My neighbours recently removed a large conifer that bordered our garden. It was a veritable Grand Hotel for the birdlife in the area and a drop-in place for a fascinating variety of species.
Since its removal, most of these welcome visitors have vanished and, along with them, the privacy we formerly enjoyed in our small, overcrowded parish.
It’s going to feel different outdoors during the coming summer and we’re already devising plans for trellis and climbers to help claw back some of the seclusion we've lost.
The sadness is that, had they spoken to us of their plans, we could have reached a compromise arrangement with them and perhaps had the tree reduced in height rather than simply killed off.
Still, it was their land and, ultimately, their choice as to whether to take us into consideration when planning and executing this. The first we knew was the early morning sound of the chainsaws.
THE TREE
The tree the chainsaw felled today
was host to birds, a home to those
that shunned the nesting box or bush.
They will adapt, no doubt, they may
seek a new billet, I suppose,
but we will miss them, blackbird, thrush.
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