Where have all the cuckoos, swifts and housemartins gone? Poet Pam Ayres' lament for loss of wildlife

Pam Ayres - saddened by loss of cuckoos, swifts and frogspawn

POET Pam Ayres has expressed dismay at  the loss of wildlife since she was a girl growing up in a council house at Stanford-in-the-Vale,  Oxfordshire.

Ayres (77), who now lives - with husband Dudley - in a village near Cirencester in Gloucestershire, recalls a time  when cuckoos, swifts, swallows, water voles and frogspawn were abundant.

But interviewed by feature writer Ria Higgins for the August 31 edition of The Daily Telegraph newspaper, she says: "When I was a child, I thought this would always be so, but now it’s all gone.

"It is so sad."

Since achieving success as a highly witty poet and broadcaster, Ayres has been able to afford the purchase of 22 acres of land which she is managing for wildlife.

The first things she did were to dig a pond and plant 500 trees - tasks to be followed later by planting border hedging including yew, spindle, hawthorn, bird cherry, hazel and holly.

Her next step was to put up nesting boxes for barn owls - presents from one of her sons and one of her brothers.

                                                   

Red-legged partridge - a species nesting in the poet's garden

These, she says, have proved a "great success".

After a promising start, less can be said of the housemartin nest boxes she has had put up under the eaves of her house.

The first year, there were 17 pairs, but the number gradually dropped, and last year there was none.

“It’s heart-breaking, she says. "I only hope we can bring them back."

On a brighter note her garden is home to both grey and red-legged partridges, with the latter nesting.

Doggedly Onward - A Life in Poems by Pam Ayres is due to be published by Ebury Press on  October 3.

                                       

Due to be published next month