Green Holidays

You know the first 5 inside-out do you? Good Stuff!

Let us move on then……

So now you come to some more common birds – but these ones aren’t so obvious at first glance. You may have to look at them for a bit longer than the first 5 – or have some binoculars to hand too!

There are 2 sets of pairs here; 2 sets of birds that look quite similar until you can pick out the obvious differences.

And then of course you need to remember which one is which!

So lets look at the next 5 species and see what you think…..

Blue Tit:
This tiny garden lover is very common on garden feeders, and is not so easy to tell apart from the larger (but also blue-bodied Great Tits) for beginners.

Although they have a solid blue ‘caps’ seperated from their body colour by a black line running through their eye – they move so fast that you can’t alwasy make it out – especially if there are several birds on the feeder.

photo credit: chapmankj75

In fact to begin with it’s easier to learn what a Great Tit looks like – as it has much bolder colours and markings – and then you know it’s not that, so it must be a Blue Tit.

Great Tit:
Easy markers for these larger tits is the fact that they have a very dark head and neck – and a large white cheek patch. They also have a clear solid black chest line from their chins to their underbellies!

Try to find a garden feeder with both Blue and Great Tits feeding to see these differences first hand. And of course the Great Tits are much larger as well when you see them side by side!

photo credit: Chris Isherwood

Moorhen:
If you are out on the water – then you will no doubt have seen a small black bird walking about the waters edge with large feet. It might be on the water trying to get away from you as fast as it can.

Now this is one of 2 birds; if it has a red bill it is a moorhen – remember ‘R’ as in Moorhen. It will also have big yellow feet if you take a look.

photo credit: brian.gratwicke

Coot:
If it has a white bill and face plate – it will be a Coot (just remember ‘Red’ for moo’R'hen – then you will know it is a coot!). These birds are much larger than moorhens, but you might not see them together to compare so just go by the face. They also have grey legs and feet too if you get a chance to look at them walking over weeds.

photo credit: shimgray

Starling:
These noisy little birds tend to hang around in groups and will raid any food source that they come across! They are mainly black in appearance, but it depends on when you are watching them. In winter on closer inspection, you will see that they are a mottled pattern of brownish feathers spotted with creamy-brown patches all over, wheras in the summer they sport a rather metallic appearance of shiny greens, blues and purples with only residual spotting on the upper back and lower underside.

photo credit: marlin harms

They can look like other birds from a distance in your garden, but their extensive vocal range and large numbers usually gives them away as not your normal garden bird.

Now you have the basics, lets move on to some garden specialists in our next installment!

If you took part in the recent RSPB garden count – you may well have started on your way to spotting the 270 birds commonly found in the UK.

So why not keep it up?

I have put together this series of informative posts to help you through all the easy species, first. Then there will be the ones that you need to go on a walk to see and gradually we will get onto the birds that you will have to seek out for yourself – like the elusive White-tailed Eagle or the niche dwelling Capercaillie!

There is nothing better sometimes than knowing what a bird is by just checking off 1 sign, like ‘it has a red stripe so it must be a ????’ or ‘it has yellow legs so will be a ????’ Sometimes once you know the general appearance of a bird ‘type’ like a sparrow, warbler or grebe, you can seperate the individual species by just 1 thing.

And these guides will not focus on all the latin names and scientific groupings etc; there will be no use of fancy ornithological words like ornitholigical, tertial tip or emargination. Just easy to use visual descriptions of the birds that you will see while out walking in the woods, wetlands or your own back garden!

But to start you off before we lose you in geese and gulls; we will list the top 5 birds that you may well have seen this week or have probably already seen at some point in your life!

Robin:
This one is easy to spot with it’s bright red breast – and you can easily pick them out in the snow as they are quite bold little birds and use human garden tools and furniture from which to spy their insect prey! And they will come close to humans too if you feed them…..

photo credit: fwooper

Blackbird:
Another common species that just loves to run around garden edges looking for food under leaves and garden waste. The males are black with orange or yellow bills and feet, where the females are browner in colour. You can spot them from their loud warning call as you scare them off…..

photo credit: Keith Laverack

Magpie:
A larger bird that has such distinctive colouring that you will know when you have seen one. Their black and white plumage and their flap-flap-flap-then glide flight pattern will have you ticking off this species in a flash!

photo credit: goingslo

Pheasant:
If you live near the countryside or walk your dog in the fresh air, then you will no doubt have seen a rather handsome brown bird with a perfect white collar around his neck, large red wattles and nice long tail feathers – this is your male pheasant. Females have the same long tail and also frequent large country gardens, footpaths and cultivated fields but don’t have the fancy head! They both fly off clumsily and noisily when you get too close!

photo credit: gerrybuckel

Mute Swan:
I used to live on a canal and could see these all day long – but if you live elsewhere they aren’t difficult to find on any large body of fresh water, like a river, canal, lake or in a local nature reserve. Out of all the swans in the UK, the Mute Swan is the easiest to identify by its bill alone (handy really as all 3 common swans are totally white); it is the only one that has an orange bill which has a large knob of black on the top where it meets the eyes.

photo credit: TossMyPancake

So, if you have already seen these ones, then join me for the next 5 real soon – and make sure that you have seen these all again outside and that you know them inside out – as many other birds look very similar to them but for one or two small details. So only when you know these well can you learn some of the others coming on the list!

Grab your camera and document your journey if you like – it can make your travels more memorable.

See you soon…..

And if you want to know more about the fancy terms and descriptions used to identify birds, please look for my Bird Identification Guides – Technical Data series.

If you saw tree weighed down with Ivy – would you take action?

Sometimes a mature tree is so overwhelmed with Ivy that it is surely doing it some harm – and haven’t you sometimes found Ivy-covered fallen branches on the ground after bad weather?

And during the winter months a deciduous tree with none of its own leaves looks verdant with a heavy covering of large, dark green Ivy leaves instead!

And because the tree, or trees, are in what appears to be an untended area of woodland – isn’t it best that you take things into your own hands before the tree is damaged or gets pulled down under the shear weight!

Would you resolve to come back next time with some seceteurs or a small hacksaw?

Every Tree Has An Owner:
Many walkers seem to think that areas of land like woodland, grassland, hills and mountains are not owned by anyone – they believe that they can do anything they want on this land as it doesn’t say ‘Private’ on the gate!

However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Every patch of land close to your home has an owner or a guardian – and you may well have rights to walk across that land – but that’s about it.

You can’t – as many people seem to think; cut down Ivy, dig up plants, bury dead pets, abandon cars, take wood for fuel, camp overnight or hold a party there.

Would you appreciate anyone doing that on your land or in your garden? No, I didn’t think so.

You can of course, speak to the land-owner or guardian about doing any of these things, but obviously they may charge you a fee and/or just say ‘No’.

They May Have Plans:
Now we have established that the tree – and the Ivy – is owned by someone, so it is pretty clear that you don’t have the right to cut them down. But what makes you think that they don’t want the Ivy to grow on their trees in the first place?

Had it not occured to you that the Ivy has just as many benefits – if not more – than just the bare tree itself?

photo credit: cdsessums

For example, Ivy is famous for its ability to live through the winter (and that is why it is in many a festive songs) – so it is one of the only plants which has food and leaves in the harshest winter months.

After all the deciduous trees and bushes have dropped their berries and cast off their old leaves by September – the woodlands should be empty of birds, insects and mammals. However, the wildlife in an Ivy-filled woodland can still feed on, and live in, the great swathes of rich green Ivy that remain on trees, even in the frost and snow!

A bare tree in winter is a cold and unwelcoming place in which to hibernate or to hide from the icy weather – whereas the nooks and crannies formed by decades old ivy stems are a perfect safe haven!

How You Can Actually Help:
If you are really interested in learning more about woodlands; plants, trees and wildlife, then you should consider joining a volunteer nature conservation group as well as doing some reading of your own.

Obviously you will find out that cutting down Ivy is actually detrimental to the woods and it’s wildlife – but you will also find out how to manage it for the better, which plants are signs of an ancient woodland, and which creatures you are likely to see there.

You also get to cut down plenty of plants that are not wanted in other areas – for example scrub on grasslands. Nature wants to gradually replace grasslands and heaths with trees and forests – however, these 2 habitats are vitally important for certain wildlife – but will not survive on their own.

By learning about natural succession and habitat management – you will be far more help to the environment than illegally hacking down Ivy plants in your local woods!

Found something strange – or beautiful – but have no idea what it is?

As long as you have a picture of it, then there is a new way to find out what on earth you have just seen.

It could be something common that you just haven’t seen before where you are visiting – or it could be a species that is new to your area (through land use changes or seasonal migration) and you have been one of the first to spot it.

Basically, the Open University in the UK has set up a database of images of everything in the natural world – as well as people who can tell you what it is.

Rather than just asking a few friends, searching through your field guides or just admiring it for what it is – you can now find out for good.

iSpot:
Not another iPhone application as its name insinuates – but a whole nature database online that can sort out the clustered bonnets from the milky bonnets, the brown bear from the black bear and the large white from the marbled white.

Basically, you can upload your pictures and some basic information about it and leave it to others to identify. You can have a guess yourself, and others will either confirm or deny this – basically like a forum.

You can also help identify other wildlife for photographers as well. It may be that you have experience in fungi – but have taken a picture of a strange insect on that fungi. You can find out what the insect is in exchange for identifying some garden waxcaps or woodland earth star!

photo credit: Marek Komorowski

It is divided up into categories including: mammals, birds, fungi, fish, etc and you can just look at some great shots, see different colour variants of common species (like white deer and black squirrels) or just use the labels to find out where these animals were seen so you can go and look for them yourself.

In Addition:
There are also links on the sites for further reading, related surveys, tips on identification and links to other useful id and specialist websites.

The OU have also recently launched a short course to run alongside iSpot and for all those people who haven’t taken a degree or had experience in the field before.

It’s called Neighbourhood Nature and can take you as little as 5 weeks or as long as 5 months depending on your other commitments. It allows you the support to run your own local field study relating to any area that you have ready access to and a keen interest in like a local woodland behind the houses, a nearby nature reserve or even a disused railway.

Nature is everywhere – and by working alongside your tutors and the experts on iSpot, you can find out what is living there and why – and anything you can do to keep it there or improve the number and diversity of plants and animals there.

So, if you have been meaning to get qualified in something ‘outdoors’ or to help brush up on your basic skills before embarking on a longer or higher level course – then maybe this course could help you out.

Also You Might Like To:
Obviously, signing up to volunteer with nature-related charities in your area will also enable you to experience nature first hand, access some great habitats, learn from experts and it could always lead to a larger project or a permanent job somewhere down the line.

And if anything, get a camera with a good zoom and an even better macro – and practice observing things – or take a basic photography course. Trying out the different settings is one thing – but knowing what to look out for is another.

You might take a great picture of a striking plant – but then get home to find out that you needed to find the berry, scratch the bark or see what other plants were around it to get a 100% ID. But until you make those mistakes and get annoyed with yourself – you won’t get any better at identifications.

It’s alright relying on others for rare species and all those ‘barely indistinguishable’ lichens – but you should really start to build up your basic id skills in the field if you are planning any sort of career based on nature.

So grab your camera, field guide and waterproofs – and get outside!

Green Travel keeps working even when you have stopped!

Now we all know that parking in town can be a complete nightmare at the best of times – and I suppose that is why we favour purpose-built car parks as a result.  They usually have clearly marked out car-size spaces for everyone to park in and arrows telling you which way to drive so you don’t bump into other drivers!

That way – we all know that they have worked out the greatest number of spaces that that particular car park can hold and everyone can fit in with no wasted space – or accidents!

However, not so for the country car park or the long parking bays with only the end zones marked out.

How is it best to park in these spaces when you first arrive?

Eco Friendly Parking:
Now you might not think that where you park could have eco friendly – or not so eco friendly – consequences, but it does.

Take for example the person parking infront of an entrance or right infront of a sign that says ‘Do Not Park Here’  You can tell immediately that this car could cause other people some trouble – wasting their time, their money and possibly causing an argument.

But can you see how they are also reducing the revenue of local services, decreasing visitor numbers for local attractions and businesses as well as possibly affecting the number of people that visit that location over the next 50 years!

Obviously these are scaled up problems – but if you arrived in a town or remote beauty spot only to find that you can’t park anywhere or others have been irresponsible – you might never return.

If you had to drive 40 minutes to visit an old church and you could never find a space there – would you keep going back year after year?

Or you just wanted to grab a quick snack and there was never a space outside the shop when you drove by – wouldn’t you just find somewhere else?

But what happens to those places when you decide to go elsewhere?  Who buys their products, uses their services or donates to their cause?

Think About It:
So, what can you do to make sure that you don’t affect your local services when you pop into town or drive into the countryside to walk the dog?

Firstly – think about how you can maximise the number of spaces in the place you are visiting.  Put simply – always park up to the edges or the spaces and close to any other vehicles on site.

photo credit: Blyzz

If there is a car in the middle of nowhere and you park away from it in the middle of nowhere too – how can you be sure that an exact number of cars can fit into the gap you have left? Surely you have been looking for a space before and thought ‘if only that car was a foot to the left it would create enought space for a whole car’.

Obviously nothing you can do about it while you wait – but very often when that person does move – someone else parks right in the same place themselves – just the 1 car instead of 2.

And those thoughtless people who park half a car away from the end of a bay!  I mean there was no reason not to park up the edge of the bay – leaving all the rest of the bay free for other vehicles – but they chose to just park wherever they wanted making sure that other people couldn’t park close to the shops/doctors/hotel/castle/seafront/etc.

Your Choice:
Now I know there are lots of different size cars on the road, and it seems a bit weird to park next to another car when the rest of the car park is empty – but it won’t always be empty.

People need to visit places to keep them there – and so surely, the more people that can park close to where they want to go, the more money they will spend there.

And it’s not all about using public transport either – I mean if I am on my way home from somewhere in my car and need to grab some bread or milk – I don’t want to have to walk miles to get them – I want to be able to pull up and park real close to the store and pop in and out in a second.  So, if I can’t get close in the car – I will go to another shop where I know I can.

Not everyone can walk a long way either and buses don’t go absolutely everywhere – so people do need to use their cars to get to places – and so rather than just pulling up somewhere are parking without a care for anyone else – think eco.

If you want that store to be there for your convenience – then you need to help it get as many customers as it can to turn a profit.  If you want to keep using that car park near the National Trust woodland – then make sure as many people as possible can park there are pay their money to keep it open!

If you park for too long in a space, take up more than 1 space or block other road users – you are harming the very services and locations that you are using yourself.

You might have driven there in as ‘green’ a way as you could – so don’t spoil it when you get there!

There are hundreds of winter walks organised across the country – why don’t you sign up?

It’s always nice to get out in the open on a crisp, sunny winters morning – so why not go on an organised adventure walk with a local expert and a handful of other people – rather than around your normal walk on your own!

You could learn plenty of new skills, plant or wildlife information and maybe make a few new friends along the way!

No-one wants to leave the warmth of their house sometimes – but if you have something arranged – it will give you that extra encouragement to get wrapped up warm and out the door!

And, when you are out there in the frost or snow – you will see some beautiful sites that you never would have otherwise seen – so don’t forget your camera as many organised walks will take you onto private land, off the main footpaths, and through farmland too.

What an opportunity to see some great landscapes, historic buildings, farmland scenes and wild animal tracks.  And you will have an expert with you at all times to answer any questions along the way.

photo credit: rick forgo

And, you could get some great inspiration for art or literature if they are your skills or interests.  Taking a notepad and recording device with you as you experience these scenes could really inspire you.

Local Walks:
There are plenty of charities and local councils etc, that offer these walks – you just need to find their schedules.

Whether they offer information online, at the town hall, library, local tourist information centres or in local publications – you need to get looking.  Some you will need to book and may have limited numbers – others will be free for everyone who shows up in the right place at the right time!

I know that the National Trust offer seasonal walks on their land with knowledgeable guides, but also rambling groups and other charities plan free walks on common or private land.

And – I know you might want to start off at the warmest part of the day – but the earlier your walk starts the better the walk will be as you will witness weather patterns that you might not otherwise see.  I mean you don’t normally get a beautiful low-lying mist over a frosty riverbank after 3 hours of sunshine!

And if you are the first ones there in the morning, you will see the landscape as it should be – empty of other humans.  Wildlife wouldn’t have been scared off by dog-walkers yet – and their tracks will still be clear to see in mud or snow when you arrive.  

So, why not start looking for places you would like to visit close to home and see what events they have in place.  Or contact an establishment, charity or society and ask them what they have on offer.

Don’t be shy about asking as they all need your support – and they all have great landscapes and buildings to show off – especially to the younger generation.

Don’t forget your warm hat and gloves!

If you collect berries for making pies, drinks, puddings – where does the plant go?

Now we know that certain berries are great for puddings like blackberries, some are good for drinks like juniper berries and others are great for a whole host of other yummy tummy fillers.

But have you checked that those berries are not locally threatened with extinction?

It only takes a little bit of your old biology class to remember that the berries that plants make contain the seeds of that plant - and if the seeds don’t hit the ground – you don’t get a new plant!

So, needless to say, if you eat those seeds or throw the seeds in your bin – you are preventing a new generation of berry plants from germinating.  And that’s ok if they are a garden plant that you have brought and grown in your garden – but if you go on a wild berry hunt, you should really check on your species before you go stealing it’s fruit!

Case In Point:
Take juniper berries – great for gin making – but locally threatened in certain habitats.

Also, the berries take up to 3 years to fruit on the plant itself and another 2 or more to germinate into a new plant – so it’s berries are at least 5 years in the making.  And of course, not all berries contain fertile seeds in the first place!

Junipers are also very fussy about where they grow and as a result many juniper stands (groups of junipers) are not producing young plants in certain habitats across southern England.

Well, how could they if you are using all their berries each year for your festive fun!  Yes, wild mammals and birds also eat the plants and berries – but you are just adding to their woes!

photo credit: oskarlin

By all means in Scotland, where the plant is very common and widespread, take some berries – but still make sure that you don’t pick all the berries of any one plant or in any one stand otherwise you are just being a bit selfish towards nature’s efforts!

And according to local by-laws; you may not even be allowed to pick plants and berries in certain nature reserves or on protected land – or even beside footpaths or bridleways if it passes through private land.

And there may well be a good reason for it – don’t assume these berries go to waste if you don’t pick them. Nature takes care of these things; with mammals and birds eating the fresh produce and the invertebrates finishing off the waste materials!

Wild Food:
There is a big drive towards ‘wild food’ at the moment with mushrooms, berries, plants and game all making it onto the apparently eco friendly menu – but think about the bigger picture in all cases.

Yes, it’s lovely to kill off some wild deer and feed 30 of your friends at a wedding – but if everyone did this there would soon be a very noticeable shortage of deer!  Same goes for ducks, boar and fish.

And foraging for mushrooms is actually where you pick and eat the fruiting bodies of the underground fungi (just like the berries of the juniper bush) so you could be preventing the next generation of life for them too!

Conclusion:
Just because nature grew something for free and you happen to be near it – don’t assume that you should take it!  Think about the long term.  Think about 10 or 20 years down the line for that plant or animal.

I mean – have you checked which native plants or local habitats near to where you live are threatened?  Would you even look it up before you head out for a walk in the countryside?

We are in a bit of a bind over biodiversity at the moment – so it seems a bit selfish to try to stop people in Borneo from felling rare trees and killing orangutans, if we are basically preventing threatened species from growing and eating our own variety of ‘bush meat’!

Perhaps we should start to be a bit more concerned about these things – otherwise getting yourself and your kids back out into nature could actually be hindering or destroying the very plants and animals that we wanted to get closer to in the first place!

Find some of the UK’s ancient grasslands – and they could be bright pink!

Now is the time of year for watching out for mushrooms and toadstools in your local woodlands, parks and gardens. 

But some of these beautiful fungi are clear indicators or some of our most ancient and undisturbed grasslands – so take a closer look!

Waxcaps come in many shapes and colours and are a great way to start mushroom watching as they are so easy to identify with their bright colours and shiny surfaces!

You don’t have to crawl through the undergrowth either to get an eyeful of these pretty garden gems – as they prefer lawns and orchards – so will be right in front of you when you walk around the grasslands and parks near you.

Their bright colours are clear indicators of an untreated but well maintained grassland habitat – perfect for housing other rare species and wildlife. Such landscapes are now increasingly rare – and many of the waxcap species are listed a rare as well – so your help in spotting them could make sure that they are protected for the future!

What To Look Out For:
Unlike most mushrooms – waxcaps are bright colours – and by bright I mean they stand out like a sore thumb against the green grass!

Here are some of the more common or brightly coloured species for you to look out for:

Golden Waxcap – These are very common and are like little suns on the ground.  They love to grow in groups, spread over a large area and are balanced high on bright yellow stems.

Honey Waxcap – Are bright orange and tend to be low to the ground and look like bottle tops when they are younger.

Snowy Waxcaps – These perfectly white mushrooms grow taller as they age and end up turning inside-out as they mature – making for great photos!

Parrot Waxcaps – Start out yellow and slimy – and turn green and slimy as they age.  Once you have seen one in the grass – you will see dozens of them!

Ballerina Waxcap- Much rarer but especially beautiful!  Not only is it pink in colour, as it ages it’s cap turns upwards at the edges and splits showing the white gills underneath and looks just like a little tu-tu!

There are also black waxcaps, peach, orange, golden and bright red waxcaps with yellow stems!

So, get outside and start looking for these ancient garden growths – and maybe you could find a site worth preserving and add to the known range!

If you are planning any wild swimming – read this carefully…..

There are many waterborne illnesses and diseases carried in rivers and streams – so you should really be aware of the risks of each and their symptoms.

Being safe in the countryside is obviously something you need to think about – but it can sometimes seem like a chore or something that makes your trip ‘less fun’.

For example, ideally you shouldn’t swim or splash about in river water – and you certainly shouldn’t drink it – but how much fun would wild swimming be if you can’t let the water get on your skin, up your nose or in your mouth?

However, these are the very things that could put you at serious risk from Leptospirosis and Weil’s disease.

Waterborne Concerns:
There are of course, plenty of things that could happen to you if you submerge yourself in fresh water, lakes and ponds; ranging from diarrhea, through to infected cuts all the way to the more serious diseases like Typhoid and Cholera.

And you can get really ill or die from infected water – which could appear to be very clean and fast flowing.

Needless to say, if you can reduce the chances of becoming submerged, swallowing water and getting water up your nose then you can reduce your risk.  Also, making sure you don’t cut yourself in the water and cover any existing cuts with a water-tight plaster can be a huge help in lowering the chances of infection.

And vaccinations against the serious culprits will be an advantage.

The Symptoms:
Knowing what to look out for in terms of symptoms after infection can also be a worthwhile pursuit as spotting an illness early will greatly increase the chances of the treatment working and so your chances of recovery will be greater.

Keeping a log of your outdoor adventures will be helpful as sometimes you might not feel ill for around 3 weeks after you entered the water – and finding out where the water you are swimming or rowing in comes from in advance can also help – as cows can pass on diseases in rivers and streams that they have access to.

photo credit: AnnieGreenSprings

Many waterborne illnesses result in flu-like symptoms or upset tummies - which really doesn’t help you much when on holiday as you may get these even if you stay on dry land - so tie it in with your river adventures and act on it. 

Yeah, you might just have a few headaches and stiff joints due to lack of sleep or over-work – but if you had fallen in water in the past few weeks – then maybe get it checked out and tell your Dr where you have been to get a better diagnosis.

An hour of your day for a wasted Dr’s appointment is far better than 3 days in hospital seriously ill!

So, go have fun on the water – but know the risks!

You might be paying to park on gravel or grass – but you are saving the view!

Have you ever stopped and thought about where the money from that Pay & Display machine actually goes? 

Well, have you considered that it is those few coins you push in the meter that are bringing you to that car park in the first place!

Without the ease of that carpark – would you really be visiting that place at all?  If there was no parking in that cute village – would you even go there?  I mean, if parking was banned around Longleat, Stonehenge, The Eden Project, the Lake District, Legoland and Hadrian’s Wall – would you go and visit them?

If your favourite restaurant, gastropub or countryside tavern had no parking – would they be your favourite anymore?

The Penny Drops!
The land that car parks are on always costs somebody money.  Whether it is the cost of maintenance, the cost of renting it off a landlord, or even the cost of not selling it – there is money involved with leaving land ‘spare’ just for cars.

Many businesses and companies think that it is worth the cost in terms of the customers it attracts – and they will usually offer ‘free’ parking to customers.  They will however factor in the cost of that parking into your bill somehow – but you don’t mind paying it in exchange for great food and great service!

photo credit: James Byrum

Others without food or the chance to actually come face to face with their customers sometimes charge for the parking itself.  The great service is however a bit more difficult for some to see.

Countryside Parking:
When you turn up to a car park in the countryside to walk your dogs, spend time outside with your family, visit that castle, earthworks or river, or just admire the view – you are stepping into that service without even noticing.

Someone has had to create that car park – and then maintain it.  Someone else probably makes sure that there is an up-to-date information sign for you to read, a leaflet or 2 about wildlife and landmarks, some seating and possibly some signage to make your stop here more pleasant.

Yet another person might be in charge of installing and maintaining toilets on the site, creating a bus link to the site and even finding/hiring an ice cream van or hot food stall on site in the summer. 

Another team of staff or volunteers may well be engaged in fixing fencing, marking parking bays and bicycle racks, fixing potholes amongst other things.  They may also arrange for bins on site – both rubbish and dog poop – and even for picking up dropped litter in and around the car park and disposing of it elsewhere.

Now can you see the service?
So if you turn up at a place you want to visit and you easily find a well marked parking space which isn’t filled with empty food wrappers and dog poo – the view is just as you expected with information and clean toilets close by – and there isn’t a burnt-out car in sight – why are you complaining about paying £2 to park there?

You wanted to visit this site didn’t you?  And you expect it to be as beautiful as it was last time?  So why are you not happy to pay somebody for keeping it that way?

Sometimes, people assume that all councils just charge for car parks to ‘make more money out of us’ – but if you look closely at parking signs – most of them go directly into funding the site you pay at – like all National Trust car parks (however if you are an NT member your parking is free anyway).

So before you grumble about spending a few coins to be somewhere you want to be (I mean it is just like paying an entrance fee to visit a museum or castle, etc except it is outdoors) – think about these 2 things:

1) The fact that you actually wanted to come here to this exact carpark of your own accord because it offers something special or something different, and;

2) The fact that there are plenty of free carparks and laybys across the country and plenty of other bits of quite similar-looking fields you could go for a walk across instead!

Your choice!