Once upon a time, little grebes used to regularly overwinter on the canal. A stroll along the footpath from, say, Aldersley to Wightwick could clock up substantial numbers. On favoured sections of water, there would be a fresh dabchick every twenty or thirty yards. Each would be regularly swimming up and down its territory, frequently diving and often surfacing with a small fish in its beak, which then had to be adjusted to the correct position for being swallowed whole.
And then it stopped. The last dabchick I saw along this section of the canal was back in 2019. They have still been present elsewhere locally: on the canl further out into the Staffordshire countryside, or Perton pool. In Baggeridge Country Park there’s breeding pairs in the warmer months. It’s also possible that the birds have returned to the urban section of the canal recently – I haven’t checked in the last couple of years.
These pictures are of a bird on the canal very near to Aldersley Junction some dozen years ago. Normally, the birds headed off from their winter refuges early in the year, to try to find prime spring territories before the breeding season started. This one had hung around a little longer, and had already adopted breeding plumage before it set off.