Marsh Warbler just out of shot

News this week that’ll keep Bill Oddie ‘twitching’ for all he’s worth (that’s bird spotting terminology by the way, although he may have an impediment, I don’t really know), involves proposals for a new onshore wind farm on the Isle of Lewis being rejected due to the harm it could cause to local wildfowl.

Plans for the 181 turbine wind farm were scrapped when, under European law (calm down Clarkson), the area in which the wind farm was to be situated has been deemed a ‘special protection area’ for rare and endangered bird species.

So, in the clamour to save the world from the evil clutches of noxious fumes, greenhouse gases and man’s own hell-bent need for self-destruction, it’s actually one of the living creatures we’re doing all this for that’s preventing the construction of a renewable energy source complex. Hmmmm…….

Don’t get me wrong; I’m by no means a Chelsea tractor toting, wildlife hating, myopic urbanite. I’m from the country and grew up in a house with a huge garden. It backed onto rolling fields inhabited by Friesian cows and retired ponies (who I talked to and befriended, in the absence of other children my age).

However, I have a confession to make. I love the way wind farms look. I think their aesthetic quality is second to none, and they make for a perfect marriage of nature and engineering. When suddenly they appear over the brow of a hill on a twisty country road, it gives me a buzz. The most breathtaking wind farms are those built at sea, particularly the one at Caister, on the Norfolk coast.

So where do I stand on this debate? Well, I’ll nail my colours to the mast. I’m a huge advocate of wind farm technology, and if a few birds have to be sacrificed in order for wind power to be harnessed, so be it.

Bird/animal/wildlife lovers, please lambaste me with your comments.

Just to throw another canister of diesel onto the fire (causing an o-zone busting mushroom cloud), I was given a free bag for life at Marks and Spencer ‘Simply Food’ last weekend, and when I visited the same shop yesterday night, I forgot my free bag for life and got another free bag for life. Now I have two free bags for life, one for this world, and one (if the environmentalists get their hands on me) for the afterlife.