Westside’s legendary night-time economy is famous for letting people live on the wild side – in moderation, of course.
But in our increasingly cosmopolitan, healthy-living world, why not get out and about more in daytime too, to enjoy the thrills of interacting with Mother Nature on our own doorstep?
Did you know, for example, that the gateway tree into Brindleyplace is a Dawn Redwood – once thought to be extinct in China but which can typically grow to be more than 30 metres tall?
You could find this tree and many more as part of joining in with the four-day City Nature Challenge from tomorrow. Enjoy our photos and video to put you in the mood for success!
From watching lots of different bees investigating a Warminster (Scotch) broom on Holliday Street in our video (note, poisonous to humans), to admiring a Centenary Square plant called Heartless bergenia (aka ‘Korean elephant’s ears’), and then discovering an American red flowering currant plant in the pink near the Malt Shovel pub (our main picture), we’ve been super-impressed with the diversity of the plants on our patch.
Did know the tree at the Holliday Street junction with Granville Street is an Austrian pine? Other trees we found included wild cherry (native to Europe, North Africa and West Asia), Majorcan hellebore, American sycamore, English walnut, London plane, Turkish hazel, North, Himalayan deodar cedar and even New Zealand broadleaf!
If you are unsure what something is, you can use a smartphone app or even Google to tell you. For something really unusual, try two different sources to corroborate your find.
Need a rest? Don’t forget you can sit with Ozzy Osbourne’s visage on the Black Sabbath Bench in Broad Street.
What is the City Nature Challenge?
From Friday 26 to Monday 29 April, residents and workers of Westside have the chance to take part in a global challenge to see who can spot the most wildlife.
The Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust and EcoRecord are working to stimulate interest in the work and to help to collate the local results.
More than 500 cities around the world from Auckland to Zaragoza are taking part and every single bit of wildlife will count – from a garden dandelion to a bird flying through.
Whether you hunt around in your lunch break or come here for the weekend, there will be plenty of things to note for the world to see across Westside’s fabulous canal network, major squares, Brindleyplace and even the giant beer garden at the rear of the JD Wetherspoon Figure of Eight pub on Broad Street.
To take part, download the iNaturalist app. If you then photograph any plant or animal, it will identify it and send the find straight to EcoRecord.
For more information about the survey and local city events visit the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust website.
And visit this website to see how all of the UK city areas are shaping up on the leader board.
EcoRecord’s mailing address is: EcoRecord, Centre of the Earth, 42 Norman Street, Winson Green, Birmingham B18 7EP
Westside pictures by Graham Young
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