open for an easy target. And who can blame them? I know it's a topic that I return to time and time again in these blogs but predators aren't evil and nasty. Nor are they good. They're just doing what they do to survive, the same as every other creature when left to its own devices. They too have a brood to feed.
All these summertime changes are good, they're as they should be. It's the natural order of things. As The Byrds sang (and they stole their lyrics from the Bible, so it's a goodly old phrase), There's a time to live and a time to die. It's similar to the way that public figures rise, shine brightly for a while and then fade away. But all things considered, I'd rather be a naturalist than a politician.