What do wrens and terns have in common?

This month we received the fantastic news that we had been successful in receiving a sizable grant application to undertake wetland enhancement works at our Boyton and Hollesley reserves. This project is imaginatively titled the South Alde-Ore Estuary - Future for Coastal Wetlands Project.

At Boyton there are several fields on the reserve that are higher and drier which means there is an area of the reserve that is not currently being used by our key wader species. As part of this project we will use the rotary ditcher (below) to create new wet features like low gutters which will provide the much needed feeding and breeding conditions for the waders.

Rotary Ditcher in action.

At Hollesley Marshes we currently have very few breeding and passage waders and the site sustains two pairs of breeding lapwing annually. This sadly is not meeting our targets for the site and its time we made a change. The issues revolve around the field system and the inability to raise water to a high enough level to flood the grassland to provide ideal breeding conditions for Lapwing and Redshank. We plan to create a new 10-15ha freshwater coastal lagoon system, this ‘scrape’ would have a undulating topography (provided by the rotary ditcher) to provide the best feeding and breeding conditions for passage and breeding waders. We also plan to target terns that currently use the Alde-Ore Estuary and we feel could also use the reserve. The ground levels will be reduced to create the depth of water to provide the habitat requirements needed by wading birds and terns. This will also involve creating new ditches, foot drains, scrapes, islands and pools, as well as installing new internal sluices. In addition some of the islands will be shingle capped to provide nesting conditions for tern species such as Little, Sandwich and Common.

Finally how does a wren fit into the large new project? Well this ambitious project has been generously funded by WREN (Waste Recycling and Environmental Limited) through their Biodiversity Action Fund and we are very grateful they share our vision for the reserves. http://www.wren.org.uk/