Canal side walk

I spent a good part of the day walking along the Grand Union Canal today. I started by the Bede park in Leicester and headed south through Aylestone Meadows, passed a medieval packhorse bridge and ended up 6 or 7 miles later at South Wigston. It was a sunny, if blustery, day. Part of my motivation was to do with a keep fit campaign, but I also wanted to see what sort of wildlife was to be seen along the way. These two aims do not work well together, so I was not stopping to count every Coot and Mallard that I passed. I was looking out for bumblebees though, as usual.

I can't say that there were many bumblebees, but the ones I did see were mainly prospecting for nests, which is a good sign. This is probably the bees least photgenic activity as they rarely pause long enough to get into focus. After finding a cuckoo bumblebee on my lawn yesterday I am trying not to assume that every bee I see is one of the common types.

I did spot this bee refueling on dandelions at Gee's bridge, between Blaby and Aylestone.
If you want to take part in the British Waterways' Wildlife Survey 2009, you can find out more about it from the Waterscape.com website. You can report the numbers of any interesting wildlife you see along Britain's canals, rivers and reservoirs, whether you are walking or sailing. There is also a photgraphic competition, which is 'wonderfully wild'.