It wasn't an entirely bad day's birding, even though it was miserable for most of it. Whilst the rain wasn't heavy, it was persistent and didn't let up until well after midday. I managed to total of 41 species for the day, with the highlights being a superb stunning male bullfinch in some lucky person's garden and a marsh tit hidden amongst a party of long-tailed tits and blue tits.
A major gripe, however, is the amount of dog walkers who are now venturing all over the main valley. The area was mown to create a grid back in the autumn and I initially approved this. It is important to generate different ages in the vegetation to enhance the biodiversity of the area, but the local dog walkers have all taken it as an invitation to walk wherever they want, with their beloved pets bounding around everywhere and frightening off the wildlife.
And it seems to be getting worse. I have never seen so many dog walkers using the valley as I did today. Wherever you looked, there was a dog walker making their way along. Some of them clearly didn't have control of their pets and, instead of listening out for any wildlife, all I could hear was various people shouting at there dogs. If they cant keep close control, they should either keep their dogs on a lead, or go elsewhere. AND KEEP OUT OF THE MAIN VALLEY! There are permissive walks around the edge and across the middle, so why they can't keep to these tracks I just don't understand.
And it seems to be having a definite impact on the wildlife. Gone are the grey partridges that used to use the valley. Gone is the little owl and sightings of the barn owls that regularly used to hunt over the valley have dropped drastically.
