Nature ? What?s it all About?

OK, this isn?t an article directly about fish or catching fish, but it is about a topic with which all anglers are involved. Perhaps not in any deep and meaningful or contemplative way as is Jeff (and myself for that matter), but it touches us all.

I can?t add much or dispute much of what Jeff writes, for the truth is that I agree with him. I don?t believe in any god, and I do believe that nature, for all its beauty, is as cruel as it is kind (it?s all the same to nature) and is based on survival of the fittest. Who can forget the recent Nature Watch programme where a baby owl died in the nest, so the mother fed it to the other baby owls. Another baby owl, bigger than its weaker brother or sister, swallowed it whole: waste not want not with nature.

It makes me laugh (mockingly) when I read about film and pop stars belonging to Peta. They who walk around with a little dog cradled in the crook of their arm and cooing about cute birds, fish and animals. I wonder if any of them watched the Nature Watch programme? I wonder if any of them know what a savage little sod the robin is, how magpies wolf down the eggs and young of other birds, how the baby cuckoo boots out the smaller young in the nest its mother has invaded. And hundreds of other examples of life doing what it does best ? surviving at any and all costs.

Nature? It is and always has been every life form for itself, with human life dominating and rearranging other aspects of ?nature? to suit whatever it thinks fit.

superb Jeff, just the sort of thing I enjoy reading. I'm not into the political side of angling. It's the nature side that has always done it for me. Thanks for reminding me just how lucky I am.

I got a visit from a Water Vole last week whilst fishing the Ribble it spent a good few minutes rummaging around my feet. To most maybe not a big deal but to me it made the trip memorable. Voles are quite a rarity on the Ribble these days due in partto the number of Mink that are in most areas. I bet hate themmore than you haterats or Wasps.

Couldn't agree more. Great stuff Jeff...

Eric, you think I hate mink more than rats or wasps?

No. In fact, one evening (well around 11 o'clock actually) in February a couple of years back, one came bouncing along the concrete walkway. I thought at the time it was an audacious thing to do. My feet were stretched out to the edge of the concrete so when he got up to me he just looked me in the eye as if to say "What the hell do you think you're doing here?" Then he jumped over my feet and on his way again.

Yes, I know they're a real nuisance eating all the fish, but you have to admit they can look cute. And it's the only one I've ever seen on this stretch so I can live with that. Were there hundreds of them I'd invite Ron Clay down with his gun and dodgy arm.

Great article Jeff.

The bit about the shrew brought back some wonderful memories of a fishig trip a few years back. Similarly a rustle in bushes indicated a visitor but this was a very sickly looking field mouse. He approached slowly, looked up and then (sort of) sat down about 20cm from my seat. I ended up hand-feeding the little mite about ten maggots before a bite distracted me. When I turned back he had gone, but he made a memory that will live with me forever.

On a more philosophical note, personally I take comfort in Einstein's principle that energy cannot be created or destroyed. I am thoroughly contented that when I die my matter will be transformedand in someinsignificant (and beautifully simple) way become part of nature's cycle again. Eternal life is already guaranteed for atheists, and it is darn sight less egocentric and a lot more spiritual than any religion's creed.

Enjoyable read and good pics to illustrate, Thanks Jeff

Sorry Jeff, it should have read "I bet I hate themmore than you haterats or Wasps." Them being Mink. My fingers are faster than my brain./forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

The reason I don't like them is because in some areas on the Ribble they have decimated the small mammal and ground nesting birdpopulation.

"Enjoyable read and good pics to illustrate,"

Whoa, boy. You have to thank Mr Marsden for the pics, they're his apart from the trophy shot. I did send him a beauty of two swans, but he'd already put the piece up by then. Strangely and I know they're not native birds, but I rather like swans.

You're right Eric. As I said, one on it's own I can live with although I'd prefer an otter. Two and they breed (usually one of each sex) and that spells trouble. Shoot one, keep the other.

"a rustle in bushes indicated a visitor but this was a very sickly looking field mouse. "

How does a field mouse look sickly ? Was it pale ??

A well thought out article and great photos, but liking swans is not on jeff. merv wilkinson had the right idea with swans/forum/smilies/confused_smiley.gif

nice piece Jeff, I love wildlife, just cant get enough of it at the moment mate/forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

Good read and nothing in there that I could pick holes in - believe me, I looked!

Wonderful observation on the meaning of life, Jeff. Sort of 'Zen and the Art of Angling.' Loved it.

Providing we haven't threatened or directly affected any species to the point of total extinction, and ensure that is always the case, then we have done well and should be proud of it.

That's true, but we don't stop short of extinction; populations of a great many species are in spectacular free-fall, and aren't being replaced by other species. Yes, there are some success stories but we have less wildlife than we did, and certainly fewer sea fish.

This is having a disastrous effect on, for example, puffins ARTICLE HERE Anglers are by instinct conservationists, and we should be adding our voice to the many in speaking out against the degradation of the environment and exploitation of our natural resources.

The danger of being entirely fatalistic about nature is that this ignores the impact we have on the environment and the ecology that depends on it.

death, birth, migration, immigration and extinction are a natural life cycle, 99.9% of all the flora and fauna that every inhabited this planet is now extinct, the human mammal who is at the top of the food chain still proliferates however, and sometimes to the detriment of other life forms, we are however supported by the lower end of the pyramid (or at the moment at least)

The mass extinctions caused by the impact of meteorites smacking into the Caribbean are something about which we - had we been around at the time of the dinosaurs - could do nothing about. But releasing thousands of tons of DDT into the environment was, we now recognise, a mistake.

May I just quote the late Gerald Durrell:

The world is as delicate and as complicated as a spider's web, and like a spider's web, if you touch one thread, you send shudders running through all the other threads that make up the web. But we're not just touching the web, we're tearing great holes in it; we're waging a sort of biological war on the world around us. We are felling forests quite unnecessarily and creating dust bowls, and thereby even altering the climate. We are clogging our rivers with industrial filth, and we are now polluting the sea and air.

When you start talking about conservation, people immediately leap to the conclusion that you are an ardent animal lover, and what you mean is you want to protect the fluffy koala bear or something similar. But conservation doesn't mean this at all. Conservation means preserving the life of the whole world, be it trees or plants, be it even man himself...By our thoughtlessness, our greed and our stupidity we will have created, within the next 50 years or perhaps even less, a biological situation whereby we will find it difficult to live in the world at all.

He wrote that passage in 1972, when nobody was talking about global pollution - and he's right, the clock's running.

Jeff – given this is a topic very close to my heart and something I think/research much about, this was a very well put together piece…HOWEVER……if there is one aspect I would like to pick up on it would be from the following line.

“It is true that as soon as man places his muddy footprint on nature he starts to change it, sculpture it, manage it as he must.”

During my academic studies (Environmental Science followed by Climatology) it soon became apparent to me that we too often talk about Man and Nature as if they are two separate things, and I do not believe this should be the case. This may seem a bit “nit picking”, especially as we often use this distinction to analyse our impact on the overall physical and ecological aspects of our globe. However when it comes to putting in strategies and plans to change what we are doing too often we sit above it, rather than being part of it.

Like you I worry about the term “Mother Nature” but I use it to encompass everything, including us.

An example.

Someone came up to me recently and asked for my views on decreasing my carbon footprint and whether I was concerned about my footprint size.

My response was that I was more concerned about my children’s education, transport and lawlessness.

I was then asked, “Was this not irresponsible given global warming”?

My observations back made this “activist”, as she called herself, think. If our children were better educated (by both parents and the state) then things such as waste, good diet from local produce, better understanding of the environment etc would become part of our overall social education and massively reduce waste (probably the biggest footprint producer). And if I was comfortable with the transport system and the terrible lawlessness in our area (4 children assaulted just this weekend locally) then I’d feel happier letting the kids go to school on the bus. Instead we have just become a 3 car family (my daughter passed her test!).

The debate was a bit more in-depth than this, and when she realised I would not fund a tree planting exercise she wanted to get away!

We are part of nature, and need to think that way. I view my kid’s education as part of nature.

Still a great piece though…….

An excellent piece Jeff, your experience with the shrew reminded me of my encounter with a weasel last year while fishing on the canal, helping himself from my baitbox and last week while I was in the New Forest fishing at Hordle lakes I had a blackbird scoffing my pellets

Bully (Stuart), I agree with you, we are part of nature and the environment and in that respect are inseparable.

I suppose I was looking at it from the point of view that we are the only animal on this earth that has devised machines to help us to till the land for crops and create parks etc., chop trees to make furniture, make fire to devastate vast areas of forrest (that one isn't necessary of course, but we do it), clear land to build homes and create reservoirs. No other creature does this to such an extent, but we can so we do and we must start thinking about how we go about it.

love it all.................

Excellent article Jeff, last night I sat on the Ribble watching shooting stares and listening to all the nightlife getting on with its own survival completely oblivious of me.