As many of you will be aware, after the heat of the past few months, parts of the marsh are now very dry, including the Purfleet scrape.
This is not unusual at this time of year, nor is it unusual for the type of habitat that we are managing here – coastal grazing marsh – where pools and scrapes are often ephemeral.
The amount of drying out does vary from year to year of course, and this year’s June and July were exceptionally hot and dry. After a day of heavy rain on the 29th May, the reserve then saw no serious rain until the very end of July. Amazingly, some parts of the marsh did hang on to its water, and this certainly helped ensure our breeding waders had a good year. The new solar powered pumps on Wennington helped keep key areas here wet until mid-July.
With ditch levels also now so low, there is little we can do to re-wet areas.
Accepting that the marsh becomes drier in late summer and the autumn is actually part of our management.
It allows us to undertake ‘topping’ on extensive areas of rush and thistle – a bit like mowing the lawn but we don’t take it down too short. This helps manage the spread of thistles and rushes (we don’t want too much of either), and creates better grazing for the cattle, which means they can do a better job of getting the grass length right for next year’s breeding season.
Over time, pools and scrapes that stay wet can start to lose their value for birds, as the biomass of invertebrates decreases. Pools that dry out can recover their insect populations.
This year, we will take advantage of the particularly dry conditions to spread some farm yard manure on to the Purfleet scrape, which should also help boost invertebrate biomass.
We’re planning on doing this next Thursday, so whilst it might mean the reserve is a bit smelly for a day or two, the birds will love it.
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer