Sheer bliss, even on a grey day, to be in a #chalkstream for first time in >4 months & a thrill to spend my 1st ever quality time with big Graylings - what friendly fish! - in the River Nar upstream of Narborough. Thanks Alec Birkbeck & Fraser Bradbury for permission! #MySwim #Rivers #Norfolk 🧵1/9

Delighted to have my 1st swim in catchment of that iconic Wessex chalk stream, the River Test, & only my 2nd with European Grayling (1st was in the Itchen). Also plenty Brown Trout, 9-24 inches long but no parr, & oodles of Minnows. #MySwim #Rivers #Nature #Wildlife #TeamFish #Fish #Fishsky 🧵 1/7

For #CtenophoreDay an experience so extraordinary & exquisite if I hadn't captured it on camera I'd have thought it was a dream. Last month, heading into the sunset at end of #MySwim at Shimoda, found myself in a vast raft of ?Mikado Comb Jellies (Bolinopsis mikado) #cilia #CtenoTakeover #Japan🧵1/6

Last month it was amazing to swim in the strobe disco of huge shimmering shoals of Minnows in Ullswater. Water surprisingly clear. Such a different story swimming in a lake compared to a river bsky.app/profile/nume....

#MySwim #Cumbria #LakeDistrict #fish #teamfish #fishsky #Nature #Wildlife 🧵1/7

After Ely Nature-Friendly Farming Zone Water Vole Survey (nul points), swam down & up 500m of River Little Ouse. Not best snork; poor vis, sun vanished, encountered none of wonders have been seeing upstream. Wish people wouldn't litter & release helium balloons. You can't win 'em all! #MySwim 🧵1/8

Thanks Nick Meade for access & @timholtwilson.bsky.social for arranging it, near Earsham had our furthest downstream swim in River Waveney, abounding in Roach, plus a pool of gorgeous Dace where the river flowed fast, constricted by a grove of Club-rush. #MySwim #Suffolk #Norfolk #rivers #fish 🧵1/8

DREAM COME TRUE! Slipped into the Lowther in #Cumbria and immediately found the clear, sun dappled waters of this limestone river packed with enchanting Atlantic SALMON parr! The first I have swum with. New favourite river for me! Thank you Jim Lowther. #MySwim #TeamFish #Fish #Fishsky #Rivers🧵1/20

Same here, in the NL! It st even came almost uncomfortably near - I didn't know eel were so inquisitive! m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk2E...

#myswim #urbannature #eel #Leidencity @gemeenteleiden.bsky.social #fishreservation @knnv2ehandsboek.bsky.social @naturalis.bsky.social @drfishsg.bsky.social

Astonished, on popping into ditch in grazing marsh on way to Little Ouse by @rspbengland.bsky.social Lakenheath Fen to find it absolutely carpeted in writhing mass of creatures reminiscent of tiny garden eels; in fact unglamorously named Sludge Worms (Tubifex tubifex). #MySwim #WormWednesday 1/19

Shocked to find River Lark at Worlington Hythe, sublime a year ago
x.com/numenini/sta..., now very sick, silken skeins of Water-crowfoot replaced by thick brown layer of algae & cyanobacteria. Yet quite a few fish persist up at Kings Staunch, mainly Perch & Chub (including a monster). #MySwim 🧵1/8

When I awoke yesterday, wasn't expecting a gratis #fish manicure from the kind Minnows & Gudgeon enjoying the base of the new fish pass at Turf Lock, Mildenhall! Come tomorrow, Fri 5-7pm, to free event at Mildenhall Cricket Club to celebrate the new fish pass! brecks.org/events/turf-... #MySwim 1/17

Delight to be back in the River Wissey & seeing Chub again (they've been rather absent from Wissey tributary the Old Carr Stream/Stringside & lower reaches of #Rivers Little Ouse & Lark) - including a huge shoal of small ones, here mixing with Roach. #MySwim #Norfolk #TeamFish #fishsky #fish 🧵1/10

Win some, lose some. Y'day #MySwim among my least pleasant. Tried to explore River Lark below Isleham. Nightmare to access (v nettley & got stuck in 2 fenland ditches) then pea soup &, as too hot for wetsuit, got terrible attack of swimmer's itch. But lots fish, herons & fine Marsh Woundwort. 1/6

Returned to my favourite stretch of the Little Ouse alongside @rspbengland.bsky.social's Lakenheath Fen, which continued to wow, with amazing numbers of HUGE Common Rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus). Quite shy. But what stunning #fish they are. The REAL gold fish. 1+ a bit diseased. #MySwim 🧵1/12

More Steppe Bison (Bison priscus) bones!! Including a vertebrae & rib. On 31 May, in same place, Cut-Off Channel at Wretton SSSI c2m deep, lying on riverbed with old mussel shells.
Wish I'd been around in Pleistocene to watch great bison herds roaming the Wissey Valley.
#MySwim #FossilFriday
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Back at Cut-Off Channel, Wretton on 18 May, explored E of bridge & met 2 more Horsehair Worms (Nematomorpha). Mind blown when one shifted stones & leaves with miniscule mouth (reminiscent of Brook Lampreys). Doesn't eat, so why? When it turned on me I scarpered. #MySwim #WormWednesday #invert 1/15

On May 11 found bones of the extinct, giant Steppe Bison (Bison priscus) from Pleistocene deposits of River Wissey, exposed in Cut-Off Channel at Wretton, 1km from Nattergal's High Fen. (Wolf & Woolly Rhino also found here). Thanks @timholtwilson.bsky.social‬ for setting me the mission! #MySwim 1/25

THERE BE GIANTS! In yesterday's heat, returned to amazing reach of River Little Ouse adjacent to @rspbengland.bsky.social's Lakenheath Fen & it did not disappoint: more huge Rudd, Tench & 2 huge Bronze Bream as well as astonishing streams of young Perch plus Roach & a Dace. #TeamFish #MySwim 🧵1/11

Blundered into Tench City on River Little Ouse below Lakenheath Fen. Or rather, in 625m several of these Incredible Hulks almost blundered into me. Their eyesight doesn't seem great & each time I took them by surprise. See those muscles ripple! #MySwim #Rivers #Fishsky #Teamfish #fish #Suffolk 🧵1/23

To end this 🧵join me and the fish of the River Little Ouse in enjoying the invigorating turbulence below the new fish pass at Brandon Staunch. Can you see Roach, Chub, Dace & Bleak? #MySwim #Rivers #Fish #TeamFish #FishSky #Suffolk #WestSuffolk #Norfolk 14/14

Besides the abundant Common Dace, & at the water surface, occasional shoals of the more slimline Bleak, I came across a specimen of another common resident of the River Little Ouse, the dumped bicycle. #MySwim #Rivers #Fish #TeamFish #FishSky #Suffolk #WestSuffolk #Brandon #bicycle. 4/14

Privilege to meet, in the Little Ouse downstream of Brandon Staunch, not only several Brown Trout parr - a reminder that this River is a chalk stream, but also this mighty European Perch, among the abundant Common Roach. #MySwim #Rivers #Fish #TeamFish #FishSky #Suffolk #WestSuffolk 🧵 1/14

Utter sensory overload in 1km of River Little Ouse, among my most amazing river snorks ever. No coincidence that by Lakenheath Fen, fabulous feather in the cap of @rspbengland.bsky.social‬. The zenith, this 5 foot Eel - nearly as big as me - in the shallows among Nuttall's Waterweed. #MySwim 🧵1/24

Last week as 15,000 people gathered at UN Oceans Conference #UNOC3 in Nice to discuss how to #SaveOurOcean, right there at La Réserve de Nice, European Sea Bass, Barracudas (Yellowmouth?) & even dolphins swam past during our #WorldCoastalForum lunch. Here's a 🧵on other wonders there. #MySwim 1/14

No better place to be in this heat than in River Lark (17.5°C on Tues) peeking into this fabulous favoured "cave", in 500m reach above Isleham under willows, of good sized Perch, Roach & couple of Chub. They could only see my head so I evoked nothing but curiosity, esp. from the Perch. #MySwim 1/14

On Friday in River Rhône at Chemin du Moulin des Frère, glorious swim (19.6°C) but useless snorkel, almost zero vis. due to inflow from Arve to crystal clear waters flowing from Lake Geneva. Saw only #InvasiveAlien Zebra mussels (dead?), Spiked Water Milfoil & a fish jump. #MySwim #MolluscMonday 1/4

Highlight of Friday pm 250m swim (& where too shallow, wade) up Sapiston River aka Black Bourn below Ixworth (& this stretch 13 months ago bsky.app/profile/nume...), with roar of traffic along Thetford Road, was this pool of beautiful silvery Dace among the Minnows. #MySwim #Suffolk #Rivers 🧵1/10

Almost exactly 3 years on, swam up Lode Dike aka Stringside Stream, from its confluence with the River Wissey. It is still as pitifully grim & lifeless as it was then. Only two #fish - a pair of Threespine Sticklebacks - in 850m! bsky.app/profile/nume... #MySwim #Chalkstreams #Norfolk #rivers 🧵1/5

As I explored further down Stringside Stream aka Lode Dike, below White Bridge, continuing to be horrified by its gungy, fishless state, astonished to find a gorgeous little #BrownTrout parr, alone below a weir, maybe washed down from Old Carr Stream? #MySwim #Chalkstreams #rivers #fishsky 🌍 1/12

For first time in nearly 3 years, felt able to return to stretch of Lode Dike aka Stringside Stream where I found a human skull bsky.app/profile/nume....
Now still gruesome, but only a chicken skull.
Also Mallards alive, & above water, #chalkstream is prettier than upstream. #MySwim #Rivers
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