Cool canals Guides & Waterways Directory

The waterways are buzzing with life...

Trees, flowers & grasses, insects, fish, birds and water-loving animals... Almost ironically, manmade canals have become a natural haven for wildlife in the countryside and an oasis of nature in urban landscapes, with over 1,000 wildlife conservation sites and 65 sites of Special Scientific Interest.

It is impossible to visit the waterways and ignore the wildlife - whether you just glimpse a robin from the corner of your eye, or share your crusts with a duck family. You might even roll up your sleeves and get involved with the protection of endangered species such as water voles...

Swans

The angels of the waterways - revered for their elegance and majestic beauty, yet look beyond the aura of their plume and you'll see individual characters and giant souls.

Herons

You'll spy these shy, lanky birds fishing on the canal banks and, a bit like the pot at the end of the rainbow, you never quite reach them before they fly off...

Ducks

Water is just water without a crowd of ducks.

 
Geese

Gaggles of geese, honking and flapping in the water, are a sight to see, but nothing is more dynamic than their simultaneous flight at dawn and dusk.
 

Wildlife days out

Great places to go for a day out spotting wildlife:
Pocklington Canal - Yorkshire
Fradley Pool Nature Reserve - Trent & Mersey/Coventry Canals - Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire
Forth & Clyde Canal - Scotland
Llangollen Canal - Shropshire & Wales
Caen Hill Lock Flight - Kennet and Avon Canal - Devizes, Wiltshire
Galton Valley - Birmingham Canal Navigations - Smethwick, West Midlands
Glasson Branch - Lancaster Canal - Lancashire

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Get involved:

National Waterway Wildlife Survey
Organised by British Waterways and Waterscape, their annual survey tracks sightings of a variety of species, including dragonflies, kingfishers and badgers. All information supplied by the public is inputted into British Waterways' wildlife database to help with conservation work.

Water vole under threat
The Wildlife Trusts are looking for help. The main threat to the water vole, one of the UK's fastest declining mammals, is people not realising the difference between a water vole and a brown rat, so they ask you to learn the difference and report any sightings with their online form >>.

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