Norfolk’s first marine conservation zone: a glimmer of hope in troubled waters

David North, Head of People and Wildlife

Today Defra announced the designation of 23 new Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs). The welcome and long-awaited inclusion of Norfolk’s chalk reef, the Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds as it’s more properly known, means that Norfolk now has its first MCZ. But what does this actually mean? And will it really bring benefits for wildlife or local people?
 
On hearing the news that our chalk reef, perhaps the longest such area in Europe, was to gain recognition in this way I am feeling buoyed up with hope. It’s a great feeling! For anyone working in conservation, hope is more than important, it’s an absolute essential.  Hope that we can make a difference. Hope that beautiful places can be saved. Hope that threatened species can become just a bit less threatened and hope that enough people will care to make our politicians and decision makers understand that wildlife matters and protecting wild places is an essential, not a luxury. 

Hope is what keeps me fired up to work for wildlife and fortunately working for NWT, though we all know how horrendously daunting the global issues and threats facing wildlife are, there are always things happening, places protected and species helped that bring glimmers of hope. For me, and I’m sure for many others who have supported our Living Seas campaigns, signed fish scale petitions, and attended our marine events, our first Norfolk MCZ is also a symbol of hope. Hope that the tide is changing for marine conservation and that the future may bring wiser and more sustainable use and better protection for marine wildlife. What also brings hope is that so many people care, and care deeply, about an environment which they may never see, about wildlife which for most of us can only be experienced through images and film taken by divers.

Yet so many of us do care. So many joined together as Friends of Marine Conservation Zones, to campaign for these MCZ designations. Let’s all feel a little bit more hopeful today and celebrate the recognition of yet another wonderful Norfolk wildlife habitat or national and international importance. Hope is a good thing it gives us the energy to do even more for wildlife.
 

Tompot Blenny, photo by Rob Spray

But what will this new designation really achieve? What will it mean for the colourful sea slugs (nubdibranchs), the extraordinary anemones that wave their tentacles in the current, the smiling tompot blenny in its chalk lair, and the shoals of bib that dart in and out of white chalk arches and seaweed encrusted crannies. Though of course blissfully unaware of our human designations, of Defra, or even of NWT, will this MCZ in anyway affect their lives? 

The designation will at minimum mean that the chalk reef area is better protected against any future damaging developments. And that the area’s wildlife is better monitored ensuring that existing activities are sustainable and cause no harm to the reef’s stunning and diverse wildlife. Eastern Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, which monitors activities in other areas of the Wash and Norfolk coast, will be responsible for ensuring that the MCZ is managed sustainably The designation will certainly encourage further studies of the reef’s wildlife which can only help as currently we know so little about the species that live there. Divers have already discovered a species of purple sponge new to science and unknown anywhere else in the world and doubtless there are many more exciting discoveries still to be made.
 
However what we already know demonstrates just how special Norfolk’s marine reef is for wildlife, supporting  an incredible diversity of species, including endangered European eels and species such as bass which are in decline in the North Sea. Just imagine. If the chalk reef and its wildlife were on land, easy to explore and view then without doubt not only would the area have been protected long ago but it would be a major attraction to visitors, a place of wonder and awe and extraordinary beauty.  One of the wonders of Norfolk and at last, though out of sight it’s no longer out of mind.

So what about people? Will this MCZ designation make any difference? The politicians answer would  be, ‘that depends’. It depends on ensuring that MCZs are not just ‘paper parks’, a line on the marine map that is largely ignored. There is of course still much work to be done. Marine wildlife, just like wildlife on land, needs enough protected areas to thrive in and more sustainable use of the wider environment. In the jargon this is what is meant by ‘an ecologically coherent network’ or MCZs. There are now 50  MCZs nationally and just six in the North Sea. All will contribute towards a network of areas which is urgently needed to ensure a healthy future for our seas. But we need more to complete the network, and not just the current  handful in the North Sea.

As Joan Edwards, head of Living Seas at The Wildlife Trusts has said: "We are pleased by this Government’s commitment to addressing the decimation of our seabed over the past century, and to delivering an ecologically coherent network of Marine Protected Areas. This second step towards the completion of a ‘blue belt’ in UK seas is crucial in turning the tide on the state of our seas but there’s still work to be done. We look forward to working with Government and stakeholders to ensure these 50 MCZs are properly managed and to achieve the much-needed ambitious and comprehensive third and final tranche. This will be the start of turning our over-fished, over-exploited and currently under-protected waters back into a healthy and sustainable environment.”

I do hope that like me you will feel joy in this glimmer of hope in the troubled global waters of marine conservation. So, yes let’s celebrate Norfolk’s  first MCZ, but let’s also use our glimmer of hope to inspire us to increase our efforts to secure Living Seas.
 
If you would like to find out more about what you can do to help then please go to .   www.wildlifetrusts.org/MCZfriends to sign up as a Friend of Marine Conservation Zones.  It’s free and your details will never be used by anyone else, or for any other purpose. Or to learn more about the Cromer Chalk Shoal visit www.northseawildlife.org.uk to explore how  we are working to protect North Sea wildlife.

Photos by Rob Spray

Pink-footed Geese at Cley

Tuesday 29th December 2015

   After a day off along the coast it was nice to drop in at Cley and see good numbers of pink-footed geese on the site. Though familiar with good numbers at Holme, seeing large numbers at Cley feeding and roosting was heart warming. These birds are clearly adding a relatively new sound to the Cley area, long may it continue. The purchase of Pope's Marsh has I'm sure helped to make this a now regular winter feature.

The pink-feet (at least 1400) lift off over Cley.
 

Great to see Bernard and his assistants!

Lead Shot: time to solve the problem

David North, Head of People and Wildlife

Lead is a poison. There is nothing particularly contentious in saying that. After all that is why lead was removed as an additive to petrol and paints, and why we no longer use lead water pipes. This fact, of course, has been known for centuries: it may even have been the decreases in fertility and increased cases of psychosis brought about by contamination of drinking water from lead pipes that was a factor in the decline of the Roman empire! The scientific consensus is that lead is a poison, with no known safe limit, that is capable of killing, and causing many serious health problems, in both people and wildlife.

However despite these bans, which now even include the use of lead in small fishing weights, there is one source of lead into the UK environment that studies suggest is annually killing at least 73,000 ducks, geese and swans. Today it might surprise you that the largest source of lead being dispersed into the UK environment comes not from industry but from the use of lead shot in game and clay pigeon shooting. An estimated 5,000 tonnes a year enters the environment this way and, as lead shot can remain in the soil for up to a century this is a poison that accumulates year on year.

Gadwall, photo by Derek Moore

As Lord Krebs, emeritus professor of zoology at Oxford University and former chair of the UK Food Standards Agency said in a recent BBC interview there is, ‘an overwhelming body of evidence’ that lead used in hunting was ‘a risk both to humans and to wildlife.’ And, ‘on that basis the advice would be that lead shot should be phased out’.

Water birds are especially susceptible to lead poisoning. When they are feeding they seek out small stones from the soil or water’s edge to take into their gizzards to help grind up their food. Unfortunately, if there is spent shot on the ground, they don’t distinguish between poisonous lead and safe natural grit. When a cartridge is fired then the lead shot it contains, (typically more than 200 in each cartridge) spread out, and most, even if the hunter is successful in hitting their target, fall to the ground, irretrievably spread over quite a large area. We have known for more than a century that spent lead shot can kill birds and the ingestion of just one or two can be lethal to birds. A recent study on marshland, now an NWT nature reserve, that had formerly been shot over for decades revealed up to a million spent lead shot per hectare. Shocking, but perhaps not surprising, as in 1992 it was estimated that 1.6 billion lead shot were deposited in UK wetlands alone in the 1990s.

It’s almost 30 years ago that the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution concluded that, ‘urgent efforts should be made to develop alternatives to lead shot and lead fishing weights’ and that ‘As soon as these alternatives are available, the Government should legislate to ban any further use of lead shot and fishing weights in circumstances where they are irretrievably dispersed in the environment’. This is not just a UK issue. It is estimated that millions of water birds are dying globally from lead poisoning from ingested spent lead shot. In Europe alone it has been estimated that around a million wildfowl, from 17 species, die every winter from lead poisoning from ingested lead shot... Globally endangered species, including the white –headed duck, are threatened by this and of course many waterfowl that die from lead poisoning may be eaten by predators. The poison then accumulates up the food chain. Lead poisoning was a major reason that the California Condor came perilously close to extinction in North America and in Europe vultures, red kites and other birds of prey have been shown to be at risk.

The use of lead shot has since 1999 been restricted over English wetlands and for shooting of waterfowl but sadly there is strong evidence that this ban is widely ignored. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust recently carried out tests on over 100 wild ducks being sold for food in England and found that three-quarters had been shot with lead despite the ban having been in force for more than a decade. Recent work has also shown that any wild game shot with lead, even if all the shot are removed from the carcass, will still be contaminated by small fragments of lead. There is increasing concern over the threat this may pose to human health.

So what can be done? Some European countries have already banned the use of lead shot including Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. Several states in the USA have total bans on its use. Unfortunately calls for a ban are sometimes seen by the shooting community as an attack on shooting but this is not the case. In Denmark for example, where the use and possession of lead shot has been banned since 1996, many hunters now regard the ban as beneficial for hunting. As Niels Kanstrup, a Danish hunter, has commented recently, ‘I’m a conservationist and I’m a hunter, too. I think shooting is a fair and sustainable way to use natural resources, but we can’t have it connected with spreading poisonous heavy metals in nature.’ Safe alternatives to lead, such as steel shot, now exist and at comparable prices and the countries which have introduced bans on lead have not seen any reduction in the numbers of people shooting. Shooters have simply switched to using safe alternatives.

As Stephen Trotter, Wildlife Trusts England Director has said:

"The scientific evidence is clear from a large body of published research papers. There would seem to be no reasonable or logical justifications for the continued use of lead ammunition when safer but equally functional non-toxic alternatives are available. I realise that an adjustment like this will require time and would not be welcomed by everyone but the risks are serious. If anglers can do the right thing for the environment, surely shooters can too?"

The Wildlife Trusts support calls by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, RSPB and the Sustainable Food Trust for lead ammunition to be phased out and replaced with non-toxic alternatives You may wish to consider supporting moves towards a ban by signing the e-petition calling on the Government to ban lead-based ammunition If you would like more scientific information and evidence on this topic then the proceedings of the Oxford Lead Symposium published last month provide more detailed evidence on the effects of lead ammunition on human health, wildlife and the environment.

Natterjacks active again.....

Sunday 27 December 2015

 After another balmy winter's day at NWT Holme Dunes I made another search for a "late" natterjack toad just after 9pm. Temperature was around nine degrees so really wasn't expecting to find anything, but just after reaching the ridge to the beach in the pines I came across this natterjack, running around actively, although a similar size to the animal I saw a few days ago it felt to me to be much fatter and healthier looking.

   I then carried along the footpath and back around the west end of the pines and over the established grey dune, really not expecting to find another one, but doing just that! Sat on a small mound of sand as if waiting for the next meal to crawl to him (or her).

Apologies for poor quality of photos but using torch and camera combined as I have no flash in camera.

Natterjack toad at Holme Dunes in December!

    The unseasonably mild weather this last few weeks had raised hopes we might find a very late natterjack toad, most of our searches have been fruitless until this evening. While coming home from work (around 9.30pm) our resident volunteer warden Tom Parkes found a common toad in Holme village, so hopes of finding a late natterjack were possible. Tom walked up to the beach and within a few minutes had found one! After reporting his finding to me I wasn't able to get out until after 10pm, my first search found the animal but while looking at it I realised a photo would be useful.

   Returning with the camera the animal, which had been quite active couldn't be found! Another careful search of the area eventually located it and photographs were taken with the aid of my torch (my flash doesn't work on the camera) in heavy rain. 

 

   Although about 4-5cm long the animal was quite thin, may be it's reason for re-emerging from hibernation. Our latest sighting was the 18th November 2013, so this is an exceptional increase and another sign of how global warming can effect our wildlife.

Nail Fungus at Roydon Common

  A brief visit to Roydon Common on the 9th December 2015 provided me with two nice sightings, first four woodlarks flying over, then moments later while searching the ground  a pile of pony droppings covered in what looked like white discs!

 I suddenly realised I was looking at the nail fungus Poronia punctata, it had been found in recent years by our then warden Jonathon Preston. Although familiar with its rarer cousin at Holme I was very pleased to bump into it. It was fruiting well and so now is clearly a good time to look for it. 

 Poronia punctata

 

 Poronia erici

   As can be seen P. erici is considerably smaller and trust me much harder to find, it prefers rabbit droppings! This species was only known from Scolt Head in Norfolk, being last recorded in the late 1930's. It was found at Holme in October 2010 by a very observant photographer who, at the time was photographing a species of Boletus. It has proved to be erratic in appearance and only from one small area on the site, however it is probably over-looked. Autumn and early winter is the best time to search for it, the public footpath east of the pines the area to explore. Good luck you'll need it!

A woodcock moon

David North, Head of People and Wildlife

The last week of November caught me moon-gazing, captivated by a beautiful and very golden full moon rising on the eastern horizon before it vanished into a blanket of cloud. The November full moon is sometimes known as a woodcock moon as traditionally it was always thought that woodcock would wait for moonlight nights before crossing the North Sea to arrive, sometimes in large numbers known as a fall, along the coast in eastern counties such as Norfolk.

Well whatever the truth of this I was pleased to spot three woodcock in woods close to my house the following morning. Woodcock may be the commonest wader in Britain during the winter months as in some years it estimated that as many as 800,000 cross the North Sea to winter in the UK arriving from Scandinavia or even Russia. Despite these numbers seeing a woodcock is by no means easy! The first one I saw was a fairly typical view: a warm chestnut brown bird, rather rotund with short, broad, rounded wings flying rapidly away from me through trees. This bird ‘exploded’ from a carpet of leaves on the woodland floor and with a characteristic rustling of wings vanished in seconds. The other two I spotted flying high over a ploughed field, distinctive in silhouette the only species you might mistake them for would be snipe but the wings are broader and less pointed and the bill though pointed only half the length of a snipe’s. Most likely these birds had been disturbed by beaters from a shoot as not too far away I could hear the sound of gunfire. Many game shoots do discourage the shooting of woodcock though they remain a legal quarry species during the shooting season.

Woodcock are mysterious birds but we are slowly learning more about them. In recent years the game conservancy has satellite tagged a number of woodcock during the winter in England and this has revealed their long east – west migration routes. Our wintering birds were found to travel to breeding grounds in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Latvia, Belarus and Russia with some birds travelling over 7,000km.

In the past they were netted in big numbers in Norfolk woods during the winter as their flesh was considered a delicacy. The NWT reserve, Cockshoot Broad, in the Bure valley takes its name from this activity. A ‘cockshoot’ was a clearing made in woodland where wool nets were strung to catch woodcock leaving the wood on their dusk flights when they move to open marshland and pasture seeking their favourite food, worms.

They do breed in some Norfolk woods and in spring and early summer the polygamous males perform circular ‘roding’ flights making curious grunting sounds presumably to impress watching and waiting females below. Its suggested that woodcock at least on occasion carry their unfledged, flightless young with them in flight. Several reputable observers have described the adults carrying a chick clasped between the adult’s upper legs with the tail folded under giving additional support.

Another story about woodcock is the November woodcock moon. It was noted as long ago as Victorian times that falls of woodcock on the coast often coincided with the morning after the full moon. On these cold November mornings large numbers of goldcrests also appeared so it was thought they had ridden across the North Sea on the backs of woodcock and sometimes were referred to as ‘woodcock pilots’. This of course is a myth but it does seem that woodcock do favour clear moonlit nights for their migrations so the tales of woodcock moons may have some truth to them. Whatever the case now is a good time to keep an eye out for a woodcock. You will need to be very fortunate to spot this superbly camouflaged, strange woodland wader on the ground but if you hear a rustle of wings and spot a rufous brown feathered ball hurtling away from you through the trees on broad rounded wings then you too have seen a woodcock – the owl-like wader of our woodlands, a rare sight but possibly our commonest wader, a bird of mystery, tall stories and fascinating contradictions. I hope you spot one!

Grazing at Holme Dunes

Gary Hibberd, Warden at Holme Dunes

Meet the new "management tools" at Holme

The recent grazing by our konik ponies and English white cattle in the dune slacks and paddocks respectively has highlighted what an amazing job these animals can do on our  sites. I gave an illustrated talk to our local group the other evening and used some recent pictures to show how important they are as management tools. I thought I'd share some of these images here:

The koniks over looking the slacks from the bank that was originally bulldozed up during World War Two.

Note the rank bush grass Calamagrostis epigejos, the bright green vegetation....

the koniks love it!

Another view of the main slack before grazing...

and after, note the "Toads in Holes" scrape in full view!

Now the work rate from the English whites!

The day they arrived at Holme on 29 October

and what they have achieved by 11 December!

A view of the paddocks main area of grassland...

and now. Well done ladies.

Winter access to Thorpe Marshes

Chris Durdin, NWT Volunteer at Thorpe Marshes

I’d be the first to admit that a walk at NWT Thorpe Marshes on a grey morning is often more about fresh air and exercise than wildlife watching.

That said, if you don’t get out you won’t encounter wildlife, and it’s always pleasure to hear squealing water rails, singing Cetti’s warblers or the ‘tsip’ of a wintering meadow pipit. As autumn turns to winter, more ducks appear: a male goosander flew past last time I walked round, and there’s usually a goldeneye or two with tufted ducks and teals on the gravel pit, St Andrews Broad.
 

Hogweed, photo by Chris Durdin

None of these species are that unusual for a reserve in the Yare Valley, but they still hold an element of surprise in what could reasonably be described as a suburban setting on the edge of Norwich.

I also enjoy the flowers that persist late in the year. White dead-nettle just seems to go on and on. A particular favourite is hogweed, especially if you can find one tinged with pink. It’s also a valuable late nectar source.
 

Railway bridge into NWT Thorpe Marshes, to be shut for restoration work

The main reason for writing now is to alert blog readers to a change in access coming soon. The usual pedestrian entrance into the reserve is over the railway bridge in Whitlingham Lane. This is scheduled to be shut for major repairs from 5 December to the end of March. You can still walk around the reserve but for this period the way in on foot will be from Bungalow Lane, farther east along Yarmouth Road, and that’s also the plan for guided walks.

It’s worth adding that the Trust’s management gives the landscape a ‘work-in-progress’ feel, with newly dug ponds, ditching work and paths being restored. All good things for the longer term, of course.

Chris Durdin leads monthly wildlife walks at NWT Thorpe Marshes. Details of monthly walks on http://www.honeyguide.co.uk/thorpemarshes.htm 

The elephant in the room – climate change

David North, Head of People & Wildlife

Few would dispute that the two biggest threats to our wildlife are habitat loss and climate change. In nature conservation we have been addressing the former for many decades through nature reserve acquisitions, and legal protection of habitats through the various designations, SSSI, SAC, SPA, etc that, at least for those working in conservation, have become familiar terms. Conservation as they say should be ‘habitat forming’ and more recently we have seen recognition of the importance of habitat creation and restoration.

Norfolk Wildlife Trust has been actively protecting special habitats in Norfolk ever since its formation in 1926. We purchased Cley Marshes and today manage big areas of rare habitats from Broadland fens to Breckland heaths, ancient woods to magical meadows. We also today are busy restoring habitats, from tracts heathland damaged and nearly lost through conifer planting at Grimston Warren to arable land in the Bure Valley restored to wet grazing marsh and increasingly through our Living Landscapes approach we are attempting this on a landscape scale. So when wildlife is threatened by habitat loss we know what to do – we have tools ranging from planning controls, site designations or as a last resort land purchase that can save threatened habitats. We even increasingly know how to restore or even create new habitats of wildlife value and conservation all over the country is busy doing this.

Hickling Broad Cadbury's Hide, by Maurice Funnell

But. And it’s a big but. The elephant in the room is climate change. Climate change can undo all our conservation efforts, make our reserves and designated sites, if not irrelevant, then at least impotent to protect many species. With even a 2 degree warming then species may need to shift their global ranges by hundreds of kilometres to stay within the ‘climate window’ that they have evolved to survive and thrive in.

So what can an organisation like NWT do about a global problem like climate change? If we are serious about ‘saving Norfolk’s wildlife for the future’ then surely this should be a key question. And of course it is; though it is one that we like other conservation organisations are struggling with. For starters our vision for Living Landscapes is both long term and predicated on the realisation that if wildlife needs to move, if populations need to shift their ranges as climate changes, then bigger better joined up habitat areas are going to be crucial. So, along with other Norfolk conservation organisations, we are mapping ecological corridors and considering how best to link our reserves together or expand them to make better ecological corridors and bigger, more resilient areas of habitat that will give wildlife the best chance to adapt to a changing climate.

We are also looking at how in the ways we manage our nature reserves we can build in resilience to future climate change: making plans to ensure our wetlands stay wet, and on our coastal reserves that our management plans fully consider the impacts of rising sea levels and the likelihood of more frequent flooding. We don’t of course have all the answers, but then again I’m not sure any of those world leaders in Paris do either! But for both our future and the future of our wildlife we need to be taking action now to ensure that whatever climate change may bring there are areas of linked habitats that give our wildlife the very best chance of survival and that the vision of our Living Landscapes becomes a future reality.

But what can we do as individuals? Well I guess most of us who care about the environment will be hoping that the world leaders who have come together in Paris this week will achieve agreements that really do move us towards the a carbon neutral future. The only sustainable long-term solution for both us and the wildlife we share the planet with is to give up our global addiction to fossil fuels and move to energy sources which don’t bring about global warming. And as we know there is progress: green sources of energy wind, solar, tidal, biomass and others are becoming more widely used and more competitively priced. There is hope, and I for one will be both hoping and, when necessary, demanding that our politicians turn the fine words we are hearing in Paris into actions that actually bring about real change. As Sir David Attenborough has indicated climate change is difficult issue today but if we don’t tackle it now it will become much harder to tackle tomorrow and then if no action is taken will become a problem that no longer can be tackled.

However I’m still left with that nagging question – perhaps my conscience speaking – the question of what actions I can take myself? Am I playing my part in any solution? Climate change is not just for the politicians and world leaders to tackle, it’s also an issue with which organisations like NWT need to grapple. It’s one for all business leaders and local decision makers here in Norfolk and beyond to be taking seriously and its one for you and me too! As both David Cameron and the Pope have said yesterday, along with many other politicians and world leaders, the decisions we make today will have huge consequences not just for present generations but also for generations as yet unborn and will determine the sort of world they inherit.

Short eared owl at Upton, photo by Tabs Taberham