Washlands Monday, 18th November 2002, West Yorkshire

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Two cormorants perch on the pylon which rises from a little island in Stanley Ferry Flash. We see a heron, a few mute swans and the odd tufted duck but cormorants are the most conspicuous water birds this afternoon, as we walk alongside the canal the river Calder immediately to the north east of Wakefield.

Four of them fly over Kirkthorpe Weir which is in full flow. A scheme for a hydroelectric generator here appears to have been shelved, at least for the present. To judge by the roar of the water today there is plenty of potential power here.

Acres of willow planted in a riverside field a short distance upstream upstream may provide an alternative energy source.

Shaggy ink-cap grows at the edge of the path by young birches, as does this short-stemmed fungus, which I haven't attempted to identify.

Richard Bell,
struggling author
E-mail; 'richard@willowisland.co.uk'

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