WHEN you think of wildlife watching, images of deer running across hillsides or dolphins jumping out of the sea immediately spring to mind. But how about heading down to your local canal to see some nature?
The section of the Union Canal that runs through Edinburgh is a perfect example. Once used to ferry coal into the capital – and horse manure out again – the canal is now home to rowers, narrowboats and an interesting array of wildlife.
The towpath
that runs alongside the canal is used by around 2,000 people a day, commuting to work or jogging, cycling and walking their dogs.
Our short journey took us from the Lochrin Basin, beside new offices at Edinburgh Quay, through Shandon and Harrison Park to the Prince Charlie Aqueduct.
Our vessel was Re-Union, part of a community boating project that allows access to canal trips for people in Wester Hailes and elsewhere , as well as running corporate events for clients such as RBS, HBoS and Standard Life.
A young waterway by UK standards, work began on the Union Canal in 1818 and it opened to traffic in 1822. Today, Scotland’s canals are listed as scheduled ancient monuments, affording them the same level of official protection as Edinburgh Castle.
“Scotland’s canals act as wildlife corridors through our cities,” explains Dr Olivia Lassiere, heritage and environment manager at British Waterways Scotland, the public corporation that looks after the nation’s rivers and canals.
“It’s not just the water itself that’s important for wildlife, but also the habitats along the canals. There are the reeds that grow in the canal, often grass and trees along the towpath and then parks and gardens that back on to the canal.”
Armed with a fishing net and a grapnel – a grappling hook on a line that looks more like an instrument of torture than a scientific tool – Lassiere begins to demonstrate the abundance of life that lives below the water’s surface. A sample of weed reveals a water flea, tiny snail, worm, leech, dancing midge larvae and a freshwater shrimp.
“Where you find plants, you find insects, and where the insects are so are the birds,” Lassiere explains.
Birds were certainly in abundance on our trip: a family of mute swans – a cob, a hen and their five cygnets – danced around the boat as we got underway.
Mallards, looking dull and dowdy after losing their summer colours, watched us creep slowly by, obeying the canal’s speed limit of four miles per hour.
As well as mallards hiding in the reeds, we caught site of a number of young moorhens and although we didn’t see any on our voyage, coots and grey herons are regularly seen along the Union Canal. Some luckier walkers and boaters have even reported seeing the iridescent blue feathers of the kingfisher. But what attracts these birds to the canal? The answer lies below the water’s surface.
Around 22 species of fish have been recorded in Scotland’s canals, with the Union boasting pike, perch, roach and even brown trout.
“The brown trout were an especially exciting find,” says Lassiere. “Their presence demonstrates the health of the water on the Union Canal. The fish probably came from Cobbinshaw Reservoir, which is used to feed water into the canal.”
The area is also home to dragonflies, including the common darter, and damselflies, such as the emerald and small red. The colour on the canals is further enhanced by four other damsel species that appear blue.
British Waterways Scotland will focus on dragonflies and damsel flies this year as part of its annual wildlife survey. Last year, almost 4,000 sightings of 60 species were reported along the UK’s waterways.
The information, which is gathered by members of the public, and submitted at
waterscape.com/wildlife, will not only help to manage the canals’ wildlife but will also aid the British Dragonfly Society in its studies of the creatures.
Back on the boat, a splash in the reed catches everyone’s attention. Though it looks like it was a rat, several other mammals also use the canal. Otters are the most exciting residents, but water voles have also been sighted, although they are under threat from another animal regularly seen on Scotland’s canals – the American mink.
Having escaped or been released from fur farms, the mink have put pressure on the number of water voles in Scotland.
Encouragingly, Lassiere says there is evidence to suggest that human activity along the canal, can disturb and scare off mink, so perhaps by heading down to the canal we can give water voles a boost.
Lassiere – a marine biologist who says she “wanted to be Jacques Cousteau but didn’t have the sea-legs” – explains that dusk is an exciting time to watch wildlife on the canal. As well as the small number of water voles and otters, the wildlife corridors are also used by deer, foxes and badgers. Bats are also an exciting sight, with water bats and pipistrelles having been spotted.
On the journey back, the swans reappear and paddle in front of the boat, almost like dolphins playing in the bow wave of an ocean-going ship. “You don’t need to be on the water to enjoy wildlife on the canal,” Lassiere says. “You can see just as much by simply taking a walk along the towpath.”
As well as the Union Canal, Scotland’s other waterways boast a range of exciting species. The Crinan Canal – which links Loch Fyne with the Sound of Jura – is home to rare freshwater sponges, and also boasts flounders – flat fish that are thought to enjoy the saltier water in the short canal.
Further north, visitors may see golden eagles soaring high above stretches of the Caledonian Canal, which runs the length of the Great Glen,
and the Forth and Clyde Canal is the only known place in the world to see Bennett’s pond weed, found near British Waterways Scotland’s HQ in 1999.
• For more about Scotland’s canals visit
waterscape.com and for further information about Re-Union canal boats see
www.re-union.org.ukThe full article contains 1043 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
