DEAR CHRIS...

To Marwell Zoo near Winchester yesterday on a long held promise to my eldest granddaughter, Sarah (21.) She has now ended her three years at Southampton University and all the while she was there she had wanted to go to Marwell Zoo.   She just loves zoos but we never seemed to get round to doing it.

But yesterday I was at last able to fulfil my promise to her and we had a super day blessed with warm summer sunshine.   Marwell is good value - maybe not the most heavily populated zoo but more than enough to have kept us interested for five hours in relaxed, spacious and agreeable surroundings.

There were, of course, examples of a number of endangered species, like the red panda in the photo I took yesterday and, because Marwell is in the general vicinity of Chris Packham`s roots, my mind wandered back a couple of weeks to when we were away in north Cornwall.   On the stretch of coast path between Porthcothan and Treyarnon we came across an area set aside as a kind of reserve for corn buntings.  This bird is a rare sight, with a population of only about 50 or so pairs located in an area between Trevose Head and Pentire Point.

So we were very fortunate to actually see a corn bunting and I was reminded then that Chris Packham had asked viewers to the recent Springwatch series to let him know of any rare bird sightings people might come across.   I was tempted then - and perhaps even more so now following yesterday`s visit and seeing at first hand the results of nature conservation work - to write to Chris Packham and say, "Dear Chris, saw a corn bunting today, errr..... on a corn bunting reserve.  Does that count?"

Well, I`m keen to do my bit for conservation.