Can you help us count the dippers on the river worth?We adopted the dipper on our logo as it is a frequent sight along the river. This little black/brown bird with a white throat can be seen flitting from rock to rock and occasionally diving underwater to search for insect nymphs on the bottom. However we are concerned that there may not be as many dippers on the Worth as there should be. Dipper territory is usually about a 1 kilometre stretch of river for a single pair, we believe the density on the Worth may be much less than this. So this year we plan to survey the number of breeding pairs on the Worth catchment, that is, Bridgehouse Beck, North Beck, and the Worth itself. We would appreciate your help. The best way to assess dipper numbers is to look for nesting sites in the spring. Dippers favourite nesting place is in holes in man made structures such as bridges, walls, weirs and culverts. Nest sites can be traditional, there is a site which is said to have been nested in continuously for over 120 years. Their nesting time is from early March to the end of May. You don't need to be a full blown twitcher to help, just reporting seeing a dipper when you are by the river will help. We are asking for people to report all sightings of dippers, and the activity of the bird at the time, which may be a simple fly-past, gathering nesting material, feeding, and maybe taking that food back to a nest for the young, the surest confirmation that breeding is taking place. In making these observations, please never get too close to disturb the birds. If you are familiar with What3words location finder a what3words location would be a great help but if you are not into the tech. then a straight forward description of the location is good. At the end of the breeding season we will collate the observations to form a map of dipper presence on the Worth. Depending on the results of the survey, next year we may install dipper nest boxes under suitable bridges along the river.
If you would like to help with the survey please email us on [email protected] Happy spotting!
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River Worth Friends are looking for volunteer pollution hunters. River Worth Friends are constantly on the lookout for pollution entering the river and often report incidents to the Environment Agency. However this is just done on a rough and ready basis, so we have decided to take a more active approach to pollution spotting.
To combat this we are setting up a network of volunteers to check the water quality, look for illegally discharging CSO’s and report incidents to the EA. Water quality can be checked by
So we are looking for volunteers. If you are interested we will be having a meeting to explain the scheme at The Bronte Hotel, Lees Lane, Haworth, BD22 8RA, on Thursday 26th January (see flyer below for more details). No experience or special knowledge is required to be a monitor as full training will be given. Joining the monitoring network is a good way to get out by and even in the river and to find out more about the its ecology. Plus you are helping to improve it for the people and wildlife.
Looking forward to seeing you at the Bronte on the 26th. River Worth Friends team up with Keighley Big Local and Aire Rivers Trust for major project to improve the River Worth from Keighley up to Haworth. Most people know River Worth Friends for litter picking and pulling rubbish out of the river but we have always been keen to do more than that, especially in two main areas:
We have secured generous funding from Keighley Big Local, Keighley Towns Fund and the Environment Agency. We have plenty of ideas for how we would like to make the river a better place; improving the river habitat, resurfacing the footpaths, way marking and providing information about its heritage and natural history are just a few. But we really want the project to come from the people who live and work alongside the river, that’s why we have organised a number of events for you to say how together we can make the river better.
This restoration project could transform how we relate to the Worth and it's tributaries, come along to one of these events if you want to have a say about how this will be. It would be great to meet you and hear your views.
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