Last week reserve staff and volunteers started Giving Nature a Home buy planting new reeds in Patsy’s reedbed (and getting very wet and muddy in the process!). We have been digging clumps of reed with the soil still intact (turves) from near fen hide and planting it on Patsy’s. The newly planted areas have been fenced off as they are particularly susceptible in the first growing season to grazing by geese and coots.
Bitterns are one of the most threatened birds in the UK because of their reliance on reedbeds and small population (75 breeding males). They need large areas of reed well stocked with fish. The future of bearded tits lies in the management of existing reedbed and creation of new ones. Marsh harriers were extinct as a breeding species in the 19th century. Re-colonisation and then further declines meant there was only one pair in 1971. Today their future looks much brighter (360 breeding females) partly due to their use of reedbeds for roosting in winter and nesting in spring/summer.
Reedbeds are also important for invertebrates with 700 species associated with reedbeds and 40 species that are entirely dependant on reed for their survival. The reedbed at Titchwell is also nationally important for water voles a species that have suffered significant declines due to habitat loss and predation by american mink.
Neil Lincoln, Reserve Assistant