A common September in the farm fields of North East Lincolnshire is that of flocks of gulls following tractor and plough (above). The purpose of their quest is to find worms, beetles and other creatures to provide them with an easy and nutritious meal. But their excitement is destined, alas, to end in disappointment. Unlike days gone by, the fields and their crops have been saturated all year with so many sprays (pictured below) of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and fertilisers - up to a dozen applications a year - that the soil if effectively inert. The crops of today are, in effect, grown in dust. Time was when ploughed soil would provide gulls with food for a week or more. Not any more. The poor birds pictured above were taken for mugs. Within minutes they were gone.
No comments:
Post a Comment