Aboard the Belle

Last Tuesday felt like the ultimate in Exploring and Conserving for my John Muir Award. I had been invited on board the Lochrin Belle, a purple canal barge belonging to ReUnion, to help their volunteers learn how to record wildlife during their trips along the Union Canal. I am amazed at the difference a few metres can make in perspective – being on the boat instead of on the towpath cast a whole different view on route 75. Being slightly removed let me see how busy the route became as a sunny lunchtime approached, and of course brought us closer to the birds on the far bank – moorhens starting to nest, mallards dabbling and songbirds in the trees at the bottom of canal-side gardens. We made close to 50 records into iRecord during the trip – magpie, robin, bluetit, wren, great tit, woodpigeon, blackbird – and the staff & volunteers of both ReUnion and All Aboard are going to carry on recording. I got a chance to steer too, but maybe the less said about that the better….