Wildlife On The Chesterfield Canal

Terrapin by Gary Hutchinson.

Mink by Roger Bunting.

Common Darter by Simon Edge.

Kingfisher at Wiseton by Jan Warsop.

There's more to see than chugging boats on The Chesterfield Canal. by Rod Auton, Publicity Officer.

For most people, boats are the first things that spring to mind when thinking about canals. Yet there are not that many boats about, even on the busiest canals. There are however plenty of other natural wonders.

The Giant’s Staircase refers to the Turnerwood and Thorpe flights of locks that rise from Shireoaks up to Kiveton Park. At one point there are twenty locks in a mile, the most on any operating canal in the country. This part of the canal gets rave reviews, not least from Andrew Denny, the Assistant Editor of Waterways World, who wrote: “The last couple of miles uphill from Shireoaks, up the Turnerwood and Thorpe canal flights are, to my mind, the most exquisite passage in Britain.”

This is a very popular area for walking, but it is quite common to cover it and not see a boat at all. However there are lots of other things to see. In Spring, the woods are carpets of blue and white with wood anemones, bluebells and wild garlic. At Thorpe Top Treble Locks you may well see a bird with a yellow chest bobbing about in the bywash. This little beauty will be a Grey Wagtail and demonstrates one of the unsung marvels of our canal – its wildlife.

Wherever you go along the canal, you are likely to see birds. Most common are ducks, especially Mallards, swans and geese. It is not uncommon to see a Grey Heron. These large birds can be three feet tall with a six foot wingspan. You are most likely to see them in flight, flapping their wings very slowly. They are easy to miss when they are hunting. They stand stock still in the water looking for unsuspecting fish or frogs. They then whip their long beaks into the water to catch their prey. They have long necks but they can fold them up so that their head appears to be attached directly to their back.

If you see a flash of iridescent red/blue/green shooting up the canal, it will be a Kingfisher. These magnificent birds are really difficult to spot when they are perched on a branch. Surprisingly they are very small, only about six inches tall. You will almost certainly need a very powerful lens on your camera to take a decent photo, because they fly off before you can get anywhere near them.

Another bird that looks very exotic is the Great Crested Grebe. As you can tell from the name, they have crests of feathers on their heads. In the Spring they can be seen performing amazing courtship dances. If you are really lucky, you might see their chicks which have zebra-like stripes on their necks. There are plenty of other interesting water birds to be seen such as the Coot, Moorhen, Goosander, Cormorant and Widgeon. You are also quite likely to see birds of prey, including the Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard. There are Red Kites at Kiveton and Staveley.

All this bird life has to feed on something and it is often insects. There is a very wide range of butterflies and moths. Frequently their caterpillars are very spectacular and obviously can’t fly away quickly, so they can be watched closely as they munch their way through the foliage.

As you would expect, the summer sees an explosion of dragonflies and damselflies. There is a very wide range of species living by the canal. It is a delight to see them darting about from twig to twig, only settling for a second or two at a time. Some of the blue ones can be surprisingly big.

Baby Coots by Jan Warsop.

Bream and of course Pike are plentiful. Incidentally, on our website we list the Angling Associations that run each stretch of the canal.

The water also holds freshwater mussels, valve snails, toads, frogs, smooth newts, eels and lots of water beetles. You might be lucky enough to spot a grass snake swimming. There are several locations where Water Voles are thriving. Unfortunately these are threatened, in no small measure by Mink, which are a non-native species and pests. They escaped into the wild from fur farms and now kill lots of the native wildlife. If you spot one of these black furry animals, please report your sighting to the Canal & River Trust on the eastern end of the canal or Tapton Lock Visitor Centre on the western end. Himalayan Balsam and Canadian Pondweed are further non-native species that cause a headache to those who manage the canal.

Remember the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? This TV series sparked a craze for children getting terrapins as pets. When they started to get too big, or the children got bored, some were dumped into the canal. In the Derbyshire section there is now a small colony and they can sometimes be seen sunning themselves on logs at Bluebank.

The canal supports an exceptional variety of wetland plants, so much so that it ranks alongside the Basingstoke and Montgomery Canals as one of the richest in the country. The sheer diversity can be seen by looking at the different types of reed, sedge and rush growing in the waterside margin.

There are several SSSIs (Sites of Special Scientific Interest) along the canal, one measuring 14 miles. This is the longest length of canal SSSI in the country and brings with it a high level of statutory protection. In fact the whole 32 miles of the eastern section, from the River Trent to Kiveton Park, has a Green Flag Award.

Several types of water weed with a very limited national distribution occur in the canal. For example, blunt-leaved water starwort (Callitriche stagnalis) with its short blue-green leaves can be seen growing in large patches in the clear marginal waters. It is rarely found outside Nottinghamshire and grows more abundantly in the canal than anywhere else. The Chesterfield Canal is the definitive world location for Linton’s pondweed (Potamogeton x lintonii).

O.K. we’ve got a bit technical here, but I hope that it is clear that a visit to the canal can mean far more than spotting a boat chugging past.

Rod Auton Rod is the Publicity Officer for the Chesterfield Canal Trust which is campaigning to complete the restoration of the canal by its 250th Anniversary in 2027. For further information go to www.chesterfield-canal-trust.org.uk.

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