I have spent most of my time during the last seven days on the river between Ramsbottom and Rawtenstall to try and assess the effects of the reported pollution on the wildlife dependant on the river.
The first indication was a week ago, but the input of the toxin was possibly a few days before, the Mersey basin rivers trust website has some very concluside video evidence of the lack of invertebrate life below Ewood bridge treatment works, all the way down to Salford.
My personnel records over 10 years for the same period in time give a good indication as the bird life should be at this time of year in similar weather conditions.
As I record my patch regularly, everything was in good order at the beginning of April with Five pairs of Dipper on territory, these have all now departed, two nests have been inspected, both were abandoned with cold eggs in situ, considering Dippers are almost totally reliant on sub surface insects I suppose we can not be surprised.
No Grey Wagtails have even seen for several days on the river, at this time last year one pair were on eggs and two more pair were showing nesting activity.
Kingfishers are always a sensitive issue as they are a schedule one protected species, but for this report I feel I can mention that at least one pair (probably two) have moved from the area, I have to assume this is because the small fish have suffered through lack of food, I witnessed something I have never seen before, a Carrion Crow was casually picking small dead fish from the water and eating them.
There is a pair of Goosander nesting in my area, it will be of interest to see what happens when the young are born, the experts say the larger fish will move to try and find a food source, normally at this time of year I would expect to see some Trout or Chub, but no fish have been seen for a while. There has been some dead Crayfish been washed over the weir in Ramsbottom.
All of the above is tragic, one chink of light are the Sand Martins, they are still using the nest site in Strongstry but possibly in reduced numbers although that could be due to low air temperature.
I spent half a day above Ewood road bridge and as if a line had been drawn across the river I found all of the above species to be in good order and showing breeding activity in every case.
I am not an expert in the breeding activities of Stonefly and the likes but I suspect it could be years before these invertebrates recolonise the polluted stretch of this lovely river.
Nature works to perfection normally, it's usually only when we balls it up that it goes wrong..
Hopefully things will re-colonise pretty soon but perhaps a good 2-3 ft of rainwater down the River might flush it out and shift some new life down the River too.
According to the Bury Times a 2nd lot of pollutants has gone through EBSW and swept down the River irwell this week, the 2nd time this month.. W******.
