Chris Packham’s T-Shirt Designs 2010

SAFER IN OUTER SPACE

Perhaps no other species commands as much conservation concern as the Tiger. It is an icon of remarkable beauty and symbolises a rapidly vanishing wilderness. As such we give millions every year to effect its protection. But it’s not working. The number of tigers in the wild continues to plummet and as the far eastern economies swell they continue to be worth more dead than alive. I doubt whether there is a single safe enclave on earth for the Tiger. Maybe we should spend all that vast sum of charitable cash to send the last few to the moon.

GOING CHEAP

I was standing in a supermarket queue looking at all the ‘bargain signs’ feeling ashamed that I was among the throng shopping for cheap food. It’s what we have all grown up to expect but not paying what it really cost to produce is costing us the Great British Countryside. Our farmers are not getting the support they need to survive and prosper, and let’s face it, they are the real custodians of our rural landscape. So how can we call upon them to ‘support wildlife’ when we do little to support them? The plain facts are that if we scrimp over the price of a pint of milk we are selling out our farmers and our wildlife heritage.

Please support www.farmshopping.net

NO RODING

My friend Ian Williamson has always had a thing about Woodcock. Until recently I had mixed appreciations. I liked the sideways facing eyes, the strange call and the remarkably camouflaged plumage. But it’s only in the last couple of years that the spectator sport of watching the males rode has taken a grip and now I’m an avid fan of the aerial froggy croaks and their unpredictable but so entertaining ‘fly-bys’. I’m lucky that some roding Romeos do it over my house. Strangely this ‘woodland wader’ is also a game bird, ie the quarry of the shooters and whilst I would be equally as likely to turn a gun on my Itchy and Scratchy as I ever would a Woodcock, I do see two sides to this story. The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust have a history of sound research and conservation when it comes to game birds and their assistance must be seen as a hugely synergistic thing. And, pragmatist that I am, I recognise that the responsible side of ‘shooting’ is a significant employer and of economic importance in the rural community. A community we must work constructively with at all times.

Please visit www.gct.org.uk

GOD SAVE THE BUMBLEBEES

Bumblebees have a happy, fluffy charm and are greatly liked by all of us. I’ve only been stung once . . . when I had my finger in a Wren’s nest feeling around whilst a queen White-tail was prospecting herself – so I deserved it! Sadly six of our twenty-four species are threatened with extinction and two, the Shrill Carder and Great Yellow, are in real trouble with small and fragmented populations. These animals are not only important pollinators but also play significant roles in many natural communities. Our countryside would be a less colourful place without them as our airwaves currently are without bands such as the awesome Sex Pistols!

Please support www.bumblebeeconservation.org

ELY CATHEDRAL

There were days not long ago when those in amazed awe of the grandeur of this beautiful edifice would have travelled to it across a unique fenscape which on summer days would have sewn clouds of butterflies to guild their pilgrimage. I’ve tried to ‘stain glass’ the wings of these gone and going things to mirror the simple art that helped to entrance these folk. Thus Swallowtails, Red Admirals, Marbled Whites, Large Coppers and Orange Tips spin in a colourful and veined splendour. Which will last longer, the sacred cathedral or the fragile insects sacrificed to the agricultural crucifixion of Eastern England?

Please support www.butterfly-conservation.org

SWALLOWS AND SPITFIRES

For my father the Supermarine Spitfire was a symbol of victory against the odds in the Battle of Britain in 1940. Actually he knows that the Hawker Siddeley Hurricane played a greater role in that conflict but for me this wonderful aircraft represents a near perfect amalgam of functional need and aesthetic design – it is the most beautiful thing that we have made to fly. But now we need to wage a new Battle for Britain’s sub Saharan Migrants, our summer skies are increasingly denuded of these aerial superstars and in terms of a natural Spitfire superior none comes closer than the Swallow. Unless we act there will not be ‘blue birds over the white cliffs of Dover’.

Please support www.bto.org.uk