LollyKat wrote:I often use the canal towpath for part of my commute and enjoy the bird life. There are lots of mallards and moorhens, some goosanders and tufted ducks, a couple of cormorants at this time of year, a heron, and a resident pair of swans that successfully bring up 5-6 cygnets each year. Today however was special as I saw a kingfisher - only the second time I've seen one in the last three years. Its iridescent colours were just lovely and really stood out in the wet and windy weather.
I occasionally see one zooming along the middle of the L&L canal near us,and once saw one sat on a branch on the opposite side of one of the brooks on Pennington Flash nature reserve close by.
The local keen birders tell me there's three pairs breeding on the reserve or near to it.
When I was a boy the whole area was pit slag heaps and the canal and local brooks and streams were very polluted,now it's wildlife haven,my latest joy was last summer a small stream/river that feeds into the Flash which wasn't much short of an open sewer when I was a boy I saw teaming with fish,the whole area has seen quite a transformation in 50 odd years
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Pen ... -2.5408603
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