Can't sleep at night

The Safari is currently worrying ourselves about the our beloved wildlife both here at home and around the world.

The most obvious is the complete government debacle around Badgers and Praterson playing to his influential blood thirsty friends. shame it's not them on the other end of the 'humaneness' pilot.Today's quote of the day comes from Twitter we saw it and smirked out loud if that's possible"Ive watched your interviews Paterson and you squirm like a little boy who's wet his pants - Grow up and piss off" Brilliant!!! 

Not one Badger will be autopsied, tested for bTB nor examined for evidence of (illegal) dog bites - Shame on them, frightened of what they may find or is it all just an sick excuse for a vile killing spree? 

The cost of vaccinating the Badgers works out at less than covering the cost of the 'cull'...even less if volunteers were to do the vaccinations which a high proportion probably would be.

Then there's the Medway Council lets build on the best Nightingale habitat in Britain, told no they couldn't but won't take no for an answer so are appealing against the SSSI decision. No means NO, chose somewhere else, if nowhere else who's doing the pushing? Let me see who's on the council Con 35 Lab 17 Lib Dem 3 - hmmmm...possibly no chance for Nightingales!

Meanwhile on the other side of the Thames there's Jaws, or a Smoothhound, we think it was and no demonising sharks saying it was like a scene from Jaws is wrong. Sharks are not viscous man-eating monsters, man is IS a vicious shark-killing monster!
Across the water to Ireland where there are yet more calls to get rid of the simply gorgeous Hen Harriers this time to allow the illegal destuction of Irelands very version of tropical rain forsest - active raised bog - the families might 'own' the bogs but they really belong to no-one and all 7+ billion of us at the same time...they arre not for destroying - would they tear pages out of the Book of Kells or take a hammer to the Blarney Stone and knock upside own lumps off it - we don't think so!

OK lets go a little further afield...to the Faeroe Islands and their annual Grind in the name of culture and tradition, we're not going to show pics you can google it if you don't know but prepared to be shocked.

And Japan is doing the same at Taiji while you're reading this. Even sadder here is after seeing their family members slaughtered the 'lucky' spared ones will have to endure a lifetime in captivity performing for our entertainment, we urge all of you to boycott dolphin shows where-ever you are in the world and tell your friends too. The dead ones are too toxic to eat - what a stupid despicable  waste!

While over in Japan what about theior 'scientific' whaling operations in the Southern Ocean. We really hope the Australians win the court case in The Hague. The Japanese should state before they set off what their scientific objectives are, where the results will be published and why they need to kill x number of whales - what can they find out that can't be done remotely now by collecting plugs of blubber, floating turds and snot from their blow. And they shouldn't be allowed to bring any carcasses back - if they can't do that then it's obviously a commercial not a scientific exercise.

Back in the Western hemisphere a similar sorry tale is unraveling in Iceland who have resume killing Fin Whales - no wonder we don't see many of those on our MARINElife surveys across the Irish Sea, we should but they're still IUCN endangered but that doesn't seem to stop the Icelanders.

Down south east a ways to Malta - nuff said. Saw grown men shooting at butterflies there once, they'd run out of birds to shoot. Brilliant place shame about the amount of legal (with very relaxed rules) and illegal hunting of endangered species...Malta bears the brunt but plenty of other Mediterranean nations are just as bad, it's a wonder any birds return to breed in northern Europe each year the losses of some species are definitely making our safari-ing experiences much poorer. Shame the northern conservation NGOs can't ask for a proportion of the costs of their conservation efforts from the killers.

Don't even want to go into Africa and mention Elephants and Rhinoceroses , or Asia and it's Pangolins and Tigers it's all getting too depressing.
Don't get us started on putting a 'price' on nature by using 'Eco-system Services' there's report after report coming out that we need nature and the natural world much much more than for just its financial worth to us.
Some days we just can't believe the inhumanity of man.

On a plus side there has been some good news today the (not so) Common Crane has bred in Scotland for the first time since the Medieval period when it was eaten to extinction. Wouldn't it be great to hear them whooping overhead on their migration at Base Camp - not seen one for a few years now.
And how about this for a cracker a European Rhinoceros Beetle has been found in Britain for the first time...so it's not all doom and gloom folks there's good things happening all over the show and there's good people trying their best to affect change...let's hope they can and give them our support.

August has ended and with it 2/3 of the year is gone so what about our lists and targets.
Year 175/200 = 87.5%
North Blackpool Pond Trail 63/90 = 70%
Patch 2 73/90 = 81%
Garden 36 - no target
Marton Mere LNR 105/115 = 91%

73 on Patch 2 was brought up today by Grey Wagtails, can't believe we've had to wait 2/3rds of the year to get our first of this rather common species.

Also on Patch 2 were about two dozen Sandwich Terns roosting on the beach which we got some pics of but we've left the camera at work so you'll have to wait til tomorrow to see them.
Two Bar Tailed Godwits were there again and out at sea we had two Grey Seals.
Where to next? Back in a better more upbeat frame of mind tomorrow you hope. We're on the bike again and still hopeful for some 'from the saddle' ticks. We've got Young Un AB working with us tomorrow so hopefully we'll find something of interest in the work's garden or out at sea or while doing a bit of vis migging.
In the meantime let us know if your outback is on target so far.