Have you ever wondered how Exminster marsh attracts such large numbers of wintering waterfowl? And have you ever been wandering around the reserve in the summer and seen a quad just driving up and down a field over and over? Well surprisingly these two things (plus much more) go hand in hand. If you look closer to the quad you’ll notice it will have an odd trailer attached. This is the weed wiper. Ok, so now we have the middle and end of the story in mind, lets start at the beginning. You acquire a field on a flood plain with the intention to attract significant numbers of wintering waterfowl and breeding waders. You then need to know what habitat they require in order to make it their home. In short, wintering waterfowl need food, and this comes in the form of short and soft grass. Breeding waders like lapwing also prefer this short grass too as they can easily find food (insects) and keep an eye out for predators. Well that should be easy shouldn’t it, as grass seems to be everywhere? Sadly, nothing is quite so simple. Tall tough and unpalatable grasses are the bullies of wetlands. They grow and spread faster than the other species and worst of all, they are no good for waders or waterfowl. So this is where the weed wiper comes in, plus some cows. As it happens, cows like the same types of grass as we need for the birds. So they graze the fields. This makes a good size difference between the unwanted grass and the wanted. As the unwanted grass isn’t grazed and is taller, we can bring in the weed wiper. This involves rolling a special carpet over them which helps to kill these courser grasses. As the good grass is shorter, it is missed by the carpet and survives ready for the winter birds to graze it. The unwanted grass, once dead is then removed to make way for more of the beneficial grasses. The need to remove the dead grass comes from the fact that any new unwanted big tough grasses could fight their way through the dead grass when the required short, softer grasses cannot. Once all this is done the end product is a field rich with tasty soft grasses with lots of insect which encourage waders to breed and wild fowl to winter here. As they say ‘build it and they will come’. And luckily for us, they do.
As per previous blogs please be aware the hide at Bowling Green will be shutting on Monday.