It’s been a wild week for weather but despite being blasted by Storm Barra, our paths are all still accessible without wellies. The wintering wildfowl are giving us plenty to view from the hides so there’s still lots of birding to be had on a drizzly day. As with the past few weeks, numbers of overwintering dabbling ducks are growing, with impressive numbers of teal, gadwall, pintail and shoveler seen on most of the meres. Redwing and fieldfare can be found feasting on berries in the otherwise bare trees, so don’t forget to have your binoculars at the ready as you walk through the garden area. Redwing pic by Richard Cousens

Whilst the starlings are a main attraction at this time of year, our roost has been a little bit restless over the past few days. They had been regularly settling into roost near the Skytower in recent weeks but have now moved elsewhere, so please make sure to check in with our Welcome Desk team to hear the updates from the night previous. While there still hasn’t been a full murmuration yet, the tens of thousands of starlings arriving at the reedbed is still a spectacle worth braving the weather to see.  And while you’re already out in the elements, then why not get some gifts ticked off your Christmas list in our shop?  

In our last blog post, we published part one of our three-part interview with our first Warden, John Wilson – the man responsible for making Leighton Moss the reserve that we enjoy today. In this post, we are giving you a rather whistle stop tour of his achievements here on the Moss.

Prior to World War I, Leighton Moss had been nicknamed “the golden bowl,” but not for the colour of the reeds. Instead, the land, then owned by the Gillow family, had been drained for agricultural purposes and was a prolific area for cereal production. However, in 1918, the steam engine pumping the freshwater off the land and into the Bay stopped working, and after 70 years of productivity, the land became rewetted. The Moss rapidly recolonised with wildfowl, and soon the reserve became popular as a shooting estate. However, without constant management, reedbed turns into wet woodland; the upkeep was tiresome work and shooting establishments gradually becoming less inclined to lease the land. But, being renowned for birdlife, Leighton Moss attracted the attention of the RSPB. The charity then focused mostly on protecting habitat for the elusive bittern. Being one of the largest reedbeds in the North West, ideal for our booming key species, the RSPB took on the lease of the land.

 John Wilson’s interview for his role of Warden consisted of a walk around the reserve with RSPB’s secretary and chairman of the council, identifying the wildlife. His intimate understanding of the local area was evident, and after two hours, he was offered the job. John started work in May 1964, with no formal inductions or training. John agreed to send off monthly bird reports, but otherwise was given free rein over the site’s management. The brief was to conserve habitat for bittern, attract new flora and fauna, and eventually even attract visitors.

In September 1964, John Wilson was invited to the flagship RSPB reserve, Minsmere, to learn from the then Warden and conservation pioneer, Bert Axell. This visit was pivotal for John, here he learned tried and tested reedbed management techniques which he soon implemented at Leighton Moss.  Upon arriving back in Silverdale, he set about excavating meres and cutting reeds in the proposed sites for the hides. The placement of the hides was decided after John had spent hours up different trees around the reserve, counting the numbers of birds on each mere. Money was tight for the RSPB and Causeway hide was built by John from his own materials found on his poultry farm, with only the nails being billed to the charity. The reserve opened in April 1965, after the completion of three hides and attracted only 375 visitors in its first year. The first hide along the Causeway can be seen in this photograph! 

The Wilson family soon moved onto the site when the house attached to Myers Farm became available in 1967. The other buildings (now the Leighton Moss visitor centre) still operated as a farm and were surrounded by fields; many of the trees in our garden area at the back of the shop were planted by John. The RSPB were keen to have Wardens living on site, not just for convenience, but to protect bittern nests which were often targeted by egg collectors. 

John Wilson spent an enormous amount of time alone wading through the reedbed; it was essential to have a thorough understanding of the habitat to provide the most effective form of management. He kept daily logs of his sightings of birds and mammals, sharing his recordings with groups of volunteers to establish a vision for the reserve.

In our final part of this look at John's life at Leighton Moss, we will be discussing some of his most memorable findings and the immense contribution to conservation that they have provided.

Beth