The one thing about working on a wetland reserve, you look forward to the autumn and winter, as the winter wildlife is as good if not better than in the spring and summer. Although this time of year brings with it shorter days and wet weather, on the positive side it attracts large numbers of wetland wildlife. The autumn colours and the shinny bright berries lining the hedgerows are just the tasters to wet our appetite ready for the onset of the real delights of this time of year. If you get a chance pop out to one of the reserves and listen for the arrival of the winter months, the sounds of wigeon and teal or the chattering of black-tailed godwits. Of course we shouldn’t forget the cry of the winter lapwing and the eerie call of the curlew, all sounds we associate with this time of year, with misty mornings and dewy grass.
Before the arrival of the wet weather the reserves have been undergoing the last preparations for the winter birds and next year’s spring arrivals before the ground gets too wet and soggy for us the work out in the fields. Talking of lapwing one of the key operations that needs to be done before the winter levels come in is the cultivation of three fields for our rare breeding wader to nest. I say rare, not in a national sense but in a local sense, the reserve has the largest remaining population of these birds in Devon, with only one other site with very small numbers. Our lapwing have been declining for a number of years now, it is not a new thing, however when the old saying safety in numbers comes into play they will be fighting against the forces of critical mass soon too. With just 13 pairs breeding successfully last year our birds are up against it. Climate change too will contribute to the re distribution of our UK birds as the general trend is a move north-east so areas in the south west could well struggle to hang on to these great little birds as a breeding species.
However here on Exminster Marshes, we have completed all our autumn work, the fields are cultivated and the ditches have been scrapped back and cleaned, providing an increase in feeding opportunities. The grassland is looking good, with many of the large rush tussocks knocked back and the grazed turf down to the low levels that these birds like. Rather fussy breeders as many birds are, the lapwing likes to have a clear view. This means that they can see and mob any predators that might be out to steal their eggs, which is where the safety in numbers trick comes into play, several birds mobbing a predator is more likely to be successful than a few.
But we now have to await the arrival of the spring with our fingers crossed that our work out on the marshes has been enough to entice and hold onto this precious breeding wader that used to be so common in our farmed landscape.