August 13th – It may be late summer, but there’s still young ones about on the new pool at Clayhanger – fine, healthy mallard ducklings pottered about, as did a couple of moorhen chicks out with mum.
Ducklings have all the cute – but young moorhens seem to have the same dishevelled, grumpy appearance as young owls. They look like befuddled old men.
They are very endearing though.
May 20th – On my way home tonight, I hopped onto the canal towpath to enjoy the pleasant evening and see if we had any cygnets yet. Sadly, the swans still seem to be sitting, but I did notice how green and lovely the new pond was looking at Clayhanger. It was wearing it’s summer jacket gloriously well.
This site used to be a spoil heap from Walsall Wood Colliery, consisting mainly of grey clay, coal washings, slack and assorted rock detritus. In the early 1980s, it was excavated and used to cap the former refuse tip on the other side of Clayhanger Lane. The void left behind was landscaped, and lined with red marl and sand. It’s very hard to see any hint of the industrial history at all.
Today, that grubby history was evidenced near the canal bank. At the top of the slope, a digging animal – most likely a fox – has started to burrow, and abandoned the hole after a short dig. Just a few inches below the red clay surface, a whole spread of coal tailings has been brought out.
Must have been a hard dig, that. History makes itself evident in the oddest of ways, sometimes.
August 4th – Up at Chasewater, a cracking example of why the authorities need to sort out the anti-traffic barrier halfway across the dam at Pool Lane. Formerly consisting of plastic barrels filled with concrete, they have now been destroyed. Result? Yesterday, this car was actually parked off the road, on the site of special scientific interest that surrounds the 9-foot pool. Why? Because the owners were too bone idle to park the vehicle in the proper car park and walk a little. This needs sorting.
MAy 7th – I spotted this bright yellow flower at the new pond in Clayhanger. It was growing in very wet, very sandy soil right on the waterline. It was a single, lone example, and I could see none similar. The colour really shouted out in an otherwise dull environment.
Anyone any ideas? It’s rather beautiful, particularly on such a dull, loveless day.
May 7th – The pools and ponds around Clayhanger and it’s commons are healthy again. They had been in a very poor state, particularly the one by the pedestrian bridge. It’s water level had been very low indeed since last summer. Since the recent rains, all have been topped up. It was typical rainy, dull and cold bank holiday weather when I came this way at lunchtime. On the new pool at Clayhanger, the waterfowl were enjoying the soft drizzle and honking loudly.
October 9th – Today was one of those headache-grey autumnal Sundays when evening falls quickly and everything seems kind of dead. I hate days like this. Escaping at 5pm, I took a spin around the common in Brownhills in a desperate attempt to brighten my mood. On Friday, I’d commented that the water level in the new pool in Clayhanger was very low, and that perhaps it was low enough for the stepping stones – laid to reach the central island when the pond was created in 1986 – to be usable again. A tootle round the pond confirmed this to be the case. The stones were laid out of large lumps of masonry the workers had to hand – mostly coping stones from the parapet of the old railway bridge that used to cross the canal nearby. Others lie dotted about in the undergrowth.
October 7th – After the dry summer, lots of bodies of water locally seem to be very low. Last week,end, I noticed Blithfield reservoir was a good few metres short of it’s usual level, and today, I noticed that the new pool near Clayhanger was low, too. When this pond was created25 years ago, there were stepping stones to a central island, which later became submerged. I wonder if the water level will get low enough to expose them again?
May 17th – Exploring a bit more of the Arrow Valley cycle route in Redditch on the way to work, I took a trundle round the central lake in Arrow Valley Park. Home to a boat club and an outdoor centre, it’s clearly a popular, well maintained amenity, teaming with wildlife.
It’s easy to knock the town, and I often do, but this route and park are wonderful, and a credit to their designers.
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