Alan James at the Creek

Anniversaries ahoy!

It seems incredible to me but this is the 200th Riverwatch column I’ve penned since first starting it just under five years ago.

Beware the hairy horde

It was three years ago when I first wrote about the invasion of the Thames by Chinese mitten crabs – so called because of the dense hair on the back of their large claws – and I wondered whether readers of this column had spotted more examples in our stretch of the river.

Invasion of the water weeds

Invaders from foreign lands have generally not proved to be much of a problem for us British since the arrival of William the Conqueror more than 1,000 years ago.