Rainwater falls on the land and flows from the hills, via streams, to rivers and finally to the sea. Like arteries in a circulation system our watercourses deliver much needed water and nutrients that support a diverse range of riparian wildlife. Many fish such as minnows, stickleback and bullhead spend their entire lives in the river feeding on a rich supply of algae and invertebrates. Anadromous fish such as salmon, seatrout and some species of lamprey spawn in river habitats before migrating seaward to grow large and strong enough to return to the rivers again to complete their lifecycles. The opposite is true for catadromous fish such as eels who spend many years maturing in freshwaters before returning to the Sargasso Sea to spawn.
A range of specialised mammals also exploit the abundant food resources in our rivers. Otters are truly aquatic mammals, feeding directly on fish. Beaver are ecosystem engineers, creating dams which facilitate the creation of more wetland habitat (and growth of the water- loving trees such as aspen, birch and willow on which they feed) which in turn support greater invertebrate diversity and provide valuable nursery habitats for many of the fish species mentioned above. Water vole are also river specialists, preferring slower moving waters where they can build burrows and feed on plants in the riparian zone.
Piscivorous (fish eating) birds such as heron stay motionless waiting for fish to swim past before catching them with pinpoint accuracy and speed. Cormorants and mergansers dive and catch fish within the water column while kingfishers are the true aeronautical masters, diving and grabbing tasty minnows and juvenile trout at brake neck speeds.
All of these species (and many, many more) can be found in rivers within the Forth catchment. Why not spend some time getting to know your local river and you may bump into some of them?
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