A bright make Siskin our first this year, on the nut feeder.
A cat pounces and pummels amongst the long dry grass in the neglected pasture.
With the water level down a little and bramble, thorn and elder devoid of leaves, four pairs of stone-built pillars are now much plainer to see on the south bank of the canal. Each a good barge-length apart, they are loading staiths, likely built some 200 years ago to transfer coal from wagons brought down a colliery tram way to waiting barges.
Cobble stones are visible lining the bottom of a drainage channel which discharges into the canal.
An imposing stone arch doorway, now bricked up, is where bargees entered a short tunnel leading to the canal offices to pay their dues.
'If that dog comes past you again,' the man asked, 'could you catch her - I've been trying to put her on her lead for an hour, but she won't come!'Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail;'richard@daelnet.co.uk'
