Whilst this blog post isn’t strictly about Boyton marshes it does concern Grove marshes our other lowland wet grassland site just down the coast.
For those have not visited the site and in fairness not many do, it is around 83 hectares in size and consists predominantly of wet grassland. During the summer it is home to Lapwing and several pairs of Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler and Cetti’s warbler and a wide host of other songbirds including whitethroats, Blackcaps and garden warblers.
However, it is during the winter period that Grove marshes really comes into its own providing a haven for winter wildfowl regularly including over a 1000 wigeon, 500 teal, 200 black tailed godwits, 100 Lapwing and many other species of ducks and waders.
It was recently home to a pair of taiga bean geese that commuted between Grove and Boyton proving very popular with local birders.
It’s been a busy winter down at grove marshes with several changes to the site in addition to the standard management of the site.
Throughout the year the site is regularly topped to remove thistle heads and shorten the sward in addition to the spring, summer and autumn grazing. The topping of thistles stops this species out-competing the grass and wildflowers and spreading across the site removing feeding area and reducing ecological interest. Topping also shortens the sward and breaks it up, allowing short billed waders such as lapwings to access invertebrates in the soil. We are aiming to create a patchwork of sward length and sward density to favour both lapwings and redshanks. Lapwings favour shorter sparser swards and redshanks favour denser longer grass. Both these species are species of conservation concern with lapwing on the red list and redshank on the amber list.
We have also had a contractor working on site, slubbing out ditches. As ditches become choked up with mud, silt and vegetation their loose there ecological interest, failing to provide a feeding resource for neither breeding waders nor winter wildfowl. Breeding waders such as redshanks, lapwings and oystercatchers use these water courses to feed not only themselves but also take their young and wildfowl use these same courses in the winter.
We have also put in 75 metres of new foot drain on one of the marshes to further enhance the site for Lapwing. Like the slubbing of the foot drains this provides further feeding opportunities for waders, extending the resource available.
We are also extending the scrape area that is already there. It should be a third bigger by the time the digger has finished. This will create further feeding opportunities for both passage and breeding waders; we are also excitingly adding three islands to the site. Similar to that which can already been seen at Boyton marshes. The hope behind these is to attract breeding Avocets to the site, further enhancing the biodiversity interest of the site. The islands have been very successful at Boyton marshes; we are hoping that this will be replicated at grove marshes.
To visit the site drive down to Hollesley, take a left or a right at the water tower and at the bottom of the hill the site is on your left.