Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike B  Sitting in a hide recently, I heard the WWT and Autumnwatch take a bashing.
Bill Oddie for his egotism and WWT for feeding the reserves.
The latter may not be immediately obvious but by feeding, wildfowl are drawn from the surrounding area, thus lakes and reservoirs are denuded of their natural heritage forcing those who wish to see this type of natural history to pay to visit a reserve. |
That maybe so but there are not that many lakes and reservoirs that contain enough food to support large numbers of geese, swans and wildfowl which use WWT reserves. The birds could then be forced to find somewhere else to winter, which might see them going to Ireland or continuing to the warmer continent, thus next to none wintering in Britain. The ones that remain on smaller lakes, flashes, small park lakes, farming fields etc would then be without protection and open to being shot, catapulted and any number of other cruel acts that happen when outside of protected areas.
People who object to these reserve on the grounds of paying to get in are missing the point. In the North West there are only two Martin Mere and Caerlaverock. In between there are dozens of places and reserves supporting and protecting these types of birds for free - Pennington Flash, Wigan Flashes, Mere Sands, Ribble Marshes, Abram Flashes, the Cheshire Meres, Hodbarrow and so on where birds have a degree of protection and some natural food - so no-one is forced to pay entry to the Wildfowl Trust Reserves just to see birds. Birders learn the skills of visiting likely places and finding their 'own' birds to watch. For people who become interested from programmes like Autumnwatch, which is aimed at getting non-birders outside to find out that they too can enjoy wildlife, then a visit to a WWT reserve is a logical step in the learning process. Some folk may never get beyond a nicely dressed visit in good shoes on tarmac paths around the hides to see the whoopers, followed by lunch in the cafe - if they have enjoyed it their way then that's all that needs saying. Their money is protecting the birds and those of us dressed in camo (and I'm one!) who like to ferret out our own birds and sneak around the open countryside filled with knowledge and fieldcraft and a big camera, might have nothing to photgraph if it were not for these WWT reserves keeping birds in the general area.
Pauline