| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
bardofely
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 3294
Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
|
 Post subject: A tree destroyed and birds made homeless |
 |
|
A lovely evergreen tree in the fig family that my balcony looked out on yesterday was brutally cut down! It was here when I moved in and was something I have really loved looking out on! 
The blackbirds that nest and roost and feed in it were naturally alarmed but continued flying in and out of the part that was still standing. Finally the whole lot had been cut down by a bunch of guys with chainsaws. Some of the branches fell on the side where the sports centre is and others fell over the wall into the car park!
I felt really sad watching this destruction because I know a lot of birds depend on it and I thought it was a beautiful tree. I think a pair of bats also lived there.
In the evening I watched an even sadder scene! As it grew dark at least 20 ring-necked doves, and about another 30 small birds including warblers, finches and tits, as well as the blackbirds came back to what had been there home to bed down for the night only to see there was nothing left! Many of them were making cries of alarm and helplessly flying about in a state of total confusion. Some of them came into the balconies having nowhere else to go and I could hear them chirping to each other. The others disappeared into the growing darkness. A home and life-support system to very many birds was destroyed in a few hours by men with chainsaws! My view is ruined - now I can see easily over the sports ground and down the coast but I would so much prefer to see the tree and to hear happy birds!
_________________
Find out more about me here: http://www.myspacetenerife.com/index.php?page=view_profile&id=10 |
|
Tue Jul 22, 2008 5:01 pm
 |
|
 |
Tenerife Seagull
Pro Reefer
Joined: 28 Aug 2005
Posts: 541
Location: Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
Bard, that really is a shame.
We walk by an apartment block that we used to live in. A thriving tree that was there has also been cut down to a stump. I often used to watch a pair of blackbirds going in to the foliage with grubs dangling over their beaks. They had two broods during the summer we were there. I do wonder if they were nesting when the tree was cut down.
_________________
Don't follow the 'MySpaceTenerife' link under my avatar because you will learn nothing about me.
You will never grow old with Rock n' Roll. |
|
|
Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:21 pm
|
|
|
bardofely
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 3294
Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
They would nest again but it is such a shame and the main problem is that the birds need these trees for food as well as shelter. If they have no food and nowhere to live they are forced to move on!
_________________
Find out more about me here: http://www.myspacetenerife.com/index.php?page=view_profile&id=10 |
|
|
Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:31 pm
|
|
|
Chris_and_Leanne
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 08 Aug 2007
Posts: 1970
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
Aww Bard that is really awful, at least here in the UK you could have put a tree preservation order on it to stop such brutality, some people do not think. I had a lovely hedge boarding my garden and as my neighbour wanted more sun to his lawn he cut the hedge down.... I wasn not very happy as not only can they now see into our garden from their balcony but it was a lovely little habitat. Luckily there is till some hedge left for them so they won't be as confused but it is very thoughtless of people !
x
_________________
www.secretgardenholistics.com
Holistic Therapist and Reiki Practioner, Burnley, UK. |
|
|
Tue Jul 22, 2008 7:07 pm
|
|
|
MaryJ
Pro Reefer
Joined: 09 Sep 2007
Posts: 482
Location: Chesterfield, Derbyshire
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
That's awful Bard,
Don't you know why they did that? 
_________________
Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional. |
|
|
Tue Jul 22, 2008 7:27 pm
|
|
|
bardofely
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 3294
Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
| MaryJ wrote: | That's awful Bard,
Don't you know why they did that? |
I would assume they did it because it was shading the sports centre building, because it was covered in aphids and because they tend to go in for hacking everything down here as I have seen all over the island where people live!
_________________
Find out more about me here: http://www.myspacetenerife.com/index.php?page=view_profile&id=10 |
|
|
Tue Jul 22, 2008 7:36 pm
|
|
|
bardofely
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 3294
Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
| Chris_and_Leanne wrote: | Aww Bard that is really awful, at least here in the UK you could have put a tree preservation order on it to stop such brutality, some people do not think. I had a lovely hedge boarding my garden and as my neighbour wanted more sun to his lawn he cut the hedge down.... I wasn not very happy as not only can they now see into our garden from their balcony but it was a lovely little habitat. Luckily there is till some hedge left for them so they won't be as confused but it is very thoughtless of people !
x |
Yes, now I can see kids in the sports centre and they can see me if I am on the balcony or haven't got the curtains across! The tree gave this part some privacy that's now gone!
_________________
Find out more about me here: http://www.myspacetenerife.com/index.php?page=view_profile&id=10 |
|
|
Tue Jul 22, 2008 7:39 pm
|
|
|
margaretbl
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 01 Mar 2007
Posts: 3782
Location: south tyneside
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
so sad
_________________
Failures don't plan to fail, they fail to plan
(Harvey Mackay) |
|
|
Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:24 am
|
|
|
bardofely
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 3294
Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
| margaretbl wrote: | | so sad |
And today they are sawing up the remains and I am listening to the horrible noise as I type. Meanwhile other workers in bright yellow waistcoats are up on the roof of the centre sweeping up leaves. All of it has scared Tiggy who has run down the other end of the apartment!
_________________
Find out more about me here: http://www.myspacetenerife.com/index.php?page=view_profile&id=10 |
|
|
Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:30 am
|
|
|
margaretbl
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 01 Mar 2007
Posts: 3782
Location: south tyneside
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
Bard my cat is like that and the dog for that matter, we complained to the council a few years ago, contractors had cut (butchered) a load of gorse/heather bushes in the area and we know for a fact there were birds nesting in them, I must admit now they must look as some get cut down and others don't till later in the year
_________________
Failures don't plan to fail, they fail to plan
(Harvey Mackay) |
|
|
Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:47 am
|
|
|
bardofely
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 3294
Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
| margaretbl wrote: | | Bard my cat is like that and the dog for that matter, we complained to the council a few years ago, contractors had cut (butchered) a load of gorse/heather bushes in the area and we know for a fact there were birds nesting in them, I must admit now they must look as some get cut down and others don't till later in the year |
A big part of the reason birds and butterflies are disappearing is because people destroy their homes and their food sources!
I actually read in a Tenerife paper that butterflies are down by as much as 70% in the UK and I can well believe it. Many that I saw commonly as a boy such as Wall Browns, Small Heath, Small Copper and Graylings, which were common grassland butterflies had vanished before I moved here. Now I am watching the same process continue on Tenerife with road building, tree felling, drought, land development and the simple fact that people don't grow plants the insects need!
_________________
Find out more about me here: http://www.myspacetenerife.com/index.php?page=view_profile&id=10 |
|
|
Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:08 am
|
|
|
margaretbl
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 01 Mar 2007
Posts: 3782
Location: south tyneside
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
we have buddleas (sp) in the garden for that purpose as butterflies love them so do bees and wasps !
_________________
Failures don't plan to fail, they fail to plan
(Harvey Mackay) |
|
|
Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:52 am
|
|
|
bardofely
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 3294
Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
| margaretbl wrote: | | we have buddleas (sp) in the garden for that purpose as butterflies love them so do bees and wasps ! |
Excellent! 
A big problem though is that whilst adult butterflies feed on flowers the caterpillars need other food plants and this is where it all goes wrong. People like "pretty flowers" but they don't like what they see as weeds that the butterflies need. For example many species feed on nettles but people kill nettles. Other species feed on grass and people kill that or cut it down or mow it too short.
Where I live people pull it up and spray grass with weedkiller. In the UK I have seen farmers kill nettles the same way. I had an argument on the BBC message boards about this. A farmer on there admitted using Roundup and said it didn't harm wildlife and I countered saying how can it not harm wildlife when it is used to destroy the foodplant of many British butterflies - the Peacock, Red Admiral, Tortoiseshell, Comma and Painted Lady? He shut up after that!
Over here people kill nettles too and so there are few Red Admirals of which there are two species on the island.
Monarchs need Milkweed and hardly anyone grows it and where it is grown I have seen it pulled out and replaced with geraniums and petunias! Meanwhile the Monarch population continues to decline!
One of the only butterflies that does OK here is the African Grass Blue because its caterpillars eat clover and this grows in many of the lawns in the resorts.
_________________
Find out more about me here: http://www.myspacetenerife.com/index.php?page=view_profile&id=10 |
|
|
Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:05 am
|
|
|
margaretbl
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 01 Mar 2007
Posts: 3782
Location: south tyneside
|
| Post subject: |
|
|
where our buddleas are situated it is a part of the garden that does not get used often (storage for garden chairs etc) so there are quite a few nettles etc plus it is by a fence where there are connifers on the other side so I should think there would be plenty food for catipilars, if they can avoid the birds!!!!
_________________
Failures don't plan to fail, they fail to plan
(Harvey Mackay) |
|
|
Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:16 am
|
|
|
bardofely
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 3294
Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
|
|
|
Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:23 am
|
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Album
Log in
