Kingfishers on the increase

The number of kingfishers spotted in an annual survey of Britain’s rivers and canals have more than trebled this year, despite fears the birds would have been badly hit by last year’s harsh winter.

The waterways wildlife survey results unveiled by British Waterways showed that kingfishers, newts, toads and otters had all been seen in record numbers this year.

But sightings of hedgehogs, grass snakes, coots and even terrapins, a non-native species which has ended up in our waterways, had fallen, the survey found.

The number of mink – an invasive species which eat threatened water voles – seen on the waterways had also fallen by more than a third (36 per cent).

The drop may be due to the resurgence of otters which compete with the mink for territory and could spell good news for the voles, immortalised as “Ratty” in Wind in the Willows.

The number of otters spotted by members of the public taking part in the survey increased by 194 per cent on last year, while the number of kingfishers sighted rose 217 per cent.

There was a 446 per cent increase in the number of newts seen by the public in this year’s survey, which recorded more than 40,000 sightings of wildlife by amateur nature lovers, and a 256 per cent increase in the number of toads seen.

There was also an increase of almost a quarter (23 per cent) in the number of sightings of house sparrows, which are a declining species.