Lookout for Kingfisher - Wildlife of Oxford Canal

10:28am Thursday 11th February 2010
By Peter Barrington

Walkers on the towpath of the Oxford and other canals are being asked to log their sightings of kingfishers in a national survey beginning in March.

Kingfishers have been chosen as the special focus of the overview being taken by volunteers for the British Waterways seventh annual survey of wildlife on canals, rivers and reservoirs.

Mark Robinson, national ecology manager for British Waterways, said: “We want to find out if kingfishers have been affected by the severe winter we have been having this year. In the 1960s we had a particularly hard winter and the population of kingfishers declined by about 80 per cent.”

Kingfishers are vulnerable as they are on the “amber” list of the traffic-light system run by the Conservation for Concern organisation, which gathers information from the British Trust for Ornithology and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and other sources.

Birds at the greatest risk are on the red list and those found more commonly across the country are on the green list.

Kingfishers are found by canals and rivers and rely heavily on clean water. Their presence gives a fair indication of the health of the ecology on a particular stretch of water.

“While kingfishers like a waterway with a flow such as rivers, they are also found on canals. At first, canals might not appear to move, but they do have a flow created by the operation of locks, the passage of narrowboats and other boats.

“And there are some canals, like the Oxford, that have stretches of canal and river running together. The River Cherwell flows into the Oxford Canal at several points,” said Mr Robinson.

Kingfishers sometimes prefer to nest in burrows that they have excavated in the banks of rivers, which can be higher or more extensive than canal banks.

They are found nesting in canal banks and British Waterways has a conservation project to build an artifical bank for kingfisher burrows and nests on the Kennet and Avon Canal in Wiltshire.

In the 2009 survey, kingfishers were recorded at Oxford and Abingdon on the River Thames, which is not managed by British Waterways.

The particular focus of last year’s survey was the bumblebee. Although there are 25 species of bumblebee in Britain, three have become virtually extinct.

Bumblebees were logged seven times on the Oxford Canal at Napton and, incidentally, an otter was recorded on the Oxford Canal at Heyford.

Nayna Wood, national press officer for British Waterways, said: “Bumblebees were chosen because bees in general have been having a difficult time recently. Bumblebees are on the endangered species list.

“They are wild as opposed to the honey bees we see at beehives. Bumblebees will nest in many places including old logs and also in the beams of lock gates.”

Although the results of the survey are not scientific, they give a broad indication of the spread of bumblebees across the country.

Altogether in the 2009 survey bumblebees were logged 1,664 times and came sixth overall behind the familiar birds found on canals, with mallard ducks coming top with 7,037 sightings, followed by Canada geese at 2,550 and swans at 2,402 sightings.

The value of the survey is found in the fact that British Waterways manages 2,600 miles of canals, several rivers including the Severn and Trent and 92 reservoirs.

“One of the things that excites me about canals is that they are excellent corridors for wildlife.

“Canals are green corridors that enable wildlife to move about and canals go straight into urban landscapes as well as the countryside,” said Mr Robinson.

Apart from birds and mammals the canals are important in helping bats to feed.

Bats can often be seen swooping over open water to catch midges and other insects.

“Quite a lot of two-winged insects are classified as dipterans, which means they have a partly aquatic life cycle,” said Mr Robinson.

He felt the annual surveys were important to British Waterways in indicating what wildlife lived in and around the canals.

“We need to know what protected and more common species we have, as we have such a large network to maintain. We have about ten ecology officers in the field nationally and their role is to ensure we do not harm any species or habitats when we are carrying out repairs,” said Mr Robinson.

He added that the idea of asking the general public to take part in the survey meant they would have a larger cover than if they relied solely on staff. “We hope people will take part when they are walking the dog along the towpath or are out for a leisurely stroll.

“The survey runs from the end of March to October when the weather is generally better and people are out and about,” added Mr Robinson.

In addition to the survey, a photographic competition is being held.

Last year, the subject was photos of bumblebees but this year the subject is wildlife in general.

More information and survey forms can be downloaded from the end of March at www.waterscape.com0/wildlifesurvey

Printed leaflets will also be available at waterway events and attractions.

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/5001571.Look_out_for_kingfisher/