The New Frontier
1st July 2008, Tuesday
A bird atlas survey of tetrads TQ91U and TQ92Q in yesterday’s blustery winds took me from Camber up to the Kent Ditch, the old Sussex boundary. This area is so deserted that in about 5 miles of walking I saw nobody until I reached the new wind power station (why call it a farm?). The site was very quiet, just a few workmen and their dinky-toy vehicles totally dwarfed by the first three windmills towering above me into the blue sky. If the marching pylons represent the 20th century, then certainly these sleek white sculptures are symbolic of the 21st, a new frontier in the continuing challenge to produce enough energy to ‘meet people’s needs’ (perhaps we should all try to ‘need’ a little less?) Oh yes, the birds! All the expected marsh species, with Tree Sparrow and Yellow Wagtail carrying food for young, several Mute Swan families, chicks of Little Grebe, Coot and Moorhen, a hunting male Marsh Harrier, plus quite a variety of butterflies and dragonflies including a pair of Emperors with the female egg-laying on a floating stem right in front of me. All under a vast marsh sky.