A Nature Lover’s Guide to Cambridge
Layers of Life on the River
Below is another piece written by one of our punt chauffeurs. This time, Charlotte Okten give us her thoughts on the wildlife along the river.
The river is a hive of activity. Beyond the bare bums at Byron’s Pool, and beneath the punts passing through the backs there exist layers upon layers of life. Here is my very own nature lover's guide to the Cambridge riverside.
Not just recent. Remains found beneath the river date back to three distinct glacial periods. In an underground channel starting at Jesus college giant deer, mammoth, woolly rhino and horse fragments lie. They are a cool 180,000 years old. Further ahead in gravel pits under Newmarket Road, other parts can be dated back 20,000 years. A little closer to the Mill Pond, a Bison skull has been found, dating back 35,000 years.
Above these fossilised pits we find current river life. Nestled among countless rusted Cambridge bicycles, cameras and mobile phones are some gigantic fish. Firstly, pikes. Pikes can grow to 150 centimetres, and weigh up to 25 kilograms! Our river is perfect for them. Feeding on the populations of smaller fish, at times pike even enjoy a dinner of duckling or vole! These giants are joined by carp. Introduced in the 1950s to eat the many overgrown river plants, carp are today partly to blame for making the river ‘green as a dream’ as they stir up the mud below. This is perhaps also quite fitting. The river is in parts still called ‘the Granta’ in old English meaning ‘muddy’.
Not only fish manoeuvre between the river furnishings. In 2005 a Chinese mitten crab was found in the Ouse, of which the Cam is a tributary. These creatures are named after their comical large hairy claws! They are native to China, but have been known to travel exceptional distances through water and land. Lacy Anderson explains that they can cross oceans ‘in the ballasts of ships’ and migrate up to 1,500 kilometres.
Floating above more familiar wildlife can be spotted. Infamous swans, squabbling ducks and packs of geese glide amongst the boats. The swans are perhaps the most elegant. These mythical great white birds ‘float through the centuries’. Pythagoras even believed the souls of poets lived on as swans. On the Cam, they are clearly in charge. At the helm is ‘Mr. Asbo’. A celebrity of the Daily Telegraph, Asbo is a nuisance to the rowers of Newmarket Road. They have petitioned to have him removed, but as the paper reported in April Asbo has ‘found love’. He will be staying until at least September. The swaggering swans share the river with smaller birds. Geese; Canadian, Greylag and sometimes Egyptian, swim in these waters. Moorhens live in the guttering of Saint Johns’ Old Court. While ducks, at their noisiest during the mating season, are spoiled by passers by.
Other creatures are quieter. Along the meadows voles and field mice provide food for kestrels, while a family of stoats has been seen near Queens’ College. Although otters have not been spotted along the river their droppings have also been found. Further along, shy muntjac deer live with grass snakes and frogs.
Above, the sky is littered with birds. Pigeons poke out from the New Court building. Seagulls often circle above. The most interesting birds are however, found further up the river. Warblers, great tits and woodpeckers reside within the willow trees of Grantchester. In the summer the brilliant blue of kingfishers flash past. Last of all are the bats. In the summer vast swarms of butterflies, wasps, dragon and mayflies are snapped up by these tiny creatures.
Our Cambridge rivers create the ‘tunnel of green gloom’ and are home to a huge variety of life. From the large to the tiny, the gilled to the feathered, somehow, they all manage to fit in together.
