A beautiful sunny day so we set out on our annual pilgrimage to see the local adders emerging. We saw 6 without having to look too hard and kept well away from the crowds. We noticed that things had definately changed here at this site, and not for the better. We scrubbed out many pointers that had been marked in the path, picked up rubbish and select sticks that had all been left as markers for snake sightings. It was lovely to chat to one of the Natural England volunteers who told us that they were now having to warden and patrol the area when the snakes emerged. Photographers were going well off the path, disturbing the habitat just for a photo. She told us the disturbance that photographers are now causing and we were surprised to hear that the snakes are now being stolen. Numbers in this area that we all know about were well down and a cool box had been found by one of the wardens recently. No doubt abandoned as the culprit had been seen. What disgraceful behavior, not to mention highly illegal. Its a good job that Natural England have a massive area on the site that no one knows about where the snake numbers are up !
But the day was not to end well. We decided on a long walk round as the weather was so nice but could hear gun shots over in the car park area. As we walked towards Boston Park a greylag goose was struggling on the path with a shattered wing. It then became obvious as there was a shooters hide in the adjacent field. The shooter had 3 dead and bloodied greylag geese pegged out infront of him as decoys. It was so upsetting. Other people were there and one lady was very distressed. Someone rang the RSPCA to come and get the goose, someone else rang the police. We just took loads of photos of the incident, including a full face shot of the man and his quad bike. I reported the incident straight away to Natural England.......but am still awaiting a reply. Not only was he shooting well out of season (illegal), he was shooting ducks and geese on a Sunday (illegal in that part of Yorkshire), he was shooting over a nature reserve and causing harm and distress as this goose would certainly not survive but would have a slow painful death. We read the BASC website for the rules on greylag geese and this scum of the earth broke every rule. I will keep you posted - if I ever get a reply from Natural England that is.
