STRING UP LITTER LOUTS

.. Or, more countryside trials

FARMERS have a reputation for being grumpy old gits and I think I'm morphing in to one!
 As I become more immersed into matters countryside, I am increasingly looking down with scorn and disdain on "the townies" and beginning to realise just how frustrating they can be.
 There is a wee bit of hypocrisy here, I know, because having spent 15 years living in Soho I probably epitomised a typical city dweller ... the slightest whiff of a rural smell would send me scurrying for a canned spray of 'fresh countryside air' (oh the irony!)

HOW LONG is this piece of string? Hard to tell since it's knotted

and looped firmly around the legs of the peahen

 I remember sneering when 400,000 country folk marched through central London in September 2002 to highlight the needs of rural communities and express outrage over the proposed ban on fox hunting with dogs in England and Wales.
 Now, having experienced and witnessed firsthand the devastation the fox can cause in rural communities, I'd be putting on my wellies, jeans and Barbour jacket to join them.
 I now realise the importance of closing gates, driving slowly around countryside lanes especially during the lambing season, waiting patiently as sheep are herded down a road while being transferred from one field to another and picking up litter as I go out for a stroll.
 There's nothing more infuriating than finding an empty pop can that someone's thrown away ... apart from a sheep finding it first and cutting its foot. And so, when I saw one of my peahens limping a few days back I spewed out a load of curse words.

IN DISTRESS: Unhappy peahen grabbed after flailing around

on the ground, helpless

 The poor bird had somehow managed to get both her feet tied in a knot of carelessly discarded orange string. From where it came I don't know but it wasn't from the bales of hay and straw I use. I always make a point of giving twine like that to my elderly neighbour who is a keen gardener and he recycles such things for his vegetable patch when tying back plants.
 The peahen spent most of the day sitting, perched on the roof while I spent most of the day waiting for her to come down. I could see she was becoming increasingly distressed and I knew if I couldn't catch her then she would fall prey to a fox.
 By dusk all of the peafowl head towards one of the tallest trees on the land and there they perch high up out of the way of any predator, so I knew I had to catch her while it was still daylight. As it happened, shortly before dusk I found her flapping helpessly on the ground near the trees and was able to throw my jacket over her and take her into the kitchen.
 She struggled and made an awful honking sound which set off the other peafowl who responded to the distress call in similar fashion. While I held her wings down she started to use her beak to lash out as I think she thought her time was up.

PEAHEN cautiously watches me watching

her watching me, after string drama

GINGERLY stepping out 24 hours after 

stepping in to some discarded string

 Painstakingly, using a pair of scissors, I managed to cut away the string which had caused flesh wounds at the top of her legs and took her back outside where she shrieked and flew up in to the tree to join her seven comrades.
 Today she seemed none the worse for her experience but kept a safe distance from me as I threw out some bird seed. If I could get my hands on the idiot who tossed away that string without a second thought I would probably be making garters now out of his guts.