"I think you'd be hard pushed to find a shopping trolley in a canal these days" - BW

photo of kingfisher from waterscape.com







Canals featured on the Today programme this morning, just before seven o'clock. John Humphrys interviewed Mark Robinson, British Waterways's National Ecology Manager following a BW press release asking for people to record the wildlife they see at their local waterway.

The interview is available for a week to listen again to here (it starts at 0:53:52), and I've transcribed it below.


John Humphrys: The time is now nearly six minutes to seven ... and they are worried about the kingfisher. That's because of the hard winter. British Waterways is launching its annual wildlife survey, and Dr. Mark Robinson, the national ecology manager, is on the line from Gloucester, good morning to you.

MR: Good morning John.

JH: So kingfishers don't like cold winters. Is that it?

MR: The cold winters are particularly bad for kingfishers because, as you know, they fish, along with some of our other water birds, and when the canals are frozen, er, they find it very difficult to to find food and often have to move to other areas, perhaps where there's kingfishers already and there's competition, so they do have a particularly hard time when the canals are frozen.

JH: There are some ... I saw one not that long ago running along, no, I was doing the running not the (laughter) ...along a river in Manchester, it darted out in front of me - wonderful sight.

MR: It is. It's so exciting when you're walking along the canal and you get that unexpected flash of blue and, you know instantly what it is, even though you, perhaps you don't see them that often.

JH: So is there anything that can be done, I suppose you can't actually sort of, put live fish on a bird table or something can you, I mean ... how do you, how do you help a kingfisher?

MR: I, I think there's, there's not a lot we can do as far as the frozen water .. I mean we can, we can help by improving the habitat along the canals so they've got good perches when, when the canals aren't frozen, they can, they have good fishing points if you like so they can see the fish, erm, but there's not a lot we can do to help them over the frozen water, whereas some of our other bird species like some of the small bluetits and long-tailed tits, they regularly come to bird tables and that and and do get a benefit.

JH: And the waterways, well, you'd, I'd expect you to say this: yes, they do matter, but they do matter a lot really, don't they?

MR: Of course they do, and they're, you know, they're a 200 year old, 200 year old historic structure that is a magnificent place to visit, it's very vibrant, and the wildlife there is, is just excellent, and one of the things that excites me about the canals is that they're excellent habitat corridors so they bring the wild ... the countryside and the wildlife into the hearts of our towns and cities.

JH: And what sort of state are they in generally compared with, er, well, I don't know, ten, twenty years ago?

MR: Oh there's, there's been a huge huge renaissance in the canals with, with erm improvements not only in the heritage but the the habitat for the wildlife and the water quality improving, I mean when I was a kid and used to go down the canals they were, twenty, thirty years ago, it was a very different different place to what we've got today.

JH: What, lots of shopping trollies and stuff like that (laughter) ... Why do we always associate shopping trollies with canals? I wonder if that's true, or is it just a bit of an urban myth, that they're all full of shopping trollies?

MR: I think you'd be hard pushed to find a shopping trolley in a canal these days. (laughter)

JH: Do you reckon? (laughter) ... Somebody out there is going to test you on that you know, we'll have e-mails winging their way in even as I speak!

MR: We, we do respond fairly quickly to to getting shopping trollies out if they do appear.

JH: Do you? And are they cleaner generally, I mean are there the sorts of wildlife in them quite apart from the birds that use them, obviously, but is there the kind of wildlife that, erm, should be there?

MR: I think, I think because things like the water quality has improved which, OK, it's good for the fish, but it's had that knock-on effect for other things like the kingfisher again, you know, so there's more small fish in there for the kingfisher to to feed on. So, you know that that habitat has improved and it has had a massive impact on the wildlife and it's made it a much more interesting place to visit. You know, if you go for a walk at the weekend with the kids or a picnic or even have a sandwich at lunchtime on the side of the canal you're bound to see some wildlife. Maybe not a kingfisher, but ducks or something of interest.

JH: And if you do see a shopping trolley give 'em a ring. Dr. Mark Robinson, many thanks.

Evan Davis: Coming up to two minutes to seven now, what's the weather going to be on our waterways, John Hammond's got that ...

John Hammond: Well I'll be running up the towpath later on this afternoon checking for shopping trollies and kingfishers, it's set to be a fine day today...

The actual survey was mentioned only in passing. Even the press release says little about it; for details you're directed here. I was interested to find out when the survey was to be conducted: it's actually from now for another six months plus. How is the data to be interpreted when, as the form says, Remember, you can tell us about your waterway wildlife sightings as many times as you like until 30 September.?

The best quotation from the interview I've used as the title for this post.