Tag: wildlife

October 3rd – A short recovery ride over to Clayhanger Marsh and Ryders Mere to keep the legs going and get some fresh air. The afternoon was very grey, and it’s on days like this I often used to see the gnarled old dog fox who hunted here. I think he must have passed away by now, but I thought of him as I surveyed the grey, still waters.

Me and that fox knew each other – we were familiars. As far as I was concerned, he was just another resident of the area, using the facilities available. To him, I was tolerable company as long as I kept silent, made no sudden movements and minded my own business.

Ah well, I daresay one or two of his extended family were watching me from the thickets nearby as I remembered him.

October 1st – Nice to see the cotoneaster going bright orange-red now. This pea-sized berry is unpalatable to humans, but songbirds, particularly blackbirds, love the sugary berries, and having found a bush, the blackbird male will fight off any challengers who would raid his winter larder.

A lovely splash of colour in autumn’s otherwise yellowy palette.

September 24th – For the first time this week, a really decent day with lots of sunshine, but the cold is creeping in – it barely crept over 16 degrees all day. 

The birds on the local canals didn’t mind, though – the Walsall swan family were, as usual, hustling for treats, but the herons – a twtchy young gun in the morning and a more relaxed, slightly mad looking elder hand in the evening – were stubbornly self-sufficient, as ever.

I love to see these guys. They fair made my day.

September 20th – I was worried for this spiny chap I spotted in Festival Gardens, Lichfield when I rode past on my way to the canal festival at Huddlesford.

He was active, and only froze when I approached, so I think he was OK. He seemed large and generally in good health, so I assumed he’d been disturbed. I checked for him only return a couple of hours later, and he’d gone.

First I’ve seen for a long while. Bless the poor hedgehogs, they are having a hard time in recent years.

September 2nd – As I squelched past Jockey Meadows, I stopped to look for my mates the coos. I noted they were on the far side of the meadow as I rode past on my way to work, but they were too far away to make a good photo. On my return, they’d gone, which I was sad about.

However, this female pheasant seemed to be enjoying the opportunity for browsing presented by the freshly turned meadow. Off that she seems to have lost her tail-feathers. Didn’t seem to bother her, though.

August 29th – My apologies to the toad-phobics, but I had to share this wee fellow. He looks bloody angry and he had a right to be: I was a shade from running him over in the dark on the towpath near Pelsall Road, but a last minute swerve just missed him.

I picked him up and popped him in the grass, annoying him further.

In true laissez-faire toad fashion, he never moved a millimetre on his own.

August 20th – Much as I hate the current fad for obsessively mowing the canal towpaths, I quite like that they seem to be leaving the reed beds alone for now (although I don’t doubt they’ll be next).

Here near the Pelsall Road in Brownhills, they are little oases of disparate species, havens for insects and other wildlife. 

And they just look really, really good.

Do we have to keep cutting everything back? Put the mowers away!

August 19 – Some folk, of course, don’t even notice the rain and carry on regardless. After all, when you live on the water, what difference does a drop more make?

This cygnet – one of the Watermead family, still apparently in rude health – was just getting some greens as I splashed past near Silver Street.

I love the way these shoots are constantly cropped by the swans – it’s like their own little grazing patch.

August 18th – I was on the lookout for kingfishers – I’d seen a couple flying down the canal this week, and one tantalisingly perched, who scarpered quickly when my camera beeped as it switched on. Today though, in Pleck, I was having no luck.

Then I spotted why.

A patch of white was twitching and moving in the long grass on the far side of the canal – and on closer inspection turned out to be a tabby and white puss with a remarkable tail engaged in stalking something.

I don’t know what was holding the cat in such rapt attention, but it didn’t even turn to look at me when called. 

My search for a good kingfisher photo opportunity continues…

August 15th – A run into Birmingham in the afternoon on an errand saw me take a route down through Witton Lakes. In the small patch of grass that links Witton to Brookvale Park, a curious thing: a metre-wide, undulating band of wheat and wildflowers has been planted. It’s full of bugs and bees, and poppies and cornflowers proliferate. 

It’s a nice thing – and the lakes were as lovely as ever, too.

My compliments to the people who planned and planted it.