Early spring on the fen

Words from the Warden in March

Nobody knows the two National Nature Reserves (NNRs) better than Alan Bowley and in this, the first of a series of blogs, he describes the wildlife that he has been observing this March.

After some 23 years at Woodwalton and Holme Fen and 13 of those working on the Great Fen I thought it was about time I put pen to paper from time to time to keep folk up up to date with what happens on the NNNRs and beyond. So here goes.......

Spring got off to an early start this year when I heard the first Chiffchaff singing at Holme Fen on  26^th February - possibly an early migrant but equally could have been one of the increasing number of overwintering birds getting tuned up early!  Over the last few years I have also seen a gradual increase in nesting Cormorants on Burham’s Mere, reaching 19 this year. By mid-March the youngsters were making a right racket and they will soon be out fishing for themselves. Also early in the month I found plenty of Orange Underwing moths skipping about and spotted the first flowering Field Woodrush on 17th. There are three species at Holme Fen including the elusive Fen Woodrush which grows nowhere else in Britain (except for the odd one at Woodwalton).

At Woodwalton I heard the first toad croaking on 17^th. It’s impossible to predict where they are going to appear on this site. One year a particular dyke will be absolutely crammed with them and then the next year when I‘m thinking numbers have declined, I find them half a mile away in similar numbers! Having said that, there are usually a few around the entrance.

Toads at Holme Fen by Terry Brignall (All Aspects Photography)

Walking around Woodwalton Fen this morning (31^st) it was warm and several Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies were on the wing. Also the first leaves of the Great Yellow Cress, Rorippa aquatica. Often these leaves are deeply toothed but become less so as the plant matures and flowers. Something I always find exciting about the spring is the colour of the Hawthorn leaves. They’re always late coming into leaf here because the wet fen is also relatively cold, but today they were unfolding and showing that particularly intense green which lasts just for a few days before it fades to a duller hue. For me it’s one of the real highlights of spring and makes me want to grab the paint brushes and get out and capture it (some chance – too many e-mails to do!).

I watched a pair of Long-Tailed Tits completing the nest they started last week – a marvel of engineering, which today was being decorated to a high standard with lichens and mosses to camouflage it. Whilst stopping to listen to a Stock Dove calling, I also saw the first of the Mute Swans sitting resolutely on its nest right by the path. Like many birds our resident swans become quite tame outside the breeding season but become progressively more aggressive as the young hatch, although even then they seem to remember who the fen staff are and we get away with little more than few hisses!   A little further on I put up 15 Snipe in one field. Years ago, they bred quite widely here but as the national population declined so they seemed to desert the Fen. Tim Sutton and the volunteers have been working hard on Darlow's Farm to create good conditions for them, so hopefully the few drumming birds we have heard in recent years will increase again this season. How vocal many of the raptors are at this time. Buzzards and Marsh Harriers were both calling and displaying today, but soon it will be difficult to even know they are here, as they settle into brooding their eggs.

A new sluice-gate being installed on one of the Woodwalton Fen dykes

The Lesser Pond Sedge has been flowering for some time now, and this is a good time to start brushing up on sedge ID, as soon there will be many similar species and even after all this time I do find them a tricky group to identify confidently!

At Darlow's, our Sussex/Aberdeen cattle will soon be having their TB test and then will be coming back into the Fen, along with some graziers’ cattle and the ponies. Its still very wet in places so we’ll have to take them by trailer rather than use the new ramp on the west bank but at least we can start grazing a bit earlier than the last few years and so hopefully control the rush and reed more effectively.

Much of the north and some of the central areas of Woodwalton Fen are closed at present to keep disturbance at minimum for some of our more shy wildlife, and it's a similar story on Darlow's.

To round the month off, last Saturday (29^th) I took my wife and parents-in-law to the Great Fen concert with the Hunts Philharmonic orchestra and choir. What an evening! Back in the 1980s, Bob Devereux wrote a poem ‘Landscapes’ about the drainage and changes in the fens and this was read and followed by Christopher Brown’s  choral piece  (also called ‘Landscapes’). Sitting in the front row the soprano's voice was just stunning. The whole evening’s music and words really captured the magic of the once wild fens and the changes since drainage. The poem starts.”Spread the map out flat – there are no hills here – this is a levelled land – levelled by water – tamed by man.......” We really need to get him to write an updated poem about how Great Fen is creating a new ‘wild’ landscape... or perhaps we should have a competition..?

That’s all for now.   I’ll write a few notes later this spring.

Alan  Bowley has worked for Natural England and its predecessors for over 35 years. He has been warden / senior reserves manager of the fenland National Nature Reserves for 23 years and before that worked on chalk grassland, wetlands and heath in Sussex and Hertfordshire. He helped create the Great Fen in 2001 and has been deeply involved ever since. 

Please click here to read more about the wildlife of Woodwalton Fen and Holme Fen. 
Maps and details about visiting the two NNRs and wider Great Fen can be found here.