July 28th – Goscote Valley cycleway, on a summer afternoon.
This place is magical, and a place few would consider attractive, or even consider visiting. This former rail line is host to a whole range of wildlife, birds and flowers.
One of Walsall’s best hidden gems.
July 26th – I’ve recently discovered Darwin Park – the long avenue through the new housing estate in south Lichfield. It’s very impressive, if a little artificial, but I do think it’s nice, and also a very decent traffic-free route out of the city to Waitrose.
There’s a pond there, and on this hot afternoon, Mrs. Mallard, with what I assume must be a second clutch, was promenading in the sunshine. More indolent, but no less cute, were a pair of swan parents with six offspring.
Mr. Swan was a little truculent, but his offspring were unperturbed by my presence. I’m absolutely captivated by cygnets this year. The positions they get their resting legs into are fascinating.
This is a lovely place and a new asset for Ye Olde City.
July 25th – I nearly squished him (I assume it’s a he), but this common toad was quite happy in the middle of the towpath and wasn’t moving for anyone. I lit him carefully with my bike light, and I think the results aren’t too bad.
I love frogs and toads. So full of character.
July 25th – The Catshill swan family seem to spend a lot of time at Anglesey Basin, and tonight they were group-preening and loafing by the waterside, totally relaxed. The parents let me get quite close, but sadly, the movement of the cygnets – still numbering seven – combined with low light made for terrible photos.
July 22nd – The Mad Old Baggage noted the other day that buddleia was known as the ‘butterfly bush’ – and she’s right. By a busy roadside in Walsall, the purple, masonry-destroying shrub is quietly reclaiming the built, and using it to nurture the lepidoptera.
It may be a plant of the margins, scrubs and wastes, but buddleia is a bright, beautiful shrub that clearly supports a whole host of bugs – which can’t be bad.
A fantastic sight.
July 11th – I returned via the Trent Valley Canal, which was alive with activity. Linesmen performed feats of acrobatics on the electricity lines above me as I drank tea beneath them, watching in awe. Herons were prolific, and I saw at least 7 – yes, there are three there in just one photo. The local cat population was also languidly active, hunting bugs, birds and furry things in the newly mown opposite embankment.
And beyond? The dull rumble of traffic on the motorway, trains, and of industry, breathing. This is a peaceful artery and a wonderful place.
June 27th – This post was inspired by top Pelsall geezer Matt Drew, who spotted a different clump of these fellows and posted a pic on Facebook last week, inspiring me to look out for them.
These delightfully spiky caterpillars are the larvae of the beautiful peacock butterfly. They really are rather impressively hostile-looking, but cute at the same time – I spotted them in a nettle bed at the top of Shire Oak Hill, near the old quarry there.
In summer, the adult female peacock will lay between 200 and 500 eggs at the very top of a stinging nettle in direct sunlight. 10 days later they’ll hatch, and the emerging caterpillars will spin a communal web-tent out of silk (see the top picture) which they’ll live in until large enough to leave; they live and grow in clumps at the top of nettles, and as they grow, they may move from nettle to nettle in a patch together as a group, before pupating separately.
They’re easy to spot as a dark infestation at the tops of the tallest nettles in a nettle bed.
Male peacock butterflies are very territorial, and can often be seen attempting to chase away birds that may be coming near their selected nettle patch.
I’m glad I found some – and thanks again to Matt for the inspiration to look.
June 21st – An abortive ride terminated early due to a silly mechanical problem I hadn’t got the tool on me to fix, but I still got 20 miles in. Over at Anglesey Basin, the swan family were contentedly preening together on the canal bank between the towpath and the water, and weren’t troubled by my presence at all.
Still seven cygnets, all growing well. Lovely to see.
June 15th – It was only a short run around Brownhills and up to Chasewater, as I wasn’t feeling to clever and it was a dreadfully overcast, grey afternoon.
My mood was lifted though by all the young animals I saw around and about – two families of goslings at different stages of development at the Watermead; a foal grazing on a lush meadow yellow with buttercups at Brownhills Common; the Catshill swan family, still numbering seven, growing all the time.
Inbetween, too quick to capture, I saw terns, a couple of herons, rabbits, squirrels and buzzards.
I particularly liked what I assume to be the foal’s mum, who was wading through the pool in their meadow munching on the lush green shoots growing from it.
I might not have felt any better physically, but the sights I saw cheered me up no end.
June 12th – Fed up of the ring road in the heat, the fumes were driving me mad. I hopped on the canal at Bridgman Street in Walsall and instantly felt transported to another world. Green, lush and limpid, it was heavenly, and unlike around Brownhills, the grass cutter hasn’t been this way yet and the embankments are still verdant carpets of grass and wildflowers.
This is near Bentley Bridge, in the heart of the industrial Black Country, yet the waterlillies are heathy, the waters clear, and a common tern hunted the water with skilful menace. And above all, peace – just the sounds of morning industry living and breathing.
The Black Country ugly? Open your eyes.
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