Freshwater Habitats Project Update 3

Since the last update the contractors have moved from the Freshmarsh and started the restoration work within the reedbed. Currently, the reedbed is in a poor state, with overgrown banks, and banks that leak water between different compartments, which makes it challenging to manage the water levels for the key species (bittern, bearded tit & marsh harrier), and the ditches are clogged with reed resulting in poor fish connectivity around the reserve. 

Work began on the Autumn trail building a new bank and creating a new ditch, almost instantly a kingfisher has been observed using the ditch. 

The views of the reedbed from the Autumn trail have been transformed as the vegetation is cleared from a network of old ditches which has also resulted in the water levels in Patsy's finally dropping, something we have been struggling with recently. This weekend a small number of waders have started to appear including a ruff, black-tailed godwit and knot. 

An exciting element of the porject is the creation of spoonbill islands, in an attempt to attract spoonbills to breed on the reserve. We have created several islands surrounded by water to reduce predation threat in the area around the dead trees. This autumn we will also plant the islands with a mixture of trees to create scrubby islands that spoonbills like to nest on. 

One of the key parts of the project is to raise the central bank through the reedbed to prevent water leaking between the main ditch and some of the compartments. A good proportion of this work was completed last week and it should be finished in the next day or two. 

However we have also been treated to a months worth of rain in one day with over 50mm of rain falling on Tuesday 14 September creating a new wetland feature on the tank road. Although we didn't want the water levels to rise on the freshmarsh as it has been great for waders recently, it was a good opportunity to see what the freshmarsh looked like when large amounts of rain suddenly fell. We feel more optimistic for the breeding birds that have flooded out in the past. 

I know a few of you have been asking if the freshmarsh is finished. It isn't just yet, as we still have to complete the north -south bund, widen a ditch and install new water control structure but the core work is complete. 

Titchwell is looking very different now and we are really enjoying watching the wildlife respond to the changes, including the pectoral sandpiper that has been with us for over 10 days.