P.S.T.

I have a theory of life that I'd like to share with you, however controversial you might find it.

I call it "P.S.T." which basically stands for "People Spoilt Things..."

Perhaps I ought to explain.

Imagine if you will a serene morning at a nature reserve on the North West tip of the island near to the power station.

For us, a couple of keen amateur bird-watchers, a happy half hour has just passed watching Ringed Plovers searching out food on a bit of muddy marshland beside a reed bed. The peace, quiet and tranquility of the entire morning has been quite simply breath-taking, and this has been the icing on that particular little example of life's occasional cup cakes.

Then, over to the far right of us, there is the distinctive scraping sound of a fibreglass canoe upon gravel, and perhaps the loudest family in the world arrive, some of them crunching across the pebbles, the rest noisily splashing about at the water's edge, all of them kitted out with all manner of the sort of equipment they bring along with them in their van in preparation for "a day at the beach..."

It was a nature reserve, for Pete's sake...

"Ooh, that looks like a nice quiet beach..." they appear to have thought, "I wonder why nobody else uses it as such...? We could have a nice day there and have it all to ourselves because nobody else has been as clever as us and found this place..."

Or as crass...

Before too long, enthusiastic youthful bellows like "Look at me I'm going through the weeds...!" are drifting across the water and the paddles are splashing and crashing as young minds, eager to impress each other (if no-one else) start to get more aggressively competitive.

In mere moments the peace was completely shattered and the birds, if not the people, had flown, possibly just because they're wisely timid creatures, but perhaps because they feared that they might just end up on a portable barbecue if they hung around too long...

I wouldn't go as far as to call it ignorance, but it is thoughtlessness. There are, after all, very good reasons why this wasn't generally an area which is used as a public beach and yet such ideas never seemed to trouble themselves by crossing any of their minds...

Maybe I'm wrong... Maybe it's me that is at fault. After all, they were only enjoying themselves and probably didn't do anybody any real harm...

Not that I stuck around to find out.

Muttering instead to myself about how "People Spoil Things" I went over to the nesting area for the Terns where, mercifully, the squawking of the birds drowned out the squawking of the humans...

And, perhaps to my shame, I know which I preferred to spend my time with...