AWEG trip and meeting

On Friday, nine members of AWEG, the Audlem Wildlife & Ecology Group, enjoyed a trip to the Middleton Lakes RSPB reserve near Tamworth.

It's a huge area of woodland and lakes reclaimed from old gravel pits and supports a wide range of birds. The site covers over 400 acres so a good walk was also enjoyed by all.

An initial walk through woodland saw sightings of Blackcap, Goldcrest, TreeCreeper, Nuthatch and Garden Warbler. As soon as open ground was reached Swallows, House Martins and a group of Swifts was a welcome reminder, despite the cold northerly wind, that summer was on its way.

At the lakes, Ring Plover, Little Ring Plover, Reed Bunting, warblers and many varieties of ducks, geese and waders were seen although the lakes were dominated by thousands of Black Headed Gulls. The fact that amongst the thousands were four somewhat similar Mediterranean Gulls proved a frustration as the latter proved well camouflaged.

On Tuesday, the group enjoyed an informative talk by Sara Hill, Canal and River Trust Ecologist. Sara detailed her role and reported on some of the challenges in her area which covers the Shropshire Union Canal from Ellesmere Port south to Wolverhampton and West to the Llangollen and Montgomery Canals.

This includes several SSSIs – Belvide Reservoir, Tyrley Cutting with its geological features, Prees Branch and the Montgomery Canal which has the native white tailed crayfish and the largest population of floating water plantain in the UK and possibly Europe. This is also a SAC (Special Area of Conservation).

Sara's role includes managing invasive species which include Giant Hogweed, Japanese Knotweed, Floating Pennywort, Azolla Water Fern, Zebra mussels and American crayfish.

There were many questions and comments after her talk about local streaming and management as well as asking about the Canal & River Trusts view of the proposed development behind Moorsfield and Tollgate that would run right to the edge of the canal.

Adrian Leighton then gave an excellent presentation of photos with music showing a year of nature on the canal.

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