I undertake some publicity work for the Red Squirrel Survival Trust. We recently came across an article in a Welsh local newspaper about a young amateur photographer whose aim was to take pictures of red squirrels.
The RSST came to the rescue and a few weeks later I was driving the young photographer, Marcus Roberts, from his home in North Wales over the Menai Strait to mid Anglesey. We were going to meet a former soldier, Hugh Rowland, to take us to an isolated spot of woodland where he has created a Red Squirrel Haven.
We met in a car park and trudged off into the woods. It wasn’t just raining, it was tipping it down – in straight lines. The last thing Mrs GG mumbled from her warm bed at 5.00am, as I set off to meet Marcus, was “Don’t forget your towelling neck scarf. Its going to be wet.”
How true and if only I’d remembered. Once in the woods we left the path and scrambled up a steep, muddy track, eventually arriving at a semi-circular clearing. Hugh had put up some benches and arranged a series of natural wood posts and rails with hollows into which he filled hazelnuts and cobnuts, both still in their shells.
The first red arrived before Marcus had managed to get his camera out of the bag. He looked crestfallen, asking Hugh if there would be any more. And there were, dozens of them. Some were very dark brown with almost black tails and the others were the more traditional gingery red colour. Despite the rain, they clambered over Hugh’s wooden creations, gathering up the nuts.
Apparently, the females (sows) take the nuts and often stay, crack them open and eat the nuts whereas the male boars nip in, gather up a nut or two, and dart off back into the undergrowth.
Marcus could not believe his luck and all of the photographs illustrating this article were taken by him.
We spent a wonderful three hours just watching the squirrels, some of which came up very close to us.
But I wouldn’t be living up to my name if I didn’t have a grump. Nothing at all to do with the squirrels, Hugh or Marcus. This lovely sanctuary is deliberately not well publicised but Hugh takes visitors from around the world to watch his beloved reds and he maintains their little patch in good order. But not everyone shares his passion and support for the reds.
He has found his seating ripped out and the wooden posts and rails deliberately pulled from the ground. There have been visitors with children who delighted in climbing over them and breaking the wood and others who come up with dogs and let them off the lead to chase the squirrels.
He says that 99% of visitors respect the location and thoroughly enjoy themselves its just that awful 1% - sadly the same applies to people who deliberately damage flowers beds and installations in parks and public spaces and other locations.
Hey ho. If you see any reds or have stories about them, do drop me an email at grahampaskett@paskett.co.uk.
The Red Squirrel Survival Trust is a national charity dedicated to saving the red squirrel and its native woodland. The red is our natural squirrel and the grey was only introduced from America as a novelty species in parks and estates in the mid-1800s. Many greys carry a pox that is harmless to them but fatal to reds. Today there are an estimated 280,000 reds and 2.7 million alien greys in the UK. If you are seeking an unusual Christmas gift look up the Red Squirrel Survival Trust shop at https://www.rsst.org.uk/store/ You will be supporting a very good cause.
Enjoy Halloween!
The Grumpy Gardener
Comentarios