CREATING VITAL HABITATS FOR THREATENED BIRDS

British Waterways has welcomed a share of a £10,000 grant from The Waterway Trust’s Small Grants Scheme to support a number of important wildlife habitat improvements. The annual awards support community-led environmental, access, education and activity projects taking place along the UK's waterways. This year’s grant will help projects focussed on the waterway birds that rely on our network of rivers and canals to live and breed, and will be shared between seven new projects:

· the installation of barn owl and kestrel nesting boxes at Naseby Reservoir on the Grand Union Canal;

· a volunteer project to create a floating island at Fradley Junction on the Trent & Mersey Canal to provide additional habitat for reed nesting birds, in particular the reed bunting;

· in partnership with the West Midlands Bird Group, the creation of floating reedbeds around the heronry at Gailey Reservoir on the Staffordshire & Worcester Canal to allow reed buntings to nest and to protect the heronry island from erosion;

· the installation of barn owl nest boxes at Tunnel End Reservoir, Marsden on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal;

· the creation of nest boxes for various species of waterway birds along the Kennet & Avon and Bridgwater & Taunton Canal;

· a project to lay hedgerow along the Rochdale Canal

· a grant to protect nationally scarce Magnesian limestone (or dolomite) grassland habitats along the Aire & Calder Canal, providing good nesting opportunities for ground nesting birds such as willow warbler and meadow pipit.

Joanne Darlington, Development Director (England & Wales) of The Waterways Trust, said: “Our canals and rivers provide excellent habitat and breeding spots for a wide range of birds, including some protected species. We are extremely grateful to everyone who donated so generously to our Waterway Birds appeal. Through these grants to British Waterways we are able to support a wide range of habitat improvement work, helping to ensure the survival of birds such as kingfishers, grey wagtails, barn owls and terns.”

All the funding for The Waterways Trust’s Small Grants Scheme is donated by members of the public. For more information on The Waterways Trust and their appeals, visit www.thewaterwaystrust.org.uk

To find out more about how British Waterways is supporting biodiversity, visit www.waterscape.com/wildlife