Tideline corpses

Lade - mild, overcast, drizzle, sw 2 - We trudged around the local patch in murky weather conditions accompanied by a fine mizzle throughout, where there was little change in the wildfowl numbers on the lakes. Along the beach section the corpse count comprised 18 Barrel Jellyfish, 20 Dogfish and 2 Harbour Porpoises, both of which were entangled in fishing net.
  Commercial fishing is a woefully destructive industry which indiscriminately kills masses of fish, birds and marine mammals around our shores and across the planet as so called by-catch. Unfortunately, we are not exempt from the carnage along the Channel coast and these sad, but often unnecessary, sights continue to be all too frequent occurrences.

                               Harbour Porpoise, Lade beach

  On a brighter note we carried out our RSPB Garden Birdwatch count this morning. A meagre, but not unexpected, total of 12 species were recorded during the hour with 23 House Sparrows on and around the feeders, plus a Goldcrest in the fir trees the highlights.

                                Starling, Lade