Tag: Mill

April 9th – The canal through Tamworth is very underrated. Living in the shadow of the River Tame that bisects the old town, there’s a major junction here and some remarkable architecture. 

It’s a shame that nobody’s found a long-term use for the old mill yet. It’s a remarkable building.

May 29th – In the meadow behind Alder Mill, just north of Atherstone, this pair of huge black cocks.

I have no idea, but just like imagining the faces of hopeful Googlers finding this post at some point in the future and being somewhat disappointed.

Interestingly, these cocks are only a a few hundred yards from a place called King Dick’s Hole.

Think I’m joking? Check a map.

May19th – I passed along the canal at Bentley Mill Way later than usual, and noted that the swan brood here had hatched. I say brood, but I’m not sure what the singular of brood actually is; momma swan clearly only laid one egg this year, the remnants of which are all I can see in the nest.

I noted the parents travelling down the canal with their cygnet between them, proud attentive parents. I also noticed an interested heron; lets hope he decided not to run the gauntlet of the angry swan couple.

This pair do seem to have small clutches. I hope little one survives.

May 10th – What a horrendous day of commuting – heavy rain in both directions left me soaked with frayed nerves.

Such was my desire to escape the traffic on the way to work, I hopped on the canal knowing how bad the mud would be – but I was past caring.

In the warm, actually not unpleasant rain, the canal rang with raindrops, almost musical, and the swans at Bentley Mill Way didn’t seem to mind.

Hope it’s a bit drier tomorrow.

April 12th – On the Walsall Canal where the Anson Brach used to spur off between Bentley Bridge and Bentley Mill Way Aqueduct, the swans who I think nested in the abandoned basin last year are nesting anew. 

Sadly, the nest isn’t well protected this year and I think an enterprising fox or heron – who fish here regularly – may end up with cygnet tea.

That’s if the phantom bread-flinger does’t chock the wee ones – sadly, the message that bread isn’t good for waterfowl doesn’t seem to be reaching all quarters. I know these folk mean well, but it’s not good for them. 

Please, if you feed them, seed or greens instead.

February 27th – A grey, murky day with little merit, which was OK really as I was so unwell I could barely make it out until late afternoon. I potter in the usual canal loop from Pier Street up to Wharf Lane and back down the Parade. I barely saw a soul. It was very cold, and the light terrible.

I’m so unused to typical February weather this year, when it happens, it’s an unpleasant shock…

May 25th – I’ve found a little oasis I never realised existed, but more on my main blog later in the week. In the meantime, here’s a grey wagtail I watched for ages, fetching bugs and feeding it’s young in an outbuilding. At one stage, it was challenged by a robing for hunting rights.

An amazingly close experience I never thought I’d have.

April 20th – A shock this morning. I had a train to catch so left as the sun rose. It was very, very cold with a light ground frost, inadequate a significant mist. Still, it shrouded Grove Hill in Stonnall beautifully, and gave the pylons at Mill Green an other-worldly, sinister presence, and the sun soon burned it off.

March 24th – Compression of the neck… herons are more and more common now. Barely a towpath ride goes by without seeing one, and on longer rides like last week, I’ll see five or six, which must be a symbol of how clean the waters are now and how the fish population must by bountiful, too. 

This proud bird was on the towpath in Pleck, just by the wall of Rollingmill Street Cemetery, pretty much the industrial heart of Walsall. Wary of me but not skittish, by dismounting the bike and taking things gently I got close enough for some decent pictures, I think.

I adore herons.