It’s interesting how a species not indeginous to this habitat have adapted, there are currently 8 of these birds on my feeders, plus 2 next door. They are actually causing a bit of mayhem amongst the locals, the goldfinches aren’t getting a look in.
So many people now have bird tables and feeders, especially around here, it makes you wonder what these invaders would have done without them, not just them either, every morning the regulars actually sit on the fence waiting for me to top up the water and put out fresh seed.
I wonder what the bird population would be like without media personalities such as Bill Oddie persuading people to actually create what is in effect an artificial situation, or does it simply replace what has been lost through the demise of traditional farming methods.
I reckon that these siskins would have had a hard time of it without human interference, so do we encourage them, or let nature take its toll.
I was surprised to learn that those cute little collared doves only arrived as a pair, blown off course, in East Anglia, in the early 60’s, now they are everywhere, we had 5 in the garden yesterday lunchtime, and they have spread all over the country, meanwhile our natural wood pidgeons are declining, not that you would think so around here. A bit of a case of Grey Squirrel syndrome methinks.

With all due respect, exercises are fine, but did they allow for having to blast local, innocent people out of the way, I’m not knocking this in times of a national emergency, rest assured I’m not a ‘chain yourself to the fence type’, presumably it would be the case in such a scenario. Is this all classified, top secret stuff that we won’t know about for 50 years, if at all.
I can’t believe that any exercise would completely allow for the unexpected, or would they.
Imagine trying to get a convoy past Fred Dibnah, out for a jaunt in his rather large and heavy steam roller, ‘Mmm’, removing cap and scratching head, ‘I don’t reckon much to them thur transporters’, producing piece of paper and redesigning the things in front of horrified troops, ‘Ave you got any watter ortherwise t’ b####r will blow a fusible plug and you’ll do nowt to try and save t’ world, for what it’s worth. How much do you Yanks know about reciprocating, compound beam engines, mmmmm, I thought as much, now let me do a deemonsturation’.
Don’t you just miss the bloke, bless him.

Some interesting info here.

Presumably when Molesworth, and Greenham, were selected as the sites for mobile cruise launchers, some strategic plan of local launch areas was written up, that the vehicles had to get to prior to an attack. No doubt this would be a relatively concealed and sheltered woodland area well away from the base.
At the time of the plans assumed conception, the A14 was not completed, and the roads around Molesworth are’nt exactly major trunk routes.
I recall at the time seeing cartoon or early CGI, scenarios of these launchers being driven independantly to secret sites and firing off their missiles, all done so easily.
How would they have coped with the traffic on these roads, imagine coming across Farmer Palmer and his combine, would he care about WW3, I doubt it, ‘I need to get back to the farm and fix the bailer, ****** the USAF’.
They must surely have had all sorts of equipment to force the traffic off the roads in order to prepare for Armaggedon, it would probably have been a bloodbath before the Soviet strike arrived, and I’m only thinking of the application to the locals, I’m sure that the peace activists would have gone to all sorts of lengths to prevent these vehicles from leaving the base.
Not a very practical idea, I always imagined a huge traffic jam of cruise launchers trying to get out the base, then, wallop, all gone, goodbye world.

Hi, Pete, and thanks for the offer. The history and heroism of the soldiers of the GPR has always fascinated me.

I served in Detmold, Germany for 13 years, working my way up from groundcrew to pilot via aircrewman, then did 2 years at Dishforth before ending my career in an ops/tasking cell in NI. Never got to visit Wattisham. I married a Cornish Maid on leaving the Army, and I now know why they love their home county.

With that pedigree, and living in our favourite county too, I shall double my efforts, it may be difficult to photograph it under any conditions, so I may sketch it, what annoys me is that the visitor centre at this place is to far up it’s own backside to give much creedence to it’s historic past, it’s a shame, they have many visitors who, I’m sure would love to know what the purpose of the strange buildings and memorial represent on this site, but information is sparse, unless you are in the know.
For those that don’t know, this estate, Marks Hall, was a stunning 18th century mansion, gardens, arboretum and a series of lakes, it’s only a few miles east of Braintree, between Coggeshall and Earls Colne.
During the First World War, so many sons of the aristrocracy were killed as subalterns in the trenches, that, whatever your point of view, many important country houses were lost as a result, the old boys simply died out without having anyone to pass their estates on to.
Best read on this is ‘Good bye to all That’ by Robert Graves, my favourite book on WW1, if you’ve not read it, get down to your local bookshop now and buy it, it doesn’t state the obvious, but you get the idea.
Marks Hall was more or less abandoned, but the whole estate was taken over by the USAAF during WW2. The house was eventually knocked down and the whole place left to wrack and ruin.
I was lucky enough to be able to wander around the site when it was left to it’s own devices, the site was just full of relics of the war, it was a treasure trove.
A trust has been set up to preserve the place, well they’ve done their stuff but what they present is not a true reflection on either the history of the house, or the importance that this site represented during WW2. A wasted opportunity, they just want us to look at what the’yve done to make the site look pretty, but it’s a private venture, and they just only want to put bums on seats, so to speak, can’t argue with that.
I’m sure that being presented with a good dollop of history in association with what is presented as a fantastic series of lakes, sort of, if you ignore the dreadful waterfull re-creations, it could be a winner, but what do I know, seeing the USAAF history of this place on a small board shoved in a corner in the cafe didn’t give me much hope, well quite frankly, I thought it was pathetic, and a slur on those that fought and died so that this place could exist. Anyone in the area, see what you think.