Wom Brook Blog

This week, Staffordshire Police issued the following warning to Wombourne residents:

Beware of 2 bogus officials-both are described as white males-they called at a property in Orton Lane at 3 pm on Monday, inquiring about old car batteries for recycling. They were seen to be closely studying the houses nearby.

One had strawberry blond hair, and was wearing a brown jacket and blue jeans.
The other had dark hair-no other details were available concerning this second male. They drove off towards Penn in a dirty white van.

Police are urgently looking for the registration number of this vehicle-if you see it, please dial 999 and ask for Staffordshire Police.

Apologies for the lack of recent blog entries - two things happened-a few days away from the computer, only to discover upon my return that no uploads were possible to this blog due to a software upgrade, and associated server problems. These have thankfully been resolved now (thanks Matt). Hopefully over the weekend there will be a couple of entries.

The last couple of mornings have seen freezing conditions beside the Wom Brook and along exposed sections of the Railway Walk. Meteorologically, these conditions have been brought about by a combination of atmospheric high pressure, little or no cloud cover to ‘hold’ in place the temperature that has been built up during the day, and a slight hint of an Arctic wind coming from a northerly direction.

Therefore the sight of a pair of ducks swimming along the Wom Brook this morning was quite a revelation! Proof positive that duck feathers provide excellent insulation properties! Brrr!

(The male duck [right of photo] watches as his mate feeds on underwater plants).

The main theme of last Wednesday’s Nature of Britain was ‘Coastal Britain’. This latest programme in the 8-part series continued to maintain the very highest standards of photography, producing a good match between underwater and above the surface shots, so we saw Arctic Skuas diving for fish, as well as whales and killer whales hunting off our shores. Most remarkable for me was the feature on the otters-the camera crew and production team responsible for producing that work must be in line for an award-the patience and time invested in obtaining that footage merits one alone!

From large coastal creatures to small ones-we saw a species of bee that cleverly utilises discarded snail shells as ‘hatcheries’ for its young. Again, the very informative nature of the programme managed to convey the interaction of a number of factors which influence life along the British coastline – the sun, the wind, rain and tides all play a part in shaping the lives of our coastal creatures. This is particularly so in inter-tidal zones, and this was very well demonstrated through the use of time-lapse photography, as the tidal cycle which dominates life in our rock pools was quickly speeded up, revealing isolated pools of water as the tide went out, which in turn were replenished with fresh micro-organisms that in turn fed the occupants of the pools, as the next high tide returned.

This led cleverly to the local West Midlands feature of the programme-how do you represent the coastal aspect of the Nature of Britain, to reflect that aspect of nature in a land-locked region of the UK? Slimbridge of course!

Web-link to Slimbridge

Web-link to the BBC Staffordshire web site-where you can see the local features of Nature of Britain again.

Although the primary function of this blog is to chart the conservation work associated with the Wom Brook in Wombourne, a message received from Staffordshire Police this afternoon merits inclusion on this site.

At 12:10 today, 2 white males in their 50s, described as having dark hair, and speaking with local accents, visited a Featherstone property claiming to be from a boiler repair company. During the 10 minutes they spent in the property, cash was stolen from a locked cupboard.

Staffordshire Police are keen to remind us not to allow strangers into our homes-unless by prior arrangement, and before granting admittance to service engineers, builders or officials, we are reminded to ask for proof of their identity.

Ray Jones, Police Neighbourhood Watch liaison officer, stated
‘don’t be tempted to open the door to just anyone. If you see or suspect anything remotely suspicious, phone 999, and ask for Staffordshire Police’.

Often the work of the volunteer Thursday and Saturday morning groups goes unreported. Sometimes a group may comprise of just a couple of committee members-on other occasions, such as on the first Saturday morning of a new month, members are joined by like-minded folk who take an equal pride in the appearance of the Brook and its adjoining banks.

The above picture shows a rather full rubbish sack-one of 10 that were filled at the end of the last litter clearance of the Brook three weeks ago-when the stretch of the Wom Brook walk (the path that runs alongside the Brook) between the Gravel Hill picnic benches and Giggetty Ford was cleared.

The emphasis this time was on cutting back nettles and brambles that have obscured the Brook from the footpath-thus providing the space for fresh vegetation to grow next spring, and in turn provide new habitats for a host of wildlife-from minibeasts to the more familiar bird life-represented by the numerous pigeons we see along the Brook.

So a big thanks to last week’s volunteers-judging by the numerous green sacks stacked by the wall by the Bow bridge (next to Gravel Hill)-a job well done!

Smog is a word derived from combining two words-smoke and fog. Historically the word is synonymous with the air pollution reputedly responsible for an estimated 4000 respiratory – linked deaths in the London area during the 1950s, when the smoke at that time from so many coal fires combined with fog, and with little or no wind, this hung over the capital for several days, partially obscuring the sun.

Today’s dense fog was mixed the stale smell of smoke which hung in the air around Wombourne-the aftermath of a feast of festive fireworks, and the annual Himley bonfire-which last night brought the inevitable road congestion along the A449 Wolverhampton-Stourbridge Road.

This morning the visibility range along the Wom Brook in Wombourne extended to 50 metres and no more. Strange shapes loomed out of the gloom that seemed to saturate everywhere. The accompanying all-enveloping silence was only punctuated by the nervous call of blackbirds, warning other birds away from their territory-almost like ships and lighthouses do in similar weather conditions.

It remains to be seen whether another two nights of possible fireworks displays will cause a repeat of this morning’s ‘smog’!

Last Wednesday night, towards the end of BBC 1’s Nature of Britain, Wombourne was featured for a few minutes, when Miranda Krestovnikoff presented her report about the conservation and education work that the Friends of Wom Brook undertake along the Brook in Wombourne. Rather fittingly, her report began in Wombourne, and then switched to highlight the sterling work being undertaken by the Whitchurch group who have developed their water vole habitat.

The main part of the programme, produced by Alan Titchmarsh, focused on ‘Freshwater Britain’-not only providing an informative insight into the lives of some of Britain’s more ‘interesting’ water wildlife, but also presenting a veritable geography lesson, which gave an interesting account of the journey our water takes, from rain falling on our uplands, flowing downstream and forming with other streams into small rivers, which in turn join others to make a large river flowing down to our coasts and thus into the sea.

Below is a link to the BBC Staffordshire website.

When you get to the BBC page, look for ‘Watch Video’/'Freshwater’ - please be patient-Wombourne is featured towards the end of the feature.

Click here to see last Wednesday’s West Midlands part of Nature of Britain