A GROUP of litter pickers who cleared a heavily polluted section of the River Croal were delighted when a heron immediately returned to the area shortly after they finished.

Andy Capstick, a member of Astley Bridge Litter Picking group, was clearing a stretch of the river in Rumworth, as the group often ventures across the borough to tackle well-known fly-tipping hotspots.

During their visit, they found all sorts of household waste, including chairs, pillows and house bricks. Bags of human faeces along with countless bottles, cans and other plastic packaging was pulled from the river too.

As the group were putting away their gear, Andy noticed a heron had appeared in the river - and he said the sighting of the bird "made it all worthwhile."

He said: "We want to be doing the rivers, woods and green areas when we can so we can look after the wildlife in Bolton. We had just finished and I had gone back to take photos of the river when I spotted the heron.

"It was just stood there and I was like; 'wow'. It was just so great seeing it there as we had removed so much from the river. That's why we do it, seeing things like that. We'd turned over a lot of soil so it had probably come to investigate all the worms and insects we'd brought out."

Flytipping and litter picking can have huge impacts on the environment.

Waste can pollute natural environments for wildlife, killing off food supplies and making places uninhabitable for them.

Andy added: "We had wanted to clear that place for quite a while. It was a place where you needed good footwear and to be prepared."

"There was the bag of human waste but there were lots of black binbags too and anything could have been in them. It was just great to see the heron return at the end of it. We love the wildlife and they love us."

For more information on Astley Bridge Litter Pickers, search for them on Facebook.