Tag: Anglesey basin

June 17th – Birdsfoot trefoil is one of the great flowers of summer for me. Often called deer vetch or eggs and bacon, it grows in sandy soils in rough grass and heathland. This example, at Anglesey Basin, near Chasewater, is in fine health. This is one of the yellow blooms that dapples verges and meadows this time of year, along with ragworts and buttercups. It’s normally a mixture of yellow and crimson blooms, but there doesn’t seem to be much of the crimson component this year. I’m wondering if there’s a climatic effect evident there…

April 28th – I spotted this bird of prey hovering, almost totally still, over the heath by Anglesey Basin at Chasewater. He’s an interesting character. I know what species I think he is, but I’m unhappy about the details. Can any birders help? Many folk don’t realise that Brownhills is host to loads of species of birds of prey – from Owls to Buzzards to very occasionally, Kites.

This fellow was certainly an impressive sight. Sorry about the poor photos, it was nearly 7pm and the light was lousy.

April 15th – I wasn’t going to mention this, I really wasn’t, but I’m finding it increasingly irritating. On some jobs, a spirit level is essential. Amongst these should be the jobs that nature holds a natural ruler to. The new concrete plinth atop the outlet culvert at Anglesey Basin, at Chasewater, is such a situation. The water below it will always be level. Consequently, the fact that the plinth was cast on top on the skew will always be visually obvious. I wince every time I see it. Unfortunate.

(For those not sure what I mean, the gap between the water and the underside of the plinth increases considerably to the left. It’s not an optical illusion, it actually does.)

March 13th – Not far today, as I had other things to do, but I did get in a circuit of Chasewater and Brownhills at sundown. I optimistically approached via the canal, hoping the barriers had not been replaced, but sadly, they had. I did notice something interesting, however. Bob the boat, which reader Roger ‘Ziksby’ Jones had noted a few weeks ago up by Longwood Junction was now at Anglesey Basin. I’m sure I’ve seen the narrowboat at Hopwas and maybe Shugborough too. It certainly gets about a bit.

March 10th – Again, the barriers around the southern dam works were breached at the basin and to the north end of the compound. I see the dredging has started, but the drying lagoon on Chasewater shore has been razed, so no quite sure what’s happening there. The question, however, as to what you do when your dredger is shafted has been answered. Still out of the water at Ogley Basin, the original machine is clearly still crippled, so it would appear a mini-excavator is lifted onto a workboat, and work continues. Odd that a brand new, seemingly little used dredger amusingly called ‘Hamster’ – has been languishing in Ogley Junction for at least two years. If this is a symbol of the way the newly reorganised British Waterways charity works, we’re in for interesting times…