Dear Swift Friends and Colleagues,
I have set up a change.org petition to try and save the small area of woodland that lies alongside Rye Station in Sussex, a town that is in an area of great value for wildlife. Romney Marsh, Rye Harbour and Pett Levels are all nearby, and hold important nature reserves and good numbers of very interesting and often now rare bird species.
One of those rare species, now almost extinct in the UK, is the turtle dove, and a pair of these birds is still somehow managing to nest in these woods, despite all the pressures they face, being shot at on migration, and starving when they get to the UK because of all the changes in farming here. Rye has been a good place for them, and will be until their woods are torn down to make space for yet another housing estate, something for which much better and much less controversial sites exist around Rye.
I know Rye well, I visit it often and the sound of the turtle doves, blackcaps and chiffchaffs calling in these woods is a delight. How often can one step off a train here in the UK and hear such a wonderful collection of birds calling? Hardly ever these days. So let’s try and keep them singing in Rye.
Click on the link here to read all about it, and please, if you can, sign the petition.
Thank you so much,
Edward Mayer
PS Please pass on the petition to all who might be interested – thanks again!
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www.swift-conservation.org – Keeping the Skies Alive!
Image Credits: David King, CC BY 2.0 CC BY 2.0 .
Nightingales sing and nest in these woods!
If we can’t make a point of saving this small but valuable habitat in Rye what hope the rest of the planet?
Turtle Doves.
Few people under the age of 40 can afford to buy a home.
We need more houses.
A decent home should be right of every citizen of this country.
The provision of decent homes should not be incompatible with a respect for the natural environment. It is perfectly possible to enjoy both, despite the actions of some disruptive property developers.
This proposed development doesn’t have a single affordable house or flat! Not one! So the young people of Rye will have to go whistle elsewhere for their homes, as will the turtle doves!