Living Landscape walks, 1: NWT Thorpe Marshes

Emily Nobbs, Assistant Conservation Officer

As a newbie to the People and Wildlife Team at NWT, it has been an exciting first few months. One aspect of my role is to assist Gemma Walker, a Project Officer at NWT, with NWT’s Wildlife Information Service, and some Living Landscape work. 

The Living Landscape vision is a strategic vision of our landscape, that will help us to create a resilient, healthy, joint up environment for people and for wildlife; something that we need to aspire to do if we are to be sustainable. There are over 100 Living Landscape schemes around the UK, including eight for Norfolk: Brecks, Bure Valley, Claylands, Cley to Salthouse, Gaywood Valley, Hickling, North Norfolk Woods and Wissey Valley. For the month of January each weekend I went out walking in Norfolk, some walks took me around just outside the Living Landscapes and others within. I walked across farmland, through woodland, meadows, villages and commons. Each walk picturesque, and each enables you to explore varying landscapes. Our work to create sustainable ecological networks, is not just about conserving and protecting nature reserves, but restoring and creating sustainable sites in the wider environment, our countryside. 

 

NWT Thorpe Marshes, photo by Richard Osbourne

First up – walking an NWT Nature Reserve
During the first weekend of January my family and I were eager to start burning off our Christmas indulgences, so we headed out down Thunder Lane in Thorpe St Andrew, for a short walk to NWT Thorpe Marshes, a reserve bordering the Clayland Living Landscape ‘fuzzy’ boundary. Thorpe Marshes is a 25 hectare urban nature reserve, local to my family’s home. This is a fantastic site, within walking distance of all the residents of Thorpe St Andrew town. The walk leads you over the railway bridge off Yarmouth road, and along the bank of the River Yare, where you can view Whitlingham Country Park on the opposite bank. The site is home to many species of plant and dragonflies and damselflies, with cattle grazing the marsh. In 2011 a large project to excavate a broad, now named St Andrews Broad was undertaken, of which we could see is now slowly welcoming bird species to its waters. The reedbeds on the site support species such as reed bunting and reed warblers, with wildfowl such as great crested grebe and gadwall seen in winter. We enjoyed a sighting of two robins dancing to song along the River Yare bankside vegetation. 

This is a great site to visit all year round; it truly is an example of nature on your doorstep.

Heads up: If you decide to visit the site do wear wellington boots, as it can be especially wet after heavy rainfall! There is no parking at the nature reserve. If you fancy a hot drink and light lunch, check out Harley’s, a lovely little café on Yarmouth Road opposite the river green. 

My next walking blog instalment takes me to Reepham to begin my walk, an ancient market town, neighbouring the North Norfolk Woods Living Landscape. Please check in to NWT’s blog next week to hear more.
 

A murmuration of starlings

Helen Baczkowska, Conservation Officer

This winter, the County Wildlife Site (CWS) nearest my home has seen a roost of starlings wheeling and flowing across the sky each evening, like smoke in caught in the wind. An hour or so before sunset, small groups of starlings wing their way across the winter tree tops, the numbers slowly growing to several hundred, as more and more groups arrive from the fields and gardens where they have been feeding. Sometimes small groups break away, dart off on a circuit of their own, then return to a flock that one moment spreads out like a streamer, then clusters tightly, constantly twisting and flowing in forms that never quite resemble any nameable shape. As I watch, the birds shoot over my head chattering, with a whisper of wings like soft rain.

Starling roost, photo by Brian Macfarlane

One reason for these circling flypasts, before settling roost in the reeds of the pond, may be the local sparrow hawk. Scientists studying the phenomena of starling murmurations think that the flocking and ever-shifting shapes are largely a response to predation, as targeting one bird out of the mass becomes impossible. Certainly, the sparrow hawk has tried to fly up out of the reeds into the flock, or to fly at them from above, but always seems doomed to failure.

The science of murmurations is incomplete, but researchers have employed sophisticated video analysis and computer modelling to study how the birds achieve the spectacular moving sky patterns. To date, the thinking is that the flock is like a liquid turning to gas, or snow before an avalanche. It is a system poised to tip, with the movement of every part affecting the whole. This is a science closer to physics than biology and the evidence seems to be that each bird reacts to even the smallest movement of the birds closest to them, this movement rippling rapidly through the flock in groups of seven – each bird affecting the seven closest to them. Research continues, for the exact science of how the changes ripple through the flock without accident or confusion remains a mystery.

Flocks of thousands of starlings are known from large reed beds around Britain, with notable winter roosts on the East Anglian coast. Many of the birds will be winter migrants, boosting the numbers of a species that has suffered a dramatic decline in recent decades; long-term monitoring by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) shows that starling numbers have fallen by 66 per cent in Britain since the mid-1970s. The roost on the CWS is tiny compared to some, but it demonstrates the value of even small areas of habitat and is a reminder that observing the natural world is vital in informing the management of sites. It would be easy to look at the reed-covered pond as overgrown, but it is the only local pond suitable for a starling roost. If clearance of the ponds is considered in the future, retaining some of the reed will mean there is always a winter roost for the starlings.

Starling in flight, photo by Elizabeth Dack

As evening grows darker, the starlings circle ever closer to the reeds, swooping down close, then rising again, until at last, as if on some unseen signal, they pour into their roost in a single black flow, like dark liquid through a funnel. At first, they are easily unsettled, fluttering and chattering amongst themselves, rising uneasily if I walk too close. In the morning they fill my garden hedge with the fizz and buzz of their song, reminding me that spring is around the corner and that the flock will soon disperse - at least until next winter.

Trinity Broads: February

Eilish Rothney, Warden Trinity Broads

Slavonian grebe on Filby Broad. Photo by Geoff Tibbenham

I stood on the Filby walkway in the sunshine, a cold wind freezing my fingers and making my eyes water, trying to focus my telescope as it judders in the wind. I was looking for a Slavonian grebe which was sheltering and feeding in the calmer waters right at the opposite end of the broad to where I was standing – isn’t that often the way! Slavonian grebes have stunning summer plumage and breed further north in Scotland and Northern Europe. Cold weather can drive them southwards in the winter and their arrival attracts bird watchers to the Trinity Broads. This time of year they have lost their spectacular breeding colours, showing grey-brown above and pale below. Smaller than our great crested grebe and lacking the winter remnant of  crest that these larger birds show, the slavonians have a bright red eye – if you get close enough to see it - which didn't happen today.

We have also had a red head smew and a female scaup, showing well on Ormesby Little Broad and I took a lunch-break with my Monday conservation volunteers last week to sit in the sunshine (yes it is always sunny here!) to enjoy the views. The arrival of these special winter visitors is often a harbinger of harsh weather further north and moving this way, I hear the forecasts of more rain and then snow and my numb fingers witness to dropping temperatures. Many birds come and shelter here for the winter, I can see over 85 shoveller, numerous tufted duck and pochard. A pintail was seen on Sunday along with seven goldeneye (on Rollesby Broad). We have also had regular sightings of bittern and, as well as marsh harriers, buzzard and peregrine have frequented our air-space and perched to survey their kingdom from broadside trees.
 
To visit Filby and Ormesby Little Broad park at the car park west of Filby Bridge (Acle side) on A1064.

Species of the month: marsh harrier

Ed Parnell, Norfolk Wildlife Trust

With its impressive four-foot wingspan the marsh harrier is one of the largest and most spectacular birds of prey to be found in Norfolk. 

Marsh harrier, photo by Mark Ollett

The male has distinctive black and grey upperwings, which contrast with their chestnut back; females and young birds are a more uniform chocolate brown, with a creamy head and face. In flight they have a distinctive silhouette, holding their wings in a shallow, streamlined ‘V’.

Winter is an excellent time to see these magnificent birds as they drift languidly across the marshes and reed beds of the coast and Broads, scaring up flocks of waders and ducks in the process. However, given their chequered history, the species’ current relative abundance shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Marsh harriers were widespread in the UK prior to the eighteenth century, but extensive wetland drainage, egg collecting and persecution meant that their numbers fell dramatically and, by the end of the nineteenth century, the species no longer bred in England. Hopes were raised in the 1920s as the Broads were recolonised, but despite spreading into surrounding areas the species declined once again during the 1960s, as a result of poisoning by pesticides such as DDT. By 1971, only one pair remained in the whole of the UK.

Today, the species has made a remarkable comeback with around 450 pairs found across the UK. Around 75 of those are found in Norfolk, many of which are thought to have made their way over from the burgeoning Dutch population. The species now also over-winters in the county in sizeable numbers with the largest gatherings found roosting at NWT Hickling Broad, viewable from a special raised bank at Stubb Mill. Other birds of prey occurring at this site include the smaller and sleeker hen harrier and the merlin (the UK’s smallest falcon), along with almost the entire UK population of common cranes – on a fine winter’s afternoon the Hickling roost offers a spectacular wildlife spectacle. 

Marsh harrier in the Norfolk broads, photo by Mali Halls

To watch marsh harriers in cosier surroundings you could also head to NWT Cley Marshes, where you can usually enjoy great views of the birds gliding low over the reeds from the comfort of the reserve’s panoramic café.

Marsh harriers start to come in to roost from mid-afternoon at Hickling. Park in the NWT Hickling Broad nature reserve car park (NR12 0BW) and follow directions to Stubb Mill. A small charge applies to non-NWT members. NWT Cley Marshes is found just east of Cley village on the A149 coast road (NR25 7SA). There is free parking and entrance to the visitor centre and café, though a small charge applies to adult non-members for entry on to the reserve.

For more stunning images of marsh harriers, please visit our online gallery

Cley Marshes: January 2014

CEO of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Brendan Joyce

Following the tragic helicopter accident at Cley Marshes on 7 January, the site investigation and recovery work has now been completed and whilst the shock and sad loss of life and the grieving families and friends remain in our thoughts, we are now more or less back to normal at the visitor centre. The immediate crash site has been completely cleared and we pay tribute to the work of the USAF, RAF Ministry of Defence, Police and other emergency services in dealing with such a difficult and harrowing task and for leaving the site with virtually no trace of the incident. The area has been fenced off to ensure recovery of the habitats and to monitor and deal with any residual issues such as a small amount of unrecovered aircraft fuel, the environmental effects of which have been very strictly controlled and pose no long term consequences. We would politely ask everyone to keep out of this fenced area as a mark of respect for those who lost their lives there. There really is nothing to see or find, but I have had reports of some people climbing over the fence already which has caused concern and upset for some visitors and staff. I would ask that if you see this happening, please report it to the Visitor Centre immediately.

Meanwhile, following the December storm surge, the shingle bank now appears to be ‘self-healing’ as the natural processes of wind and tide, which caused so much destruction, are now sealing the breaches. Nature has done more than £60,000 of repair work in just a few days and probably more sustainably. It still remains a very fragile situation, and could all be as quickly undone in the next round of very high tides due in early February. However, we should all remember that the event that occurred on 6 December whereby very high tides, a surge tide and major storms and winds combined, is very rare.

There has been much talk in the media recently about the Government and the Environment Agency deciding to leave nature to take its course and not intervene. Headlines such as “Sacrificed to the Sea” are somewhat provocative and perhaps the remarks made by the CEO of the Environment Agency, under extreme pressure both due to the unprecedented challenges faced all around the country and having to deal with major cuts in funding, I believe were more to invite question and debate rather than confirm a decision. Our experience locally has been that Environment Agency and Natural England Officials have wanted to monitor developments closely rather than react too quickly with” with costly interventions that could so easily be destroyed again in forthcoming February high tides. I believe that this approach has been vindicated as intelligent because well informed decisions about intervention, repairs and future management need to take account of the medium term, not short term events from which we hope to recover from as we have done before.

Our own position regarding Cley and Salthouse Marshes is that we are already in and recognise a process of managed re-alignment of the flood defence line, an issue that has been under debate for many years and agreed through wide consultation with key stakeholders and the local communities in 2006/7. There remains many who think that maintaining the line of defence where it has been is imperative, but on this stretch of coast we are dealing with a dynamic situation where previous defence strategies for what is a natural shingle barrier, have probably caused more harm than good in trying to hold back the tide. Concrete and walls have of course been thought about, but are not only considered to be environmentally unsustainable they could actually cause more harm than good, never mind the cost. The current thinking is that the more this natural shingle barrier is allowed to move landwards and reform naturally, as detailed scientific studies suggest, the more sustainable will be the natural flood defence in the medium term, for land that was after all relatively recently reclaimed from the sea by us in the first place. There may not be a long term solution, but we can continue to manage this process, to maintain freshwater habitats and to protect properties, the regional economy, the interests of internationally important wildlife habitats and the livelihoods of local people for many more years to come.

Anyone who thinks that hard flood defences are the answer at any cost needs to consider the underlying forces of nature which are far stronger than any human engineering feats, and are being driven by the inexorable processes of climate change, sea level rise and isoclinic shift.

However, managed realignment does not mean abandonment. We might all have to accept, however reluctantly, that these changes may be fundamental in the long term, as predicted, even to the extent of the eventual loss of properties, never mind wildlife habitats. Perish the thought, but a look back at history must surely tell us all that there are forces at work which are more powerful than anything that humans can control, regardless of whether you believe we are the cause of the problem or not, and which are constantly reshaping our world, especially in low lying coastal areas.

There is a particular local and complex problem at Cley/Salthouse known as coastal squeeze. In some other parts of the country, such as at Abbots Hall in Essex, managed by Essex Wildlife Trust, there has been the opportunity to allow breaches in the defences to occur, allowing natural processes to provide more sustainable solutions to flood defence and also to roll back nature conservation and human economic interests in a more orderly fashion. It has been very difficult to negotiate and to convince people that this is not a question of abandonment, but one of sensible, sustainable managed retreat. There is a reluctant acceptance that we can do more harm than good to ourselves by trying to force nature back rather than work with it. So far, this policy has been working very well in some places, but this option does not exist at Cley as once you reach the coast road, perhaps the boundary of the land which was once reclaimed from the sea, the land rises sharply on old sea cliffs, now a mixture of arable land, heathland and woodland. Not much opportunity there to create new coastal saltmarsh, grazing marsh, reedbed and freshwater pools which are the stuff of so much amazing birdlife and other wildlife and also so much human interest.

Aerial image of Hilgay, taken by Hexcam

We have thought ahead and long term, with the Environment Agency, Natural England, RSPB and other partners, by acquiring new land elsewhere in anticipation of eventual loss of coastal habitats. In this case, it has been brave decisions in the face of uncertainty regarding acquiring land and undertaking extraordinary land management work at Hilgay and Methwold, in the Wissey Valley Living Landscape, in a pioneering and quite expensive attempt to create new wetland habitats to replace those that are likely to be lost eventually on the coast. We need much more of this approach. However, despite years of work and amazing progress in habitat creation, we do not have breeding bitterns at Methwold yet, so this kind of work should be considered as long term and not a cheap option or necessarily the only solution and we should not be prepared to give up what we have until we have alternative solutions.

But to bring us back to the local situation on the Norfolk Coast. Whether we are thinking of birds, wildlife in general, conservation of rare and diminishing wildlife habitats, people’s property, homes and land, livelihoods and the economy, we are all in this together and  in a precarious position. We need to wake up to that fact and whilst life has largely gone on in recent years without too much incident, the more recent events have sparked so much concern and debate and left us all a bit frightened and uncertain about the future.

Perhaps the punch line position statement should have come earlier, but I did want to say something about the wider context first. Despite these events, this is not the time to give up these precious habitats or to consider them to be unmanageable and untenable. We would not have given such careful consideration to the very recent acquisition of Popes Marsh, if we thought otherwise. We were acutely aware of the risk in terms of the unpredictable effects of our changing climate and the fact that this part of the coast is renowned for occasional (and perhaps increasing) catastrophic flood events from which we have recovered. The agreed policy in place for this area is one of recognised managed realignment of the defence line, not one of abandonment. These habitats, which are vital not only to wildlife but to people and the economy. We know that they cannot be defended at any cost but believe the true cost of managing the flood defence and adaptive management is very small compared to the value of wildlife and the regional economy. There is much more at stake than is realised. We accept that cannot be sustained forever, they should be maintained for as long as practically possible and also actions taken in parallel to create alternatives for wildlife and people.

So perhaps the biggest shock of all is not so much the floods, which are more a question of when, not if, and how we adaptively manage and adjust over time, but what might be perceived as a complete U turn on agreed policies which were thrashed out with all key stakeholders and the local community. Who on earth thought that this would not cost money? Bodies like the Wildlife Trusts, RSPB and National Trust have highlighted for many, many years the need for more sustainable and cost effective flood defence strategies which are beneficial to people as well as wildlife.

NWT Cley Marshes, photo by Barry Madden

NWT believes that continued investment in the defence and management of the freshwater habitats at Cley is not only vital for wildlife but is also vital for people and the economy. We may not be able to defend these habitats forever, but should do so for as long as is practically possible. We can accept the argument that it takes a little time to get the intervention right but we do not accept the argument that it is not worth the cost.

Water, water everywhere

The importance of protecting fresh water habitats on the North Norfolk coast

David North, Head of People and Wildlife

Water is vital for people and wildlife but as anyone who has swallowed a mouthful of seawater will know there’s a big difference between salt water and fresh water and it will come as no big surprise that the two are not interchangeable for people or for wildlife.

Aerial photo after the floods, Mike Page

Following the storm surge in December 2013, which damaged sea walls along parts of the North Norfolk coast, flooded our nature reserves at Cley and Salthouse Marshes, and breached the shingle ridge in two places between Cley and Salthouse, there is now heated discussion as to the importance of repairing sea defences simply to protect wildlife. So what are the freshwater habitats and do they really matter? If large areas of freshwater habitats at nature reserves such as Blakeney Freshes, Cley Marshes and Salthouse were regularly flooded by the sea what difference would this really make?

The stunning diversity of wildlife found along the North Norfolk coast and recognised as internationally important in the confusing maze of designations: from SSSI to Ramsar site, from National Nature Reserve to Special Protections Areas, from AONB to SAC, clearly is pretty special. Our North Norfolk coast wildlife sites have a lot of letters after their famous place names, and places like NWT Cley Marshes and NT Blakeney Point with their unique histories, unique landscapes and stunning wildlife are truly areas Norfolk can be very proud of. They are well known across Britain and beyond, much loved and also attract many visitors from near and far.

Marsh Harrier and Avocets, photo by Steve Bond

The reason that these areas, and the whole North Norfolk coast, is so good for wildlife lies in its diversity of habitats – freshwater, brackish, salt and marine. Lose the diversity of water types and you lose some of the amazing richness of wildlife. This is why the potential permanent loss of freshwater habitats following the December storm surge matters. If you are a freshwater fish this is a matter of life and death. But people should care about this too. Local tourism benefits hugely from the visitors who come to marvel at North Norfolk’s wildlife. They come in winter for our wonderful skeins of geese. They come in in summer to watch elegant breeding avocets and the magnificent aerial displays of marsh harriers. They come in spring and autumn for a chance to spot rare migratory species. All this is also great if you are a North Norfolk business, a hotel, B&B, a pub or a food shop. Great for the local economy and the loss of any of this wildlife diversity will impact on people too.

But won’t it all be just as good without the freshwater? And what are these special habitats that rely on keeping the sea out?

Freshwater habitats

Fresh water pools and grazing marsh, photo by Barry Madden

Protected areas such as Cley and Salthouse Marshes have three habitats completely dependent on freshwater: the cattle-grazed marshes with their network of freshwater dykes; the reedbeds; and the freshwater pools (many originate as shooting pools, others scraped out on nature reserves to encourage breeding and migratory species).

Lapwing, photo by Maurice Funell

The list of wildlife dependent on these coastal freshwater habitats is extensive. Birds such as migratory wigeon and brent geese from Russia and pink-footed geese from Iceland feed during the winter extensively on grass. And grass doesn’t grow in salt-water! In summer the freshwater marshes are a stronghold for species declining elsewhere, for example the attractive black and white lapwings with their tumbling spring displays. The freshwater dykes which edge these North Norfolk grazing marshes support a host of water insects which can only survive in fresh-water: from ‘whirligig’ diving beetles to water boatmen and many species of freshwater fish, from minnows to pike and even the now endangered European eel.

Freshwater reedbeds support huge numbers of insects from showy dragon and damselflies to myriads of tiny flying insects. That why so many birds come to them in spring – swallows and swifts feed over the reedbeds and water rails, bearded tits, marsh harriers and even the rare bittern nest within them. Without the freshwater insects these reedbeds would not be alive with reed and sedge warblers each summer or the sound of the cuckoo which feeds on moth caterpillars found in the reedbeds. Our reedbeds can survive occasional floods of sea-water quite well but their ecology would be very different and much less diverse if this became permanent.

The freshwater pools on our coastal marshes attract ducks in winter – pintail, gadwall, teal, mallard, shoveler among them. In spring and autumn the muddy edges of these freshwater pools are where waders such as sandpipers, black tailed godwits and snipe come to feed along with rarer species which delight the many birders who come to the hides that over-look these pools.

Saltwater habitats

Salt water habitats are important too of course. These include tidal salt marshes, saline lagoons (saltier than the sea), and tidal mudflats and sandy foreshores.

Sea lavender, Stiffkey saltmarshes, photo by Denise Emmerson

There are species which are only found in this salty, tidal world which constantly changes with wind and tide. These include wonderfully salt adapted and highly specialised plants. The sea lavenders which turn our coastal marshes purple in July and August. A whole range of specialised salt marsh plants; sea aster, samphire, sea purslane, sea beet, colourful pink thrift, bushes of shrubby seablite, spiky cord grass forming complex and fascinating high, mid and low marsh communities, each species adapted to withstand different periods covered by the sea. In that rarest of coastal habitats, the saline lagoons, endangered species such as starlet sea anemone and rare shrimps make their precarious homes. Saltmarsh tidal creeks form valuable nursery grounds for marine fish’ including plaice, flounder and mullet, as well as a habitat for numerous shore crabs, shrimps, marine worms and snails which in turn are food for gulls, terns, egrets, and herons.

In summary the richness of our coastal nature reserves depends on both fresh and salt water habitats and the interplay between the two. Many species will use both habitat types but will be dependent at critical times on just one – geese feeding on the freshwater grasses but roosting on sands and salt marsh protected by the tides is just one example. The balance between salt and fresh water changes daily with the tides, monthly with rainfall and changing seasons, and over much longer periods is also changed by both human activity such as sea defences and natural events including storm surges. However we need both fresh and salt water habitats if we are too keep the present diversity of wildlife that we love so much. And protecting that diversity is something worth fighting for.

Species photos submitted by members of the public to NWT's online wildlife gallery.

A starling murmuration

Eilish Rothney, Trinity Broads Warden

A swirling shoal, silhouetted against a crimson sky. A swarm, filling the sky as they came closer, their chattering as gentle as rain and then silence as they moved off down the broad only to return moments later. Who knows the unheard signals that bond these small birds to turn at once spiralling up then dropping, changing direction in an instant. 

I watched the starling murmuration over Rollesby Broad for over half an hour, captivated by their dance, entranced by the motion. Other smaller flocks arrived to be joyfully assimilated into the whole. I tried counting – there must have been close to 700, small by winter roost standards but with numbers of starlings declining these sights are getting more and more precious.

Rollesby Broad is part of the Trinity Broads, one of the newest reserves managed by Norfolk Wildlife Trust, a partnership with Essex and Suffolk Water. To view Rollesby Broad there is a car park on the Ormesby St Michael side of the Bridge on A149 (Nearest post code: NR29 5EF).