Bill's Blog - November 4th
NEWS OF THE WILD

NOT TEMPTED

A few years ago a neighbour told me that they had been visiting my website each week. I was surprised. I didn't have a website. Not much later, the same neighbour informed me that not only did I have at least two websites, I also had five Facebooks and a MySpace. I was even more surprised. I was also not a little perturbed, but I couldn't check it out myself because I didn't have a computer. Now I have both a computer and a website, but that is all. I am still not on Facebook. I neither tweet nor twitter. Nor am I tempted to google myself to discover more about the small legion of counterfeit Bill Oddies who are floating round cyberspace. I dare say they mean no harm but - call me old fashioned - I do find it all a bit weird. Who'd want to be me anyway? I'm not too keen on it myself.

SEEDY

Of course some people say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Other people call it unoriginality or plagiarism, or even a kind of theft - comedians nicking one another's jokes, or songwriters stealing tunes. Or bird food manufacturers selling what might appear to be the same product you have been happily buying for ages but actually isn't. For example, for three years Haith's have been supplying Morrisons with four 'Bill Oddie' products. (I don't actually eat Mealworm Crumble and Garden Friendly seed myself, but my garden birds certainly do.) However, pop into Morrisons now and peruse the bird food shelves and you will no longer see the name "Bill Oddie". But you will still see "Mealworm Crumble" and "Garden Friendly". The names are the same, and the packaging is very similar to the Haith's originals, but what's inside the bags is something else. I am not sure what it is, but it isn't what it used to be. It may well be a bit cheaper, but believe me when it comes to bird food, less cost means less quality. Stick to the "real thing", I say. And the birds agree.

DON'T KNOW

In recent weeks I have been several times merrily accosted in the street with cries of "Oi Bill, haven't seen you on the telly much lately." This accurate observation is sometimes followed by the enquiry "When are we going to see you again?" which I like to assume implies that I would be welcome if I were to reappear. However, the answer is I really don't know. The question I am not asked often is "what have you been doing this year?" Maybe no one wants to know, but I'll tell you anyway!

GIVING BLOOD

The thing that not being heavily involved in TV has given me is time. Time to pursue two avenues I have wanted to for a few years. Firstly, travel to new countries. I love Britain and its wildlife but it's also fun to take in a bit of exotica. First trip was to Guatemala. Smoking volcanos, Resplendant Quetzels - what a name, what a bird - and the most leg wobbling, strength sapping, lung busting uphill forest trek I have ever done in my life. In early autumn, I had a week's wildlifing in Sri Lanka, seeing elephants and leopards, and being eaten - or should it be drunk? - alive by bloodthirsty leeches. A full account of that in an imminent BBC Wildlife magazine. In between those two, I took in a little bit of Brasil, and an even smaller sliver of Argentina. It was great but a bit of a rush. I may be the only person who has been to Rio twice and not caught even a glimpse of the enormous Jesus statue, let alone seen any kids playing beach football, or heard a single note of Samba. We flew in and out in the dark. The purpose of the trip was to visit two locations in the Atlantic Rainforest which is incidentally far more decimated than the Amazonian Forest. One area we visited was already a thriving nature reserve, the second area could be. This fact finding was on behalf of the World Land Trust, a brilliant organization whose principle strategy is to attract funds that allow the "right " people to literally buy areas of forest which can be managed both for sustainable profit and wildlife. I recommend a trip to their website www.worldlandtrust.org

LOVELY

Which brings me to my second resolution for this year - to make myself available to a number of the charities whose work I have long admired, but have all too rarely had time to support more actively. In doing so, I have met some lovely and impressive people, and learnt a great deal. I hope I have also been able to help, if only by directing you to a few more websites, where you may well discover some new causes you feel you want to support or get involved with. Actually, I say 'new' causes, but what has really struck me is how old issues constantly recur or continue. Very rarely can we say a battle has been won or an enemy defeated.

CRUEL SPORTS

For example, just when urban foxes thought it was safe to go back to the countryside there are mutterings from the Countryside Alliance about putting pressure on the new governments (both of them) to recind the ban on hunting with dogs. To help make sure it doesn't happen, and for other related matters, contact the League Against Cruel Sports. They do of course have a website, but I recommend just googling them, and then you'll get pages and pages of extra information, contacts, opinions etc etc. In fact, I nearly always start with a google, whether I have a website address or not. You never know where it will lead! Blimey last year I didn't even own a computer now I'm giving advice on how to use one!

NASTY

I also have advice for foxes. Stay away from grouse shooting estates in Scotland, where it is still legal to lay down 'snares'. Snares are nasty little wire traps in which an animal can strangle itself, before the game keeper arrives to put it out of its misery - which he'd put it in, in the first place. He will then chuck the carcass on a nearby "stink pit", the smell of which rather gruesomely attracts not only foxes, but also badgers and even occasionally dogs, many and any of which can be caught by the snares encircling the pit. I repeat, this is legal. It shouldn't be. For more on this and other animal welfare issues, visit One Kind (formally Advocates for Animals).

BADGERS

Talking of badgers. Only a few months after the apparent abandoning of an experimental cull, we hear that it's on after all. An unsavoury triumph for certain farmers that are intent on laying the blame for the spread of bovine t.b. on badgers rather than the conditions in which they keep the cows.

MOOS OF THE WORLD

And talking of cows. Planning application is due to be submitted again (it's been refused once) for a truly horrendous scheme at Nocton in Lincolnshire. A Mega Dairy they call it. Cow Factory more like. 8000 cattle deprived of a natural life, treated merely as milk and meat machines. And here's a scary statement from the council who will consider the application: "Objections based on wider ethical issues like animal welfare will not be a factor in the decision." As it happens, there are plenty of other objections as well, but the implication that the welfare of living creatures is irrelevant to the process of feeding humans is surely abhorrent? For more: Compassion in World Farming (www.ciwf.org).