Ive just recently finished The Moth Snowstorm - the best read of the past 12 months, by a substantial margin! Part of my personal canon for certain. Michael McCarthy writes of the joy and wonder of the natural world and I had my own moment of this last week, at UWNR. For 30 minutes, while having lunch, I watched the resident fox prowl and stalk the barn owl fields in search of field voles. Oh what unbridled joy and wonder.
I recently learned that 100,000 foxes are wantonly slaughtered annually in the UK and this is an historical high - they can be considered to be locally extinct. What is wrong with us? Why do we despise this majestic wild dog so? And what the fuck does vermin mean? So 30 minutes of joy, wonder and then sadness.....