Totting up the Upton Birds

Nigel Robson, Volunteer Bird Recorder for NWT

NWT Upton Broad and Marshes, photo by Richard Osbourne

In support of conservation work at Upton Broad and Marshes, I have recorded birds there regularly since 2006 to ascertain their status and relative abundance. Very little has been published on the ornithology of this area.

Initially I set out to establish a status quo before major management works to improve site conditions for breeding waders and wintering waterfowl took effect. The results of this part of the study will be in my paper entitled “The Conservation Value and Population Status of Birds at Upton Broad and Marshes 2006-2011” in the forthcoming Transactions of the Norfolk & Norwich Naturalists’ Society (Vol. 45 Part 1).

The present phase of the study is monitoring changes in the birdlife after 2011. This should help determine the effects, successful or otherwise, of habitat modifications. Birds are useful indicators of environmental changes because they come and go freely, and are relatively easy to see, hear and identify. In my posts for NWT’s blog I intend to focus on this aspect, starting with setting the scene, and giving a brief resume of how bird activity in 2012 differed from the preceding years.

The reserve has two distinct but inter-related ecosystems, separated by a marsh wall (bank): undrained fen, which includes broads and carr, and drained grazing marsh. The habitat modifications affect mainly the grazing marshes. Here water levels are being raised in various sections, and areas of standing water introduced with foot drains and shallow ponds. Grazing regimes are developing to produce swards benefitting wildfowl, cranes and waders. Separately but concurrently, river defence work has created tidal lagoons, with muddy banks that are gradually vegetating to form reed swamp communities. In the undrained fen, wet woodland is being reduced to substantially increase herbaceous fen habitat, and the small (and only) reedbed is being improved for Bitterns by widening dykes within it and grading their banks to vary reed densities. The smaller of the two broads, Little Broad, has been lightly mud-pumped to partially increase its depth and release from the silt seeds of a past aquatic flora for regeneration.  

Lapwing, photo by Maurice Funnell

2012 was the first year when the habitat modifications to the grazing marshes clearly showed results. Early in the year the new areas of standing water quite soon attracted Bewick’s Swans (up to 80) and an occasional group of Pink-footed Geese including a few White-fronted Geese. Grazing duck, however, remained scarce despite a maximum of 400 Wigeon frequenting the adjacent St Benet’s Level. Winter visitors seen from time to time included a small group of Cranes and single Hen Harrier, Peregrine, Merlin and Short-eared Owl. Spring arrived as a drought-gripped eastern England, but in spite of this the grazing marshes retained some of the standing water. Consequently there was a marked increase in breeding waders: Lapwings (13 pairs) and Redshanks (4-5 pairs) doubled their number from the previous few years and Oystercatchers (3 pairs) were at their previous maximum. Single pairs of Avocet and Little Ringed Plover bred close to the river on newly created open ground, but this feature is unlikely to be retained as reed swamp takes over.

Passage waders also increased, both in numbers and variety. On the grazing marshes Whimbrel reached over 50 in April/May, some days accompanied by a few Bar-tailed Godwits and occasional Curlew (the latter occurs more frequently in autumn and winter). During the same period a few Golden Plovers (northern race) and Ruff passed through, and a pair of Black-winged Stilts even stayed for a while. But it was the riverside tidal lagoons, not yet vegetated, that attracted the greater diversity of species in both spring and autumn: Common, Green and Wood Sandpipers, Greenshanks and Spotted Redshanks, Dunlins, Curlew Sandpipers, Little Stints, Sanderlings, Ringed Plovers and a single Grey Plover.

The prolonged rainfall that followed the spring drought contributed to disappointing breeding outcomes for most of the waders. Some warblers, notably Whitethroats, Sedge Warblers and Reed Warblers, were down in numbers. Duck, however, were more successful than previously: Shelduck raised ducklings, and pairs of Gadwall, Shoveler, Teal, Tufted Duck and Pochard were present in summer and may have bred.

With rainfall consistently high throughout the first half of this winter season, the marshes are very wet. Wintering waterfowl (geese, ducks, Lapwings and Golden Plovers) have been fewer in number than during many of the winters preceding the habitat modifications. However, Bewick’s Swans have maintained a sizeable group (120+) and Cranes have been at their maximum (17). The unmodified tall hedgerows in the marshes attracted good numbers of winter thrushes early on and a few Waxwings in December. The second half of the winter may produce a different scenario!

Living Landscapes: just a buzzword, or a radical new approach to wildlife conservation?

David North, Head of People and Wildlife

How does a Living Landscape approach differ from traditional nature conservation approaches?

I, like many of the staff and volunteers at Norfolk Wildlife Trust, am struggling to develop a deeper understanding of A Living Landscape approach to wildlife conservation. Is this really an important new paradigm for conservation, or is it just a buzzword, a new bit of conservation jargon that has little real long-term significance? This post, and my previous ones on Living Landscapes, are sharing with you the development of my personal thinking about the implications of this new approach to protecting wildlife. 

So is there really much difference between a traditional nature conservation approach and a Living Landscape approach? This may perhaps seem like stating the obvious but one difference is that a traditional nature conservation approach has focused on the acquisition of nature reserves, and the protection of rare species, whereas a Living Landscape approach focuses on the possibility for enhancing and creating large multi-functional landscapes which benefit both people and wildlife.

In the past nature conservation in Norfolk and the UK has focused primarily on the protection of areas of land as nature reserves either by purchase or management. Often the focus for the acquisition of these reserves has been the presence of rare species. Usually the management of these reserves and the species they support is only sustained by large inputs of resources, such as staff time on habitat management, which can only be delivered by inputs of money and resources generated off site. In this narrow sense few reserves are sustainable without external resources to support them. 

A Living Landscape approach is not simply about making nature reserves bigger and better, undoubtedly a worthwhile aim in itself.  In Norfolk, and indeed lowland England, even bigger and better reserves will still be too few, too small and too isolated to protect biodiversity as climate changes. Wildlife populations will need to move across landscape scale areas to adapt to changing conditions.  The resources to apply a nature reserve approach on a landscape scale given current and future land prices and management costs simply are too great.  There are not sufficient resources, even if this was desirable, to turn whole landscapes into nature reserves whose primary function is the protection of rare and threatened species. Nor, in highly populated England where most land areas are farmed, settled or developed for any number of human uses, is there space for this to be possible Any truly landscape scale approach will need to be multi-functional.

The challenge of creating Living Landscapes is to create sustainable, multi-functional landscapes that as well as providing for human needs are better able than existing landscapes to deliver biodiversity benefits. This is where the ecosystem services approach becomes relevant, as the challenge is to enable landscapes to develop which deliver better water quality, less soil erosion, more carbon storage and are better for wildlife.

So what is the role for nature reserves in a Living Landscape? Nature reserves will remain crucial to the protection of rare habitats and species but the there is subtle shift in the role they play in the future. At present the focus on reserve management is primarily on the area within the perimeter fence  whereas a Living Landscape approach focuses more attention on enabling species to expand and move from nature reserves into the wider landscape. So there is a need for a greater emphasis on working with surrounding landowners and communities around the reserves and to develop community projects that make the wider landscape more permeable to the movements of wildlife – to work with communities to create ecological corridors which link nature reserves to the surrounding wider landscape.

Nature reserve management has often been designed to restore areas of land back to dubious ecological pasts by mimicking  traditional land management systems which were once viable parts of traditional rural economies. These traditional ways of managing land gradually ceased as they became uneconomic and no longer part of the way  people made a living. The problem for modern nature conservation is that today these ways of managing habitats are often labour intensive and very expensive to maintain. This means these ways of managing land are unlikely to be sustainable over long periods, or at best will be a constant drain on conservation organisations’ scarce resources of cash and staff time. It is also simple impossible to truly turn back the clock and restore past environments. Today’s climate is different and the balance of species making up ecosystems has changed with many now widespread and familiar species from grey squirrels to muntjac deer being comparatively new arrivals.

In contrast a Living Landscape approach focuses attention on creating future landscapes which are rich in wildlife, valued by people, and sustainable. It puts the emphasis not so much on recreating the past as on creating better futures. For Living Landscapes to work they must be valued parts of viable, modern, local economies. This Living Landscape approach is challenging: more challenging than simply maintaining habitats on nature reserves using traditional but expensive management techniques. However the goal is one truly worth aspiring to; a truly sustainable nature conservation where future landscapes provide not only for our needs but also for nature’s needs, and a recognition that this division is  ultimately false as we are all part of a living planet in which mutual dependence includes us along with the rest of life.

The challenge for the future is to work with planners, businesses, farmers, landowners, local communities and individuals to create these new landscapes. Living Landscapes which are better for people: more beautiful and with more accessible greenspace. Landscapes which help mitigate climate change and deliver the ecosystem services we all depend on – from pollination services to waste disposal, from flood control to carbon capture. Whole landscapes which are also much richer in wildlife. Our nature reserves will remain key to this, but are just one small part of this wider vision of a Living Landscape.

For decades, despite the crucial but expensive conservation work which has protected some rare species on nature reserves, we have continued to lose wildlife from the wider countryside. The gradual loss of so many species, so much beauty and diversity, from our wider countryside is the greatest tragedy that nature conservation has failed to address.  This has been a piecemeal loss; field by field, pond by pond, a wet boggy patch full of orchids here, a copse or hedgerow there. But the net result has been the loss of so much meaning and beauty: 98% of our wildflower rich meadows gone, a vanishing of farmland birds like skylarks, corn buntings and yellowhammers across too much of our countryside. Those with long memories will know the scale of this loss: gone from the wider countryside  meadows with clouds of butterflies, hedgerows full of twittering sparrows, a bluebell wood here and a field of poppies there. The vision of A Living Landscape is to rebuild landscapes richer in wildlife. Landscapes in which our children can grow up experiencing wildlife near where they live and play, in local communities as well as on nature reserves.  Just as the impoverishment of our countryside has happened over decades, so achieving this vision of a more wildlife rich wider countryside will take decades to achieve. And it will  happen field by field, garden by garden, hedgerow by hedgerow, verge by verge, village pond by village pond, and community by community. In the end the success of the Living Landscapes vision depends on local people in local places taking local action for wildlife.

Maybe this vision seems an impossible dream but it is one which can only be attempted with the involvement and active support of people, businesses and communities. Each small step is worthwhile in itself and the first step is to care enough to do something positive for wildlife where you live, where you work and wherever you have opportunity. And of course to support your local Wildlife Trust in any way you feel able!

100 Species, Number 2: Norfolk Reed

David North, Head of People and Wildlife

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet!

Gerard Manley Hopkins


What would the Norfolk Broads be without reeds (Phragmites australis)?  Different that’s for sure. The Broads with no ‘whisper to the wind’ is pretty unthinkable. No reeds, then no bitterns, no bearded tits, no reed warblers serenading us each April and May, no reed-thatched cottages, no history of reed cutting or reed cutters with their lighters and half lighters to quant the reed to village staithes. 

Unthinkable.  

The same could be said of the Fens and parts of the Norfolk coast where reed fringed dykes are inextricably part of what makes their landscapes special.

So we owe quite a lot to this one plant species both in nature conservation and landscape terms. This, our tallest grass, thrives with its feet in water and its silver panicles in the sky.  Ecologically it’s what we call a pioneer species so left alone it reclaims wet places turning shallow lakes, first into watery reed beds, and then, with each year’s growth, and what an abundance of growth, builds up in layers, creates the conditions where trees such as willow and alder can grow. Lake becomes reed bed, becomes wet woodland, becomes dry land.  It’s not just people who change habitats, nature invented change long before we did and that’s exactly what has happened in much of the Norfolk Broads. Ironically it’s by fighting nature on our nature reserves that some of our habitats for bitterns, marsh harriers and bearded tits are protected. We cut the reed, often at more expense than it can be sold for, but this keeps the habitat wet, reedy and open rather than dryer and wooded. Some Broads have simply vanished through this process of natural succession. Look at old maps if you don’t believe this and you will find most Broads are now much smaller and shallower than 100 years ago. 

Reeds grow almost across the world, a very successful species that thrives in both freshwater and brackish. Probably a good thing given what we know of rising sea levels and the low lying nature of the Broads. 

Everyone in Norfolk has probably seen reeds, or at least I would like to think that’s true, though the reality may be that many people have never visited a wetland. However far fewer will have spent time just experiencing a reed bed environment? Have you? Stand or sit quietly surrounded by reeds. The feel is different in every season. Even the sound the wind makes in the reeds changes with the seasons. Rich in birdsong in spring with the low, light- green growing shoots of new reed contrasting with taller, dry, yellow-brown stems of last year’s growth. A humid green jungle complete with biting insects ( food for swallows and warblers of course ) on still summer evenings. A dry, brittle world of silver-headed stems in winter, which at sunset, for a few magical moments, is sufficed a warm pinkish-red as the last rays of winter sun set a cold fire to each reed.

Reeds create a unique wildlife habitat full of amazing creatures adapted to this strange and demanding wet world; none stranger than the bittern, which may feature in a later ‘100 species post’. Reeds also create that special quality to any landscape that they dominate. They whisper secrets to the wind of wild, wet places and of the wild creatures that live there. Secrets of pasts and futures; of things that have been and may be. Secrets of a world that for most of us remains mysterious and hidden. Why not spend some time listening to the voice of the reed and see what messages it has for you?

‘You must live in the reedbeds, if you would realize the witchery of the marshes and their mystery.’

(E Turner Broadland Birds)

Living Landscape Learning

David North, Head of People and Wildlife

Taking wildlife out of the ghetto: a Living Landscape approach to educating children about wildlife

Photo by Emma Bradshaw

The Wildlife Trusts are pioneering a new approach to nature conservation working on a landscape scale, recreating, restoring and reconnecting wildlife habitats to create landscapes in which

• Wildlife is abundant and flourishing, both in the countryside and our towns and cities
• Whole landscapes and ecosystems have been restored
• Wildlife is able to move freely through these landscapes and adapt to the effects of climate change
• Communities are benefitting fully from the fundamental services that healthy ecosystems provide
• Everyone has access to wildlife-rich green spaces and can enjoy and be inspired by the natural world

Part of my role as Head of People and Wildlife at Norfolk Wildlife Trust is to make sure the activities we use to inspire children about wildlife reflect this approach? The key messages for children from a living landscapes approach are positive ones about creating a future where the places we live, work and play in are better for us and better for wildlife. This approach doesn’t put wildlife in ghettos, whether on nature reserves or in  designated wildlife areas, it puts it back at the heart of our lives.

To me one question is central to a Living Landscape learning approach: are we part of nature or separate from nature?  There is a danger that when children visit our nature reserves that one of the hidden messages they take from their visit is that to enjoy nature we need to go to special places called nature reserves. This message that wildlife is only important in certain special places can be reinforced  back in school where there are ‘wildlife areas’ which are separate from the rest of the school. You  have probably seen one, securely fenced and  only the teacher has a key. Children can only go there when supervised by an adult. If you visit many schools you probably recognise this description. You know the sort of place. There is often a small badly managed pond within the fence and an unkempt area labelled wild flower area.  Nature reserves and school wildlife areas, unless we are thoughtful, can both operate to reinforce a message that nature is separate from our lives and you have to visit special places to be part of it.

Our nature reserve teams and their volunteers are working hard to recreate, restore and reconnect wildlife habitats in our Living Landscape schemes but equally important to the long term success of the Wildlife Trusts Living Landscapes vision is our work as educators.
The type of learning that fits well with our vision for A Living Landscape is one which enables young people to develop their relationship with nature. This Living Landscape Learning for children encourages -

• Recreation: spending  free time playing outdoors in green spaces. Forest Schools, and other child-led approaches are good examples of this approach
• Restoring nature: developing practical skills to help wildlife
• Reconnecting ourselves with nature: most powerfully achieved by direct hands-on, outdoor experiences 

When we succeed in incorporating these into our education programmes the end result is

• Respect for nature and our place in it

We can measure the success of Living Landscapes learning  by really engaging children in thinking about the sort of future landscapes they wish to be part of and by giving them the knowledge that their choices can either move us towards a Living Landscape or away from it.

In the long run whether nature conservation succeeds or fails depends on the relationship with nature that we have – are we part of the mutually dependent web of life we call nature or are we separate?  Let’s start with our children and show them that nature is all around us. That its beauty can be part of our lives wherever we live and that we  can all be part of creating a Living Landscape whether we live in a City, a town, or the countryside. It’s not only our landscapes that need to become more connected, more permeable for wildlife, it’s also our minds. The challenge is to make both our lives and our landscapes more permeable to wildlife!

Living Landscape learning provides a very positive message focusing children on future landscapes and how these can provide for our needs and nature’s needs ,or rather how this division is  ultimately false as we are all  part of a living planet in which mutual dependence includes us along with the rest of life. That’s the challenge that as Head of People and Wildlife I give to my education team and of course to you as parents reading this post. If our children grow up with a real connection to the nature around them, and this understanding of Living Landscapes, that’s good for nature but it’s also great for our children, and perhaps for the future of all of us and our planet!

A natural history of Norfolk in 100 species: Number 1

David North, Head of People and Wildlife

 This is my personal selection of the 100 species that ‘make Norfolk’ Your list might be different of course. However I guarantee that should you take up my challenge of finding these 100 species then you will end up exploring many of Norfolk’s varied landscapes, you will have visited some of Norfolk’s most special nature reserves and have discovered for yourself a huge amount about the range of wildlife habitats that make wild Norfolk simply the best county in England for wildlife. Yes, I know I’m biased, but Norfolk, with the Brecks, Broads, Fens and its varied coastline, is home to some very special wildlife. You might also end up visiting some quite odd places, from museums to city centres and from farms to forestry plantations if you do decide to track my hundred down. Follow my 100, whether virtually through these weekly posts, or by taking up the quest to track them down in the wild. Either way will hopefully take you on a fascinating journey exploring how these 100 species link in all kinds of strange ways to Norfolk’s past, its present, its places and the fascinating ways people and wildlife together have created its present.

Let us know how you get on. I would welcome your own local stories, folklore, unusual Norfolk facts or any unusual experiences of these 100 species. Did any of these species change your life? 

Many of the species on my 100 are extremely common. Indeed common species are often more important in creating our landscapes than the rarer ones. So no apologies that number 1 on my list won’t pose you too many problems to find – it’s certainly big enough, been around long enough and is common enough to be familiar. But did you know?

Species 1

English Oak (Pendunculate Oak) Quercus robur

Oak tree, David North

‘Of all the trees that grow so fair,

Old England to adorn.

Greater are none beneath the sun

Than oak, and ash and thorn.

(Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook’s Hill)

Trees are our past and our future. 

I’ve no idea how many oaks there are in Norfolk but it’s said there are 200 million oaks in the UK. In the past we might have been rocked as babies in cradles made from oak and on our deaths had our bodies buried in oak coffins. While that may no longer be true there are still plenty of people in Norfolk who eat sitting at an oak table, and live in houses held together with oak beams. Oak is one of our commonest trees and in a recent study Gerry Barnes and Tom Williamson found that English oak was not only the commonest deciduous tree in Norfolk’s woodlands it was also found in more than 50% of Norfolk’s hedges.

The links between this tree species and people go back to the dawn of time. Some of the flint hand axes mined at Grimes Graves were doubtless used to fell oaks to clear land for farming and for timber for building huts. Flint hand-axes have been shown to be surprisingly effective at felling small oak trees. 

The Bronze Age timber circle found on the tidal sands at NWT Holme Dunes was constructed of oak posts with a central upturned large oak stump. Amazingly, through dendrochronology, which uses the annular rings of trees to date timber, the central stump of Sea Henge has been dated to the year: it was felled in 2049BC.

What would Norfolk look like today without Norwich Cathedral, great timber barns like Waxham, stately houses like Blickling, Felbrigg and Holkham? But of course none of these would exist without huge quantities of oak. Oak timber was crucial in the past for house building, firewood, iron working, glass making, blacksmithing, lime kilns, ship building, salt production, leather tanning, barrel making .... The list goes on. From the Romans onwards early industry demanded huge quantities of wood for brick making and metal smelting, and the best available wood was oak. A single ship, HMS Victory, of our great Norfolk Admiral, Lord Nelson, used 6,000 trees in its construction of which 90% were oak. 

At the time of the Norman Conquest the value of woods was measured in pannage for pigs – the number of pigs that the wood’s acorn crop would support. Woods were managed deliberately to favour the valuable oak. The timber ( for building ) would be valued and sold separately from the wood ( for firewood or uses such as tool handles and hurdles). Ancient woodlands were managed by coppice (rotational cutting of trees) for wood at the same time allowing other trees to grow tall and straight ( as standards ). You can still see this system of woodland management practised at NWT Foxley Wood, Norfolk‘s largest remaining ancient wood, which has been woodland for at least a 1,000 years and perhaps far, far longer. Norfolk’s great oak woodlands would have supported lost industries like charcoal burning. And at NWT Foxley Wood stripping the bark of oaks to supply the leather tanning industry in Norwich was one major use.

Acorns, David North

It’s not surprising that the oak is our national tree, that acorns and oak leaves have appeared on £1 coins in recent times, and that we still venerate our ancient veteran oaks in the landscape, even giving some of them names. Ancient Norfolk oaks include the King and Queen oaks at Fairhaven, said to be 900 years old, and Kett’s oak near Hethersett where rebels gathered before marching on Norwich in July 1549. There is even a Hitler oak in the Broads. This was given to Chris Boardman by Adolf Hitler who, at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, presented all the medal winners with small oak saplings. The maturing oak now grows behind How Hill house.

The Druids are said to have worshipped in sacred groves of oaks and to have cut mistletoe with golden sickles in their ceremonies. Do we still venerate the oak? Well its said that every Cathedral in England has a carved image of oak leaves and acorns. In Norwich Cathedral it won’t take you long to find a green man peering mischievously from his garland of oak leaves. 

There are many well known saying about the oak. ‘Three centuries growing, three centuries standing and three centuries dying’ is one that attests to the longevity of this tree. Some oaks must be among the longest living inhabitants of Norfolk.

In both wildlife and landscape terms even today the oak is of prime importance. Oaks are said to support more than 500 species of invertebrates, more than any other native tree. A veteran oak is an ecosystem in its own right, its cracks, crannies and crevices providing homes for bats, owls, woodpeckers, fungi, lichens and countless small insects. Its acorns will support squirrels, once red now grey, badgers, mice, voles and of course jays, nature’s way of transporting acorns to distant places where the jay conveniently buries them!

In a recent survey by Norfolk County Council all the living trees in Norfolk thought to predate AD1450 were oaks. The largest oak having a girth of 9.7 metres. If you wish to see veteran oaks then visit NWT Thursford Wood. There are many wonderful, ancient oak pollards there.

In the Norfolk landscape oaks still dominate, both as roadside trees, sometimes stag-headed, and often ivy covered, and in woodland where they frequently form the largest part of the canopy.

For the future, long may Norfolk oaks continue to lock away carbon from the atmosphere in their timber, moderating our human folly in changing the climate. Oaks give us shade, shelter us from winter winds, clean our air, release oxygen from their leaves in spring and summer and pump water into the atmosphere freshening it. They provide branches for birds to sing on and for children to climb. Long live the oak!

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every full grown tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.

(Martin Luther)

Building in the Brecks

By Paul Waterhouse,  Assistant Field Officer Breckland

Fixing fences and hanging gates are fairly common tasks for most wardens, however last year the Brecks reserve team have created some slightly more challenging constructions.

Firstly, a new hay barn had to be built at NWT East WrethamHeath to store valuable winter feed for NWT’s Flying Flock. The barn itself was kindly designed by NWT volunteer William Mason. The main structure of the barn was built using recycled telegraph pole that the Trust had been donated. It will hold several hundred bails of hay and greatly reduce the Flock’s mileage across the county collecting hay as well as saving them precious time. 

We have also finished building a cattle corral at Cranberry Rough for the resident highland cattle there. It is a fairly complicated design with a number of gates closing after each other allowing you to move the cattle around the system while the handler remains safely behind a gate. The corral is essential for carrying out general husbandry of the cattle such as worming and health checks.