Canals: corridors of wildlife and the slow-life
September 11th, 2009 | by lucy |
The designers of Britain’s canals, built to haul coal and lumber, or fragile goods when roads were still rough, would have been flabbergasted to see how their engineering efforts are valued today, not for industrial purposes, but for giving folk a respite from urban stresses or for bringing kingfishers into city centres.
Of course these corridors of wildlife and the slow-life are still generating business, but the canal pioneers would also have been gob-struck at the 21st century leisure industry and the money to be made from boat hire or canal-side pubs.
An excellent website about exploring Britain’s canals, whether walking, cycling or navigating. is www.coolcanalsguides.com. They’ve recently published a very well-reviewed guidebook, Cool canals: Slow Getaways and Different Days written by canal obsessives Phillippa Greenwood and Martine O’Callaghan.
The authors’ favourite is the Monmouthshire & Brecon in south Wales, most of which runs through the Brecon Beacons national park and is particularly rich in wildlife and flowers. Boat hire companies also abound.
The most majestic is the grand Caledonian Canal in Scotland, connecting several lochs on its course among Highland scenery. At the other end of the scale is the diminutive Bude canal in Cornwall, which was originally designed to carry mineral-rich sand from the beach to fertilise the fields inland, finding ingenious solutions to overcome the gradient. Beyond the mighty sea lock, only about 2 miles remain navigable, but paths are being restored to explore the old canal route.
One of my favourite canals is the Kennet & Avon, which has the famous Dundas Aqueduct taking boats high above the river Avon. The photo above was taken near Bath on a cold January day, when the canal seemed asleep in the mist.
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The oldest osprey of the UK – and probably the world – has returned to her eyrie in the Scottish highlands. When she left for West Africa at the end of last summer, no one expected her to return. At 26 she’s lived 3 times longer than most female ospreys. In her life she’s laid 58 eggs and hatched 48 chicks, a massive individual contribution to the survival of ospreys in Scotland, where there are still only about 200 breeding pairs. The questions now are if her mate will return and if she is still fertile. Events can be followed on the 
The construction company currently finishing off the Shard building in London, which will be the UK’s tallest skyscraper, recently had to call the council to remove a squatter from the 72nd floor: a young fox. He was surviving on scraps left by builders. After a check-up at the Riverside Animal Centre, the fox has been released on the streets of Bermondsey, having shown the type of curiosity we associate with cats. 
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