One of my fondest childhood memories is playing in mountain rivers with my brothers. Our annual family holiday to the Welsh countryside provided the freedom of wild, open spaces, lush mossy river valleys and rugged hillsides to play in. We spent hours turning over the stones to find the small, strangely shaped fish known as bullheads, squealing in delight at the mayfly larvae and freshwater shrimps. Happy days for young children in the 70’s.
A love of freshwater wildlife is something I’ve shared with my own children – whether it’s been marvelling at hundreds of mayfly emerging from the river on a spring day, waiting quietly on the riverbank to get a glimpse of a watervole - the fastest declining mammal in the UK - or using nets to discover the mysterious wildlife that lives under the water. Rivers provide food and shelter for so many species that they can provide hours of fascination for any nature lover. My heart still leaps when I see the flash of a blue indicating a hunting kingfisher, or I catch sight of a wagtail or a dipper enjoying an underwater snack.
Surprisingly perhaps, even close to the city centre, there’s plenty of river wildlife to see. With sightings of otters on all the city’s main rivers – including the Avon, the Trym and the Frome, suggesting that our rivers are home to plentiful fish. Sadly, however, the reality is that only 14% of river water bodies in England had good or high ecological status in 2016 and 13% of England’s freshwater and wetland species are currently at risk of extinction.
