Wetlands

Thursday 23rd September 2021

Ham Wall RSPB reserve Ham Wall Nature Reserve, Somerset - The RSPB (with Glastonbury Tor in the background!). Great talk from one of the wardens here explaining what they are doing to here. The site was specifically created to encourage bitterns to return to Britain. When the reserve started there were just 11 male bitterns in the UK. With the work they have done there are now about 18 in the reserve (they think that is the carrying capacity for the area) and about 50 in the Somerset levels. It is all artificial in a way - created from the land that had been used for peat extraction and now turned into wetlands. Without the work of the RSPB and their volunteers it would turn back into woodland over time (the same as much of the UK). Apparently there is a farmer in the village who remembers the whole area being farmland in his lifetime.

We then went to Steart Marshes Steart Marshes | WWT. This is another area that is being 'constructed' to encourage wildlife. It is an amazing place and well worth a visit. I saw a marsh harrier for the first time and a snipe. Apparently it is the second best place in the UK to see starling murmurations and they can get 1000 people at a time (which the car park cant cope with!) during weekends and holidays.

I found the whole trip really interesting. The point that was made is that almost nothing in our landscape is 'natural' it is all influenced by humans. Some really obvious like the quarry, but even the nature reserves that we all visit are not as natural as they would seem!