Bridge at risk

Had a nice walk with Tim and our two dogs today. After a while and a good romp, it dawned on his adolescent labrador that my middle-aged retriever can be quite attractive: the charms of a mature blonde eventually making him quite amorous. We were mainly hoping to find crossbills, which have been seen a lot recently, but not today.

We had also been told a couple of days ago of a white admiral butterfly opposite the primary school, but it was not there today, or last Thursday when I looked. Right now, that area, particularly the bit of woodland that the Jubilee Boardwalk runs through, including Scouts' Pond, is my favourite part of the common. There seem to be more birds in that little patch than anywhere else at the moment, and many of them are this year's youngsters. Caught a glimpse of a tree creeper the other day, but it didn't hang around to have its picture taken.

What I find infuriating is the attitude of at least one person using the common, who seems determined to literally undermine our efforts to protect the bridge across the Beck. The banks underneath the bridge have been eroding, caused we think by human and dog feet. If the banks go, with nothing to hold it up so will the bridge, so we took steps to shore the banks up and put some barriers in place to try to prevent entry to the water in the bridge's immediate vicinity. There's no problem with people or their dogs getting in the stream a few yards either side of the bridge, but not right next to it. We also put notices up, explaining the situation. It appears that someone objects to this, and has removed the notices, and broken down one of the barriers, making the bank beside the bridge vulnerable again. It will be a shame if the only way to protect the bridge is to put in some form of concrete banking in such a natural and attractive spot, but sadly it may come to that. Here's what you can see from it, which I think makes it worth looking after.