We were going to take a flight from Stansted airport, and as we whizzed out of London I decided to conduct a kind of city boy’s experiment: what wildlife could I observe on the way? While we were still in London, buildings dominated the scenery and nature was nowhere to be found. I looked forward to the motorway, in the hope of spotting something on the green strips by the road.
What did I see? An almost endless stream of litter. Plastic bags, cups, countless unidentifiable pieces of rubbish, even old tyres.
The further we drove, the more green I saw. I took my city boy’s experiment seriously, concentrating my gaze on the landscape, my eyes flitting between the verges next to the road and the meadows I could see between the bushes. I was especially hoping to observe pheasants in the fields, in mating season.
With every new bit of plastic pollution, my hopes of spotting wildlife waned. I did detect some farm animals: cows, horses and sheep. Disappointingly, the only wild animals were crows, many of them, and a couple of magpies.
Then, about a mile before Stansted, my experiment finally paid off. I saw not one, not two, but seven rabbits grazing and hopping on the grass next to the motorway! My conclusion is “less litter so we can see more animals”.