THANK you to Annie Riddle (Journal, October 9) for alerting me to proposed development affecting the pigs near Old Sarum, and thanks to the pigs for creating what, in my view, is a great wildlife spectacle each winter.

The large "piggy pond" which has developed (with surrounding churned mud) may not be appreciated by the tidy minded developers and architects, but it is by me.

I urge your readers to park up, and walk down beside the pond on the A345 in midwinter. I hope they will enjoy a wonderful view of many birds: in particular a whirl of hundreds of lapwings who have learned in the last few years what a great place this is.

They come to feed on the disturbed soil.

This is a bird which has suffered a serious decline in recent times. After years of just an occasional sighting of my favourite "flying pillowcases" in Salisbury, they are now back in large numbers thanks to the pigs. (If anybody does faint with horror at the sight of a pig ark, or need smelling salts to recover from the shocking sight of some actual mud, then I apologise for the distress I will have caused.) We now live in the "Anthropocene age"; there are no wild areas in this country (and arguably on the planet) untouched by human activity.

If animals and plants survive, it is because we allow spaces for them either deliberately or inadvertently.

We are fortunate that these pigs are creating a habitat where the lapwings can enjoy their winter holidays.

I note that a new control tower is proposed for the airfield; I suggest that be adapted to a hide to allow viewings of the pigs, lapwings, gulls, rooks and jackdaws living side by side in harmony. As we look ahead to Remembrance Sunday 2014 and to events in the wider world, let's be thankful that the only mud (or sand or dust) we have to worry about is that turned up by some amiable pigs.

Clare Druett

St Francis Road