The walkway built out over the new wetland area at Durham Wildlife Trust's Low Barns Reserve at Witton-le-Wear offers excellent opportunities for watching the courtship dances of sticklebacks in spring. A male fish builds a tubular nest in the shallow water from bits of weed, then defends his territory from other males until he's enticed a female to swim through his nest and lay eggs inside. Males guard their nests, fanning water over the eggs, until they hatch. You can watch movies of the whole sequence at
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