Sunny day with a canoe and the kids on the river Wye

Beautiful demoiselle from the canoe

The first thing we noticed were the Beautiful demoiselles (for more on damselflies see my recent blog).  They were out in force, like flying emeralds glittering across the river.

Beautiful demoiselle

Dipper

The next spot was a dipper, one of my favourite birds.  Stout and solid, they peck at insects as they perch on rocks.  They seem to favour  fast moving parts of the river.

Dipper

Watching fish from the Canoe

I spent some time looking down into the river, spying on fish.  We saw some trout (smaller than these ones).  This explains why the Wye is so popular with anglers.

Trout swimming

We floated over a group of what I took to be five large eels.  I was confused by their mottled backs, and the way they seemed to be anchored to the stones.

Eel

Having looked online, I realise they weren’t eel at all.  They were large lamprey.  Although these are common in UK rivers, it was my first spot.   It was a privilege to see such amazing animals looking so large and healthy.  As there were five of them, perhaps it was one female mating with a succession of males?  I know they migrate from the sea to mate in rivers.  If anyone knows more about lamprey in the river Wye, do fill me in, I’d love to know more.

Spotting Birds on the Wye from a canoe

My son spotted a bright yellow bird on the shingle shoreline.  He was outraged to hear it was a Grey wagtail.  “But mum, it’s bright yellow!”, he complained.  It was only when we got home and I showed the children the illustrations of a grey vs a yellow wagtail in our trusty Bird book by Peterson that he accepted it.

Grey wagtail

We saw a blackbird right on the shoreline, pecking among the stones.  I thought this unusual.  There’s no reason why they shouldn’t exploit such a rich habitat, but I’d not seen one at the water’s edge before.

Blackbird

Inevitably, we passed swans.  Most of their cygnets are pretty full-grown by now, and all the birds we passed in our canoe were individuals rather than family groups.

Mute swan

A cluster of six Canada geese were on the bank; from the feathers and bird droppings nearby they spend plenty of time down on the beach as well.

Canada Goose

As we came into the natural harbour formed by the Warren; the sun was still streaming down.  I spotted some banded demoiselle.  They are similar in colour to the metallic Beautiful demoiselle but with clear wings, banded with dark blue.

Banded demoiselle (copyright Jersey Post 2013)

It was a perfect day; glorious weather, good company (the children were on good form…), and plenty of wonderful animals to spy on from our canoe.  I am indeed incredibly lucky to live in a place as wonderful as Hay on Wye.

Staying safe in the canoe; my daughter sports a lifejacket and floral crocs.

The post Wildlife from a Canoe on the River Wye appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Over the years I’ve done bird paintings, natural history illustrations, ornithological illustrations, scientific illustrations; call them what you will, but I’ve painted loads of British bird species.

It’s always a joy to see the birds I’ve depicted in the flesh (in the feather), and this often happens by the river Wye.

I go for a swift jog every Wednesday morning, and my route takes me to a lovely stretch of open land called the warren, which abuts the shingled beach of the Wye.  It’s common to see birds there.

Dipper

This week I saw a dipper balancing in the rapids, searching for tiny crustaceans among the pebbles

Buzzard

Overhead, the plaintive mew of the buzzard is a common sound, although I’ve never seen one perched near the river.

Wrens

I saw a pair of tiny wrens recently, flitting amongst the dead bracken.  They’re so small that I was momentarily confused, and thought maybe they could have been some enormous insect; but when I paused to spy on them there was no mistaking the secretive little birds.

Ducks

The path winds up past some beech trees, and there’s an area of still muddy water; there are always mallards hanging about, and making a terrific fuss as I pass; squawking and flying off up river.

Grey Wagtail

I’ve seen busy grey wagtails further upstream, where the water runs fast and shallow over wide flat rocks, but never down by the warren; I have no reason to think they don’t pop by to pick amongst the stones, their tails bobbing in that distinctive manner.

Heron

Grey heron are frequent visitors all along the Wye.  In the summer, as I was swimming alone, one flew so close overhead that I could have reached up and touched it.  These birds look almost robotic in flight, all heavy and angular.  Further down the river, near the canoe landing stage, there’s often a heron either fishing in the shallows or, somehow incongruously perched in a tree.

Rooks

Back in town, as I jog down the hill, I pass a rookery.  Late spring and it’s overwhelmingly loud, squabbling birds flapping and shuffling about; but this late in the year it’s far more subdued.  The shapes of the ragged nests are stark amongst the bare branches.

There’s a much larger range of my bird illustrations available on my website; and a youtube video of some of my favourite pieces online.

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