Suffolk wildlife winter 2018

Suffolk

Wildlife News from Suffolk Wildlife Trust

WINTER 2017/18

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

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Living Landscapes Living Gardens Living Seas

WINTER 2017/18

CONTENTS

MALCOLM BROWN

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18

9

KATH AGGISS

MARK TRIPP ALAMY

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6

The best birthday present

Following the success of a campaign to raise £200,000, Suffolk Wildlife Trust has now completed the purchase of Breck grassland at Lackford Lakes.

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Log your hog

LIVING LANDSCAPES

The Trust's Hedgehog Officer, Ali North, asks you to give hedgehogs a helping hand.

SPECIES SPOTLIGHT

14 Run rabbit, run

The rabbit has a rich history in Suffolk, Matt Gaw looks at their history and how a population slump could impact on conservation.

22 Haunted by owls

John Grant explains how to fall

under the spell of the short-eared owl.

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PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

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Picture this

Photographic judge Jamie Hall, finds out how the winners of the Trust's 2017 Photography Competition got their shots.

Bigger, better, more connected Why bigger is nearly always better when it comes to landscapes.

24 The stuff of life

WILDLIFE FOR PEOPLE

30 Murmurations

Where to see the UK's annual starling airshow.

UK NEWS

24 An Act for nature

The Wildlife Trusts are calling for an Environment Act.

DIRECTORY

32 Advertising directory

Unsustainable farming practices are pushing our soils to the edge.

Agronomist Caroline Corsie explains why we need to save this precious resource.

MINDEN PICTURES FLPA

CONSERVATION NEWS

JOHN FERGUSON

Welcome

Little owl Entry from the Simply Come Wildlife category of the 2017 photography competition by Kath Aggiss

Suffolk

Wildlife News from Suffolk Wildlife Trust

WINTER 2017/18

On the cover

Rabbit Dominique Delphino

Last summer I was lucky enough to have a pair of hobbies nest in the trees beyond our garden. I had no idea, as these delicate falcons are famously discreet when nesting, but I was thrilled to note the occasional sighting when they fed on dragonflies high over the garden. It was not until September when the young were calling noisily that I realised there was a nest. And then for a short, glorious week I watched as two fledged chicks caught moths by twilight and honed their extraordinary hunting skills in blissful ignorance of my presence.

Julian Roughton When I was growing up in the 1970s the hobby was Chief Executive inextricably associated with heathland but these days they thrive in farmed landscapes across central and eastern England. Although never common they are nothing like the rarity they once were.

They are not the only bird of prey whose fortunes have been transformed. In 1971 a single pair of marsh harriers represented the entire UK population. It had already been lost as a breeding bird once before and seemed destined to disappear again. But the banning of DDT came just in time and combined with conservation efforts marsh harriers have now recovered to numbers not seen since the draining of the Fens, with some 350 breeding females across the UK. The sparrowhawk was also saved by the banning of the persistent agricultural chemicals that triggered a calamitous collapse of their population. I well remember, aged 14, the excitement of seeing my first sparrowhawk– and the detention it earnt me for sneaking out of school to follow it.

A more recent dramatic revival is the return of breeding buzzards after an absence from Suffolk of over a century. Once you had to travel to the West Country or Wales to see them soaring overhead - today you can see them anywhere in Suffolk even high over town centres.

Perhaps the most surprising return is that of the peregrine. In 1932 Ticehurst wrote in his History of the Birds of Suffolk that ‘a century ago it used to nest annually in the steeple of Corton Church near Lowestoft.’ Today peregrines nest in manmade structures across Suffolk – on cranes, bridges and tower blocks. As a student I volunteered to watch the nest of the only golden eagle in England in the Cumbrian fells. A highlight was the spectacular jousts between the eagles and a territorial pair of peregrines. Peregrines, like eagles, were then symbols of our wildest landscapes.

Today you are more likely to see peregrines in London whilst walking along the Thames than in many of our National Parks. And there is the irony. We can rightly rejoice that once persecuted birds of prey have returned to lowland England. Yet 60 years of legal protection is not working in the English uplands. The imminent extinction of the hen harrier as a breeding bird in England is a dark cloud that hangs over other conservation successes and demands to be addressed.

FLPA SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

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Living Landscapes Living Gardens Living Seas

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE SUFFOLK WILDLIFE MAGAZINE is published by Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Brooke House, Ashbocking IP6 9JY 01473 890089 info@suffolkwildlifetrust.org suffolkwildlifetrust.org SWT CENTRES Bradfield Woods 01449 737996 Carlton Marshes 01502 564250 Foxburrow Farm 01394 380113 Knettishall Heath 07717 156601 Lackford Lakes 01284 728706 Redgrave & Lopham Fen 01379 688333 EDITOR Matt Gaw

DESIGN Clare Sheehan ADVERTISING Today Magazines, Framlingham 01728 622030 PRINTING Five Castles Press, Ipswich PATRON Lord Tollemache PRESIDENT William Kendall VICE PRESIDENTS David Barker MBE, Sir Kenneth Carlisle, Lord Deben, Dawn Girling, Peter Wilson TRUSTEES Ian Brown (Chairman), Nigel Farthing (Vice Chairman & Hon Secretary), James Alexander (Treasurer), David Alborough, John Cousins, Rachel Eburne, Denise Goldsmith, Pip Goodwin, Peter Holborn, Simon Roberts, Anna Saltmarsh.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE TRUST is one of a national network of Wildlife Trusts dedicated to safeguarding the future of wildlife for the benefit of all Suffolk Wildlife Trust is a registered charity no 262777 and a company limited by guarantee no 695346

KEEP IN TOUCH

The Trust benefits from the most incredible support, with many members’ commitment stretching over decades. Please keep in touch so we can ensure you get the most out of your membership.

GETTING YOUR MAGAZINE ELECTRONICALLY

If you would prefer to receive your magazine in electronic format, please contact info@suffolkwildlifetrust.org or phone 01473 890089 Sam Grange our Membership Manager would love to hear from you. Please call on 01473 890089 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

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CONSERVATION NEWS

The best 30 birthday present

HAP PY

th

LACK F LAKEORD S!

Renowned bush craft expert and wildlife enthusiast Ray Mears joined Suffolk Wildlife Trust to celebrate hitting the £200,000 fundraising target to extend Lackford Lakes nature reserve.

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year of the founding of Lackford Lakes, was a special moment for the reserve and everyone associated with it.

“I think first of all we would like to say thank you. We’ve been genuinely overwhelmed with the level of support we’ve had from across the county. To reach the target in such a short time shows just how much Lackford Lakes means to people and how important it is to them to safeguard more of west Suffolk.

“Lackford Lakes nature reserve is famed for its kingfishers, dragonflies and winter wildfowl. The addition of this new land will add big skies,

an open Breckland landscape and hopefully more stone curlews.”

The meeting of the fundraising target and the purchase of the land was announced ahead of a talk by Ray Mears at the Apex in Bury St Edmunds.

Ray, whose own fascination with wild environments was forged from childhood experiences of exploring the countryside around the North Downs, said as well as protecting the land it was vital that more people would now be able to experience it.

He added: “It’s great news that places like Lackford Lakes

200K

RAISED TO ADD

ACRES TO

LACKFORD LAKES

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Bernard Tickner MBE cuts the cake at the birthday celebrations.

ANGELA LORD

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he appeal towards the purchase of 77 acres of land – an important habitat for species such as nightingale and stone curlew – was launched in September 2017.

Following overwhelming public support, the Trust has now completed the purchase, ensuring that a precious area of developing Breckland near Bury St Edmunds will be protected for future generations to enjoy.

Will Cranstoun, West Suffolk Sites Manager for Suffolk Wildlife Trust, said the purchase, in what is the 30th anniversary

JOHN FERGUSON

Wild Tots

Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s popular Wild Tots sessions for parents and carers with pre-school children provide opportunities for children to connect with nature at an early age.

The sessions encourage children (and adults) to engage in playful, hands-on outdoor experiences: from making mud pies to jumping in puddles to promote the development of social skills, self-confidence, creativity and independent learning. Each session concludes with a story or song and an opportunity for parents and carers to chat with friends over a hot drink.

Wild Tots builds on the Trust’s experience of delivering Wild Play sessions with families at Cherry Blossom Children’s Centre in East

are able to grow and become not only a refuge for wildlife but somewhere people can come to be inspired and engaged with the natural world.

"Congratulations to Suffolk Wildlife Trust and everyone who has supported them.”

One of the major donors to the campaign was Bernard Tickner MBE, who effectively founded Lackford Lakes 30 years ago, initiating the transformation of the used quarry into a rich wildlife habitat. In 1987 he bought part of the reserve, known as 'The Slough’ and gifted it to the Trust. Mr Tickner, who sadly passed away in November, had

presented the Trust with a cheque for £65,000 towards the land purchase during a weekend of celebrations to mark Lackford’s 30th anniversary. He had previously given £35,000 towards the appeal.

Julian Roughton, Chief Executive Officer for the Trust, thanked everyone who had supported the appeal and added: “There is no doubt that without Bernard Tickner, Lackford Lakes as it is now would not exist. His generosity has led to the creation of a reserve that has become both exceptionally important for wildlife and for people.”

FIND OUT MORE Regular Wild Tots sessions for parents and carers with pre-school children are offered at Bradfield Woods, Carlton Marshes, Foxburrow Farm and Lackford Lakes.

Booking is essential. suffolk wildlifetrust.org/whats-on for more information.

SUFFOLK RECORDING BURSARIES

Want to take your identification skills to the next level? The Suffolk Naturalists’ Society and the Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service in conjunction with the Field Studies Centre at Flatford Mill, are again offering Recording Bursaries to assist people with the cost of attending identification courses.

Participants will be provided with the skills and experience to identify and record Suffolk wildlife.

Participants need to be over 25 and not normally have their training paid for by their employer.

FIND OUT MORE sns.org.uk/pages/bursary-f.shtml

MATTHEW ROBERTS

Postcode: IP28 6HX

DAVID KJAER

VISIT LACKFORD LAKES

Bergholt and at Arger Fen, funded

by Dedham Vale AONB Sustainable Development Fund, and at our centres on National Play Day in August. Wild Tots and Wild Play creates opportunities for adults and children to play and learn together and to make nature and play part of their everyday lives.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

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CONSERVATION NEWS

UNDERSTANDING MORE ABOUT DORMICE

FIND OUT MORE For wood-working courses see your What’s On Guide, or visit suffolkwildlifetrust.org

Supported by Tesco's Bags of Help scheme.

MAKE A PLEDGE

ABOVE Peter Aldous, with Trust CEO Julian Roughton on a visit to Carlton Marshes.

RIGHT In Ipswich, Sandy Martin was visited by hedgehog officer Ali North.

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Two Suffolk MPs have given their support to a campaign calling for Britain to seize the opportunity to defend and strengthen environmental protections when the UK leaves the European Union.

By signing a Pledge for the Environment, Peter Aldous, MP for Waveney and Sandy Martin, MP for Ipswich, have demonstrated their commitment to creating a future that is rich in wildlife.

The campaign is coordinated by Greener UK,

an alliance of 13 major environmental organisations, including The Wildlife Trusts. It is hoped the Pledge for the Environment will encourage the Government to commit to a thriving natural world that will see both a sustainable economy and communities that are more connected to nature.

INDO ARNDT NATUREPL.COM

Want to try your hand at an old craft? You can now do it in the comfort of our new green woodworking shelter in Bradfield Woods. Built using ash from the reserve it was funded through Tesco’s Bags of Help scheme.

A pioneering new project to increase the understanding of hazel dormice populations in Bradfield Woods is set to get underway.

The scheme, which will involve the micro-chipping of a number of dormice, will demonstrate the degree of dispersal of juveniles away from the natal nest and help record their survival.

Dr Simone Bullion, who is leading the project with Alison Looser, said the micro-chipping will also enable the Trust to have a more reliable estimate of the population and could highlight how habitat management influences dormouse dispersal.

She added: “This is a real opportunity to find out more about the lives of the dormice in Bradfield Woods.

We are very excited to be working on the project as the results will add to our understanding of dormouse ecology.”

CHRIS LUXTON

NEIL GEACH

COLIN VARNDELL

WORKING WITH BRADFIELD WOOD

LOG YOUR HOG

Hedgehogs might be hibernating but there’s still plenty that can be done to give them a helping hand.

Over the winter, Suffolk Wildlife Trust is calling on people to think about linking their gardens with others and creating critical habitat patches for our dwindling hedgehog populations.

The Trust’s Hedgehog Officer, Ali North, who appeared on BBC1 Countryfile in December, said hedgehogs “need all the help they can get.”

She added “have you got a Hedgehog

Highway, wild area or hedgehog nest box in your garden? We’d like to hear about it!

Our new online map is ready for you to log your hedgehog-friendly garden features as well as any sightings you may have in the coming spring.”

The information, whether it is living or dead sightings, will help target the Trust’s future conservation work by identifying hotspots and possible population gaps.

Ali has spent the summer with hedgehog champions and volunteers in Ipswich where she is leading the project

to make the town the most hedgehogfriendly in the UK. Neighbours and community groups, who have already linked gardens with Hedgehog Highways, have reported seeing a wealth of hedgehog activity, which has also been captured on trail camera and footprint tunnels.

Along with identifying previously unknown hedgehog populations in school grounds, allotments and gardens, the study has also recorded interesting behaviour including violent squabbles over a food bowl.

TO LOG YOUR HOG Visit: hedgehogs. ispywildlife.org/

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CONSERVATION NEWS

HOT-BLOODED AND HAIRY CHALLENGES FACING MAMMALS

The theme of Suffolk Naturalists’ Society (SNS) biennial conference 2018 is Challenges facing Mammals Today.

A packed programme featuring a mixture of high profile national and local speakers, including Patrick Barkham (natural history writer for The Guardian) talking about the issues surrounding badgers and The Vincent Wildlife Trust discussing the return of polecats.

The changing fortunes of deer, dormice, otters and hedgehogs will all feature on the agenda and Dr Tom August from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology will talk about new technologies for monitoring bats.

Other speakers include representatives from The Little Ouse Headwaters Project Mammal Group, Natural England and the Suffolk Police Rural and Wildlife Crime Unit.

The conference will be held on Saturday 24 February 2018 at Wherstead Park, Ipswich IP9 2BJ. Price: £15 to SNS members, £18 to non-members.

IN MEMORIAM

We are grateful to the friends of the Trust who have recently remembered us in their Will or were commemorated through an In memoriam donation.

Jean Booth Ivan Catchpole Walter Curtis Jim Foster Richard Girling Pauline James Audrey King John Ling Martin Lodge

Dr Peter Long David & Olive Lyons Ronald Newman Nina Nicholson Christopher Rainer Ione Stanford Richard Waters John Wells

PAUL MIGUEL FLPA

THANK YOU

ALEX HYDE NATUREPL.COM

THE PROBLEM OF CRASSULA

Fen raft spider

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Work to protect the internationally important wetlands of Redgrave & Lopham Fen from an invasive weed is well underway.

Following monitoring of the national nature reserve, Crassula, also known as New Zealand pygmy weed, was found at two locations – a pond close to the learning centre and a scrape further away. If left, Crassula will quickly take over, forming dense mats of sprawling stems; out-competing and

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

killing native plants, including stoneworts and leaving a poor, deoxygenated environment for invertebrates, such as the fen raft spider.

The contaminated pond has been filled in and will be planted with scrub.

Resident species, such as water vole, have been trans-located to other parts of the reserve.

Monitoring for Crassula at Redgrave & Lopham Fen will continue for the foreseeable future and the

POLECAT SIMON LITTEN FLPA

FIND OUT MORE

Trust is asking visitors to the reserve to follow good bio-security practices by making sure boots are clean and sticking to marked footpaths.

The project to tackle Crassula, which also involves the founding of a multi-organisational steering group, has been supported by Essex & Suffolk Water’s Branch Out Fund.

PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

PICTURE THIS Jamie Hall finds out how the winners of the Trust's 2017 Photography Competition got their stunning shots.

T

he Suffolk Wildlife Trust photographic competition is something I always want to support and be a part of.

Seven years ago, when I first started out as a hobbyist photographer I entered a similar local Wildlife Trust photographic competition.

Somehow I won. It was a photo of an adder from one of the Trust's sites. I didn't enter the competition to win, but to see what the reaction was to my images and for the enjoyment.

What came from entering the competition was a big boost in my confidence as a photographer and the realisation that people enjoyed seeing other photographer's work. Its not about having the most expensive camera or the biggest lens – I used an old camera that I’d ‘borrowed’ from my mum, and I can’t even remember what the lens was.

Suffolk has such a diverse array of wildlife with pretty much everything you can ever wish to photograph all in one county. The trust has so many great reserves that any inspiring photographer will never be lost for ideas or subjects to photograph. It's always a pleasure to be involved with the judging of this great competition and to see so many inspiring images.

Young roe deer

Winner from the Strictly come wildlife category Kevin Pigney I had been working on a barn owl project & had often seen this young roe deer in the vicinity. One morning he saw me and to my amazement started running in my direction. What else could I do!?

Photography COMPETiTiON

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PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

RIGHT Autumn harvest Runner-up: Unearthed category. Kate Aggiss

I spent many hours on my tummy taking this shot, but then again I am very passionate about wildlife. I called him 'Adrian Vole'.

BOTTOM MIDDLE

Backlit hedgehog

Winner: Eastern angles category. Colin Barley

I set up a mossy log for the two regular hedgehogs in my garden. This technique I've seen with other animals and as I've never photographed hedgehogs I thought I'd try it on them. It's surprising how transparent those spines are. Never overlook what might be worth photographing in your back garden – it can capture your imagination.

ALL OVERNER: WIN GES JUD AND ICE CHO BLIC PU E VOT

ABOVE

Wise bird

Winner: Under 12 category Thomas Easterbrook Our kids were inspired just by the prospect of entering the competition, let alone in receiving this sort of acknowledgement.

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ABOVE Meadowland Winner: On the doorstep category Nicholas Hurst

I enjoy getting outside, getting my waders and camouflage gear on to try and find that special moment. I feel very privileged to be so connected to wildlife and I just love wildlife photography.

LEFT No fishing allowed Winner: Comedy category Alan Leeks

I got lucky with this shot whilst walking around Shoeburyness.

Photography gets me outside – it’s a real motivator. My motto is 'If you don't go, you don't know'.

I'm glad I did go as this is the first time I've ever won something!

THE JUDGES

JAMIE HALL SARAH GROVES Award winning Adnams wildlife Content photographer Manager

LEE ACASTER Amateur landscape photographer

STEVE AYLWARD SARAH LUCY BROWN Head of Photographer Properties & for Archant Projects SWT Suffolk

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PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

ABOVE

Green woodpecker

Winner: 12-18yrs category Gideon Knight I had spotted this individual before as one of its eyes was different to the other. I literally crawled quietly on my tummy for about 15 metres to get this shot – I was very lucky indeed!

LEFT Wasp Winner: Unearthed category. Claire Haskins

I spent a couple of hours lying on the path watching these digging wasps. I couldn't help be captivated by these creatures bringing in dead bees and burying them. I entered the competition, albeit unsuccessfully, last year so being chosen as a winner is fantastic.

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ABOVE Lackford Lakes Winner: Simply Suffolk category Shirley Shakespear

I've never got anywhere before with photography competitions so I'm delighted. I've started to develop my technique over the last few years and I took this photo at Lackford on one of the Trust's courses. I've really got into it.

LEFT Protective mother Winner: Out of sight Suffolk category. Guy Pilkington

In the summer I do a lot with macro photogrpahy – it opens up a whole new world of exploration. The spider was very accommodating as it basked in the late morning sun near to Woodwalton Fen National Nature Reserve.

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LIVING LANDSCAPES

Run

rabbit, run Often overlooked or persecuted, rabbits have been the architects of some of Suffolk’s most bio-diverse landscapes. Matt Gaw looks at their history and how a population slump could impact on conservation.

Despite its fleetness of foot, death, it seems has caught up with the rabbit

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I

t was two summers ago when I first met rabbits at Wangford Warren. Herds of them. Some skittered away in heart-quickening gallops, while others stood on hind feet like prairie dogs. Alert, but barely moving: cotton-tailed sentinels in the shadows of the razor wire and fences of RAF Lakenheath. Their desire lines cut across sand and bare earth, baked grass and sun-bleached clumps of reindeer moss; their holes and burrows mined into the inland sand dunes that once shuffled across the landscape: a dry wave that swept as far as Brandon.

RABBIT-MADE LAND Writing in H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald described Breckland, which stretches for 1,019km2 across Suffolk and Norfolk, taking in Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s reserves at Lackford Lakes and Knettishall Heath, as “a ramshackle wildness in which people and the land have conspired to strangeness”. Cleared by Neolithic farmers, who quickly exhausted the thin glacial soils, the climate – warmer and drier than most parts of the UK – also played its part. But it was the rabbit with their tight grazing, their frenetic nibbles and scrabbling scrapes, which really would help forge the bewitching, alien character of the Brecks.

The word “Breckland” roughly translates as “broken land”. It is a medieval term for heath that has been fractured by cultivation and then abandoned: broken, in that it is regularly disturbed. But rabbits have broken the Brecks in other ways. As I saw at Wangford, they have exposed the earth’s sandy stuffing, creating and maintaining conditions for a huge number of rare flora and fauna.

The Breckland Biodiversity Audit (BBA), carried out in 2010 and led by the University of East Anglia (UEA), identified 12,845 species across the area’s diverse habitat of heathland, pine forest, wetland and inland dunes. Of those species, 2,149 were a priority for conservation in Breckland and 317 were listed on the UK’s Biodiversity Action Plan. An area that equates to just 0.4% of the UK contains 24% of our rarest species. It is the studious trimming of rabbits that supports plant species like Spanish catchfly; their digging and burrowing that creates space for solitary wasps, bees and a host of wonderfully named ground-roaming beetles: the wormwood moonshiner, the brush-thighed seed eater.

Then, of course, there is the poster boy of the Brecks: the rare stone curlew. A bird as strange and as hauntingly beautiful as the land it loves. Sometimes known as the thick -knee due to its knobbly ankles, it scans the expanse of rabbit-nibbled heath for predators with eyes like fog lamps.

HISTORY IN THE BRECKS

DAVID KJAER

The rabbit then, is a keystone species but also it is nonnative; a cultural animal that has found its place in the landscape. The practice of farming rabbits, known as warrening, was introduced to Britain by the Normans with the earliest records going back to 1146. In the Brecks, warrens would have been established by the 1280s. A report on the archaeology of the region’s warrens by the Breckland Society described “classic warren country” as the area north of Barton Mills and east to Thetford. It was, according to a 1563 lease for a warren in Brandon, a landscape whose “barren soyle nevertheless very good for

SUFFOLK SUFFOLK WILDLIFE WILDLIFE 15 15

But now, all is not well. While public and media attention has lingered on efforts to conserve the rare and the unusual, the species that underpins this entire ecosystem has struggled. An animal renowned for its capacity to breed has suffered catastrophic declines.

Despite its fleetness of foot, death, it seems has caught up with the rabbit. First, in the early 1950s came myxomatosis. Now an endemic pandemic that leaves its victims wandering zombiefied and blind, it was first introduced to control what was said to be an unmanageable population. Decades later, Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease (RHD) arrived from China, first infecting domestic pets and soon spreading to the wild population. Its symptoms were obvious and distressing: blood poured from the nose and the rabbit died so quickly it often still had grass in its mouth.

Now a new strain – RHD2 – genetically different and in all likelihood unrelated from RHD1, is sweeping across the UK, capable of crossing genus and killing hares too.

Dr Diana Bell, a conservation biologist at the University of East Anglia (UEA), has seen the impact of disease on rabbit populations for herself. In 2016, as reports came in from the falconry community of rabbits dying off across the UK, she sent a rabbit, found near her own office at the university’s Norwich campus, for testing. The result was a positive for RHD2. “UEA is known as a rabbit university, because we have such a good population,” says Dr Bell, “but they just disappeared almost overnight. I’ve never seen so few rabbits.”

It was a similar story a few miles away in the

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FIND OUT MORE

Brecks. In May 2009, Natural England surveys from six points on Cavenham Heath reported 1,100 rabbits.

The following years saw a slow decline followed by a dramatic slump. In May 2016, surveys from the same points, recorded just 12 rabbits. Mike Taylor, reserve manager for Natural England, says the collapse in numbers has been nothing short of catastrophic.

“On Cavenham Heath, the rabbits have declined by about 99% over the last couple of years. It happens quite quickly, it’s very fast acting with the rabbits often dying underground, so it would be typical of RHD2 to see such a fast decline without seeing signs of sickness.”

There is good reason to believe that RHD2 is a once-

It is rabbits with their tight grazing, their frenetic nibbles and scrabbling scrapes, which have helped forge the bewitching, alien character of the Brecks

More about the Growing up Wild Project and the exhibition can be found at suffolk wildlifetrust. org ANDY ROUSE NATURPL.COM

DISEASE AND DECLINE

LEFT

Wormwood moonshiner beetle.

LEFT blah blah beetle ABOVE

spanish catchfly

LACKFORD LAKES

JOHN FERGUSON

brede of coneys.” Those passing through the Brecks were certainly taken aback by the size of rabbit populations. Writing in 1784, Francois de la Rochefoucauld, described how, “a large portion of this arid country is full of rabbits, of which the numbers astonished me.”

The peak of rabbit production for fur and meat was in the 19th century, when the ground itself must have hopped and heaved. Records show the Breckland warrens supplied London with up to 200 dozen rabbits every day. Annual culls at Thetford Warren were in the region of 28,000 animals. The importance of the rabbit, a luxury item and legally protected within the warren, was reflected by the severe punishments meted out to poachers. During the 1800s those convicted of poaching could face hard labour or even transportation.

In January 1805, one G Cross was publically whipped at Brandon after he was convicted of stealing a trap and just two rabbits from Wangford Warren.

But the rabbits’ privileged time would soon end.

The Ground Game Act of 1880 removed their protected status, while the impact of the First World War and changing tastes in food and fashion (hats were no longer de rigueur) saw warrening dramatically decline. Yet rabbits still thrived in the landscape, with warreners now employed to protect the trees being planted across the Brecks by the Forestry Commission. It was probably during this time of change that W G Clarke would have walked the Brecks, painting a picture of sand-dune and shingle, grazed heath, abandoned fields and, of course, colonies of rabbits.

BUG LIFE ALAMY

LIVING LANDSCAPES

Will Cranstoun, West Suffolk Reserves Manager, says populations of rabbits are strong at Lackford Lakes, despite a dip in recent years.

“The rabbits do an important job for us all around Church Heath and without them we would have to

It is the digging and burrowing of rabbits that creates space for ground roaming beetles, wasps and bees

populations have been profound and well documented.

Heaths have become more grassy, overgrown and subject to scrub and colonisation by trees. Rank grass has invaded what was once rabbit-patrolled and species-rich. It is likely some species extinctions have been a direct result of the removal of rabbits from the landscape. The come-uppance of Peter Rabbit, the raider of the field and garden, has come at a cost.

BACK FROM THE BRINK only disease. Rabbits in affected areas last year appear to be breeding again. But Dr Bell says the state of rabbit populations in the Brecks, at crisis point for a number of years, still need to be taken seriously. The value of the rabbit as a keystone species must be understood.

“The overall rabbit population crash since just 1995 has been about 75%. From Scotland all the way down, the graphs all show the same trend. It’s shocking.

People have this notion that rabbits reproduce in silly numbers, that one rabbit can produce 100 or a 1,000 young in a year. In fact the maximum number of emergent young I have ever had in a year is 10. Most of those will die from myxomatosis.”

She pauses. “This is the thing, it’s not only RHD1 and RHD2, it's myxomatosis that kills rabbits and it still kills between and 60% and 100% young of the year.”

The impacts on the landscape of the Brecks since the 1950s when myxomatosis first ravaged rabbit

ABOVE Ground nesting pantaloon bee.

ABOVE LEFT

Spanish catchfly.

MATT GAW is Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Media Manager and Editor of Wildlife magazine. He is a freelance writer.

But work is underway to help the rabbit. A ten partner project involving Dr Bell of the UEA and Norfolk Wildlife Trust called Shifting Sands – Securing a Place in the Brecks, aims to increase rabbit numbers by encouraging the expansion of existing warrens. Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) as part of the Back from the Brink initiative (a proposal written from rabbit numbers before RHD2 struck), the team will be monitoring numbers and carrying out practical work to help them reclaim former Breckland territories – creating brash piles for shelter and turning over soil to allow easy burrowing opportunities. Dr Bell is hopeful about the future and the HLF-backed project, but when I ask about a full recovery, she seems resigned to the fact that the experiences of the Brecks enjoyed by naturalists such as Clark are gone forever. “Myxomatosis, RHD1, RHD2 and persecutionhave all taken their toll.”

The rabbit, for now at least, is still on the run. n

KNETTISHALL HEATH intervene mechanically. We manage those specific fields for stone curlew, so we need to have a certain amount of ground that is broken; say 20 to 25% of the field area and there needs to be exposed sands and gravel."

He added "if the rabbits can’t do that because the population is low then that means we need to do it with a tractor and a cultivator. It’s obviously not a natural process and means more money and time.”

Stone curlew

The remains of 18th Century warrens can still be found on Knettishall Heath but the number of rabbits on the reserve is lower than expected.

Samantha Norris, Knettishall Ranger, is using brash piles on sections of the heath near rare DAVID KJAER

Breckland plants to encourage rabbits to move in. The creation of bare ground, mimicking rabbits’ movements for other species, also makes it easier for the animals to burrow and move back in.

“What we have noticed,” says Sam, “is that where the Exmoor ponies have grazed places that haven’t been grazed for some 40 years, we’re seeing rabbits. As the height of the grass comes down we’re seeing latrines and digging.

The ponies are paving the way for the rabbits.”

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

17

WILDLIFE FOR PEOPLE

connected Bigger, better, more

Over the past 18 months, Suffolk Wildlife Trust has committed to extending nature reserves in both the west and the north of the county. Matt Gaw considers our Living Landscape and why bigger is nearly always better when it comes to conservation.

Y

ou could say that Suffolk Wildlife Trust was born from crisis. Deep beneath Redgrave & Lopham Fen, a new borehole was sucking away the water that gave the land its life. A habitat that supported marsh helleborine, grass-of-Parnassus and invertebrates, including black darter dragonfly, small red damselfly and fen raft spider, was in danger of drying up, scrubbing over and disappearing forever.

A natural and cultural landscape, forged by ice and the movements of humans, was quite literally going down the chute.

In 1961 a group of naturalists, desperate

18

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

to fight for the fen valley and to protect wildlife from threats across the county formed what was then called the Suffolk Naturalists' Trust. Redgrave & Lopham Fen would soon fall under their stewardship and become the fledgling Trust’s first nature reserve. More would follow: Bradfield Woods; Carlton Marshes; Lackford Lakes; Arger Fen; a roll call of Suffolk names that are now almost synonymous with nature and conservation.

CONSERVATION AS FIRE-FIGHTING The history of conservation across the UK makes for similar reading. A tale of often last-ditch attempts to save fragments of

wildlife-rich land from the digger and the plough; from development, agriculture and obliteration. It is conservation as fire-fighting, or to reverse the analogy, an attempt to keep an ember of wildness burning in a country that is extensively developed and intensively farmed.

Outside these reserves, habitat for both common and rare species was in long decline. The saved land stood as small oases in what was an otherwise inhospitable landscape. They were isolated refuges, living tokens of what once was, what could and what should be.

But of course, these protective land grabs were always only meant to be

DAVID KJAER

emergency measures. The reserves were wild footholds: the basic minimum required to conserve nature into the future. From these pockets of woods, marshes, meadows, heaths, river and coast, it was hoped nature would one day re-emerge and spread.

THE NEED FOR SOMETHING MORE At the turn of the millennium, the number of wildlife reserves managed by the Trust was impressive. But many of these sites were only between 20 and 50 acres and their diminutive size brought challenges. They were both more susceptible to impacts from outside of their boundaries (water

Isolated & small, reserves created as refuges, risked becoming leafy cages levels and connectivity to the wider environment were often out of the Trust’s control) while offering little room for the necessary mix of habitats required to support viable populations of key species.

Isolated and small, reserves created as refuges, risked becoming leafy cages for what was little more than a memory of the countryside: a carefully managed green shadow.

It became clear to the Trust that if

its vision for a wilder Suffolk was to be successful, there was a need to think and do bigger. Rather than the reserves being islands, they needed to be ecologically functioning landscapes or at least connected to them. Although the river meadow was, and is, of course, worth saving, it is only through managing the whole river catchment that conservation can make a significant impact.

EXPANDING RESERVES AND CONNECTING TO THE LANDSCAPE Over the past 20 years the Trust has worked hard to gradually expand its nature reserves; making them more sustainable,

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

19

STEVE AYLWARD

WILDLIFE FOR PEOPLE

more ecologically functional, more resilient. Land that may have low conservation value but buffers sensitive, wildlife rich areas, has been acquired and restored.

Oulton Marshes, originally just 40 acres, is now part of an 800 acre Broadland complex that includes Castle Marshes and Carlton Marshes. Soon we hope to add more land, controlling water levels, joining up horizons and bringing wildness as far as the eye can see. At Spouse’s Vale, what was 11 acres has grown to 270, the reserve joining with Arger Fen and giving the Trust the space to create a mosaic of habitats: ancient woodland; fen meadow; regenerated scrub and open grassland.

The constant intervention, such a feature in small spaces, is no longer necessary within a bigger site.

Management is needed, of course, but on a different scale. The tractor, the rotivator, can now play second fiddle to ecological processes. On sites such as Arger Fen, areas of woodland has been left to self seed, while on Black Bourn Valley, a site that has grown within the last two years to incorporate the river valley, the act of “letting the land go” has already shown some interesting results. Within a matter of years, arable land has already reverted to rough grassland and scrub that benefits all kinds of birds and invertebrates.

The Trust has given nature a helping hand: ponds and new habitats like scrapes can be created; but it is nature that takes the lead. A space is created and wildlife fills it.

These bigger, better nature reserves aren’t just good for wildlife; they are refuges for people too. They are places where we can be reminded about the value of the surrounding area – the rawness of the coast with its shingle, its marshes and lagoons; the dripping beauty of the valley fens; the sandy strangeness of the Brecks.

Being in a larger nature reserve is a chance for people to be inspired, to experience immersion in nature, to engage and enjoy a sense of wildness not possible where the boundaries, the limits, are forever in view.

LIVING LANDSCAPE FOR PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE Although focus has rested on making nature reserves bigger, there has also been a recognition that in isolation they can only do so much. Rather than being the only place for wildlife, reserves should be the high-quality habitat from which nature spreads across the county: the ecological hearts of a Living Landscape.

20 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

The old connections, like jigsaw pieces, are slowly slotting back into place

Connectivity then is crucial. For animals and plants to thrive they need corridors of suitable habitat – river valleys, diverse hedgerows, gardens – that allow them to travel between nature reserves and areas disturbed by human influence.

This habitat doesn’t always have to be an unbroken chain, it can be stepping stones, stopping-off points that provide an opportunity for shelter and feeding.

Nor does the land need to offer pristine habitat, it just has to be managed with nature in mind, making it easier for wildlife to move through and re-colonise the landscape.

BIGGER IS BETTER WHEN IT COMES TO CONSERVATION

7,680 ACRES OF LAND ARE NOW OWNED OR MANAGED BY THE TRUST

SKYLARK: TONY FLASHMAN

1961

REDGRAVE & LOPHAM FEN

The fledgling Trust’s first nature reserve. The naturalists fought for the fen valley and relocated the borehole to rehydrate the site.

A LIVED-IN LANDSCAPE

FAR LEFT A view

ANDY ROUSE ALAMY

from Freston over the River Orwell.

For this reason the good relationship the Trust enjoys with its landholding neighbours has been crucial. Not only is it vital for the management of our nature reserves but offering advice to those closest to us on letting nature back in – whether it is about barn owl boxes, introducing networks of grass strips along field margins or even wetland creation – can dramatically improve species’ range. All across the Stour Valley, along the Black Bourn, in the Suffolk Broads and on the coast, the old connections, like jigsaw pieces, are slowly slotting back into place. The landscape is coming alive again. n

THE POWER OF LEGACIES The Trust’s landscape-scale ambitions have been underpinned both by our members and by legacy gifts.

Buying and managing land is expensive and without such support our vision for Living Landscapes across Suffolk would be so much further away.

FIND OUT MORE MATT GAW is Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Media Manager and Editor of Wildlife magazine. He is a freelance writer.

For information on leaving a gift to the Trust in your Will contact christine. luxton@suffolkwildlifetrust.org

1975

1987

1996

1997

Oulton Marshes, originally just 40 acres, is now part of our vision for a 1,000 acre Broadland complex that includes Castle Marshes and Carlton Marshes.

Lackford Lakes was created from former gravel pits. A further 77 acres was added to this reserve in November 2017.

Acquired in 1996, this 229 acre reserve is a mixture of coastal and freshwater habitats and part of the much larger Suffolk Coast National Nature Reserve.

The 20 acres established in 1997, has grown to 270, joining with Arger Fen, giving nature the opportunity to create a mosaic of habitats.

OULTON MARSHES

LACKFORD LAKES

DINGLE MARSHES

JOHN FERGUSON, STEVE AYLWARD

Rather than the reserves being islands, they need to be ecologically functioning landscapes

JOHN FERGUSON

ABOVE Hedgehog ambassadors in Ipswich have helped to create wildlife corridors.

Landscapes are not just about the countryside. These spaces are also lived-in landscapes that are cultural as well as natural. Living Landscapes are about being intimately engaged with where and how we live and as such, are just as important in our towns and villages.

In Ipswich, our campaign to make the town the most hedgehog-friendly in the UK is now in its second year and the results are extremely encouraging.

Hedgehog ambassadors, recruited from the community, have helped restore the ecological network that already exists – creating wildlife corridors by linking up gardens, parks, allotments and railways. The project, will, without doubt, help hedgehogs and other species within a functioning, wild townscape, but it will also improve people’s access and engagement with wildlife.

Of course, as with the countryside, sadly not everyone in towns and villages will want to get involved. But we are certain that enough do, and that together, we can make a difference.

SPOUSE'S VALE

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

21

SPECIES SPOTLIGHT

HAUNTED by

OWLS Winter can be the best time to encounter one of the UK's most captivating birds. John Grant explains where you can fall under the spell of the short-eared owl.

ANDY ROUSE ALAMY

W

hen you’ve been fixed by the steely stare of a short-eared owl, you tend to stay fixed.

Those hypnotic, piercing lemonyellow irises cast their spell as the owl’s piercing gaze measures you up. There’s haughtiness about the bird’s expression, an apparent disdain for humankind. You’re not a vole. You are not food. You will not be hunted. So you count for nothing. With a seemingly dismissive over-the-shoulder glance, the owl silently, buoyantly, drifts away, on deep, languid wingbeats. On to more important business. The business of living – of migrating or of killing to eat, or of simply finding safe haven.

most likely on some remote, windswept sea wall that snakes between estuary and grazing marsh, the long, winding grassy ridge affording panoramic views over the vast surrounding flatness.

It’s a form of haunting. After eye-toeye communion, such a meeting with a “shortie” – and for most of us it is the most common kind of meeting – is virtually impossible to shake off. It stays with you.

Re-run after re-run. The fleeting few seconds that the owl’s eyes met yours, a time that was seemingly such an irrelevant and momentary distraction to the bird, becomes perhaps the pivotal point of your day – your pre-owl ordinary day is transformed into your post-owl special day.

HAUNTED

How can this electrifying experience be enjoyed in Suffolk? It can be the product of simple, right-place-right-time random good fortune, or the product of planning.

The right time is unlikely to be in summer,

But long after such an encounter it’s difficult to forget those eyes. The flashbacks return you to that all-too-brief contact. In Suffolk, such an encounter is

22 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

THE RIGHT TIME AND PLACE

although over-summering birds are not unknown. Sadly, short-eared owls rarely breed in the county nowadays, although they did so – perhaps always sparingly – in the past. According to recent editions of Suffolk Birds, the annual ornithological report published by the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society and compiled by the Suffolk Ornithologists’ Group, the last time there was strongly suggestive evidence that the species may have done so was back in 2005 when observers considered a pair “almost certainly” nested.

Short-eared owl does breed in the UK – somewhat scarcely and mainly on the moorlands and in the young conifer plantations of upland Britain. But it has an extensive global range, and the most relevant parts of it as far as Suffolk is concerned are Scandinavia and western Russia. It is from these vast breeding areas that many of “our” birds – the owls that pass though the county on spring and autumn migration or those that choose to winter with us – originate.

After eye-to-eye communion, such a meeting with a “shortie” is virtually impossible to shake off

The classic simply fortuitous rightplace-right-time encounter is when you are taking a bracing beach stroll, pretty much anywhere along our coast, and a migrant makes triumphant landfall nearby after an arduous North Sea crossing in late September, October or early November, or prepares to head back north or east over the sea in March, April or early May. The magic of such a chance sighting is infused with the compelling, complicated story of migration. The owl has been drawn to our land by an instinctive urge, by astonishing navigational powers and by extraordinary physical effort. It is a miraculous migratory imperative that has been passed down through successful individuals of its species across the millennia.

FIELDCRAFT The planned approach to sharing time with “shorties” is equally uplifting – but it takes a little knowledge, a little fieldcraft and favourable food supplies for the owls.

Small rodents, especially field voles, are the owls’ favoured prey items in Suffolk and their populations famously fluctuate from paucity to glut in cycles over three to five years. Similar oscillations take place in the rodent populations in the owls’ breeding zones, governing reproductive rates, and so the number of short-eared owls present in the county in any given winter is the result of this complex predatorprey relationship.

In years of plenty for the wintering owls in Suffolk, the species can be seen with relative ease. Rough grassland, the home of the small rodents to which the owls are so partial, is the key. Such habitat is increasingly scarce in the west of the county and so sightings of short-eared owl there are relatively sporadic and scarce. They are more likely to be made in the remaining areas of grazing marsh around the estuaries on our coast.

In the north, areas such as the vast grassy expanses along the southern edge

of Breydon Water and the windmill-strewn swathes viewed from the edge of Waveney Forest have been favoured in recent years.

But the Suffolk sites that have proved to be most reliable for the species in recent winters are well to the south, often attracting gatherings of up to ten individuals. Gedgrave Marshes, near Orford, and Shingle Street are good bets.

Carlton & Oulton Marshes are also very reliable places to see short eared owls. So too are the coastal marshes beside the River Deben as it broadens to meet the sea.

Wrap up warm and venture out into these wild flatlands. This owl is diurnal, but viewing near dawn or dusk is perhaps most rewarding. Be patient. Be careful not to be too obtrusive. Be bewitched by those lemon -yellow eyes. And be humbled by that dismissive gaze. n JOHN GRANT is the environment correspondent for the East Anglian Daily Times and the honorary president of Suffolk Ornithologist's Group.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 23

UK NEWS CORNWALL CHOOSES GOOD SEAFOOD More than 70 Cornish businesses, including the Eden Project and Jamie Oliver’s restaurant, have joined Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s Good Seafood Guide. cornwallgoodseafoodguide.org.uk shows people what’s currently in season

and most sustainable to eat. “The support of these restaurants and fish sellers promotes demand for sustainably-caught Cornish fish, making the future more secure for fish stocks and our inshore fishermen,” says the Trust’s Matt Slater.

TOBY ROXBURGH/2020VISION

Cornwall’s Good Seafood Guide needs to catch on everywhere.

TRUSTS LAUNCH VISION FOR LIVING SEAS

ALEX MUSTARD

A new report by The Wildlife Trusts outlines how a radical approach to marine planning could bring our seas back to their former abundance.

The Way Back to Living Seas demonstrates that a joined-up network of Marine Protected Areas will safeguard marine wildlife and help the livelihoods of the many people who depend on the sea.

It suggests dividing coastal waters into five regional seas and then managing everything that happens in them – from recreation to fisheries to aggregate extraction – in a way that balances the needs of wildlife and people. This does not happen at the moment.

Joan Edwards, Director of Living Seas at The Wildlife Trusts, gave a copy of the report to Environment Secretary Michael Gove when she met him in October.

“We believe that a healthy,

24 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

STEVE AYLWARD

Report says the Government has a unique chance to lead the world in marine conservation.

A healthy sea is vital for future generations wildlife-rich marine environment is valuable in its own right and fundamentally important for human health, wellbeing and prosperity,” she said afterwards.

“If the Government takes the lead on this, within the next 25 years our seas will be more sustainable and well on their way to recovering their historic levels. This will benefit the wildlife that inhabits our seas and the prosperity and well-being of local communities and the UK that depends on them.”

The Wildlife Trusts are calling for an Environment Act: an ambitious piece of framework legislation that would give our wildlife a unique opportunity to recover.

I

magine taking a train journey through the countryside in 25 years’ time. From the window, you see red kites gliding across beautiful farmland and woods.

Bees are buzzing in the vibrant field margins and thriving hedgerows.

You whizz past a vast wetland teeming with egrets, herons and, although you don’t see them, water voles. There are no stories about flooding in the news – the recent heavy rainfall has been locked into the landscape, caught upstream.

Last week, when you went to the seaside on holiday, the beach was pristine: rockpools full of life, no plastic bottles.

Seabirds were fishing just offshore. The fish’n’chip shop was doing a roaring trade selling local catch – since the seas have been recovering, both people and wildlife have benefited. Whales, dolphins,

WILDLIFE FOR PEOPLE

An act for nature WHAT Y OU CA If you th N DO ink

there s be more nature in hould lives, wr all our it and let t e to your MP hem the deta know: all il wildlifet s are on rusts.org / environm entact

Koniks at Redgrave & Lopham Fen.

Everything we value derives from nature vast shoals of tuna – they’re a regular occurrence now.

When you arrive in the bustling city, the air you breathe is just as clean as it is in the countryside. Above the urban hubbub, blackbirds, robins and dunnocks are singing loudly. You stroll over a river.

Earlier this morning, an otter swam beneath this bridge, a fat brown trout in its mouth. In a park across the street, schoolchildren are having a lesson in the shade of the trees. They look happy and focused.

This doesn’t have to be a dream. We have a chance to act now, together, and give wildlife a real chance to recover.

If we’re ambitious enough, we really

could be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we inherited it.

A wildlife-rich world is important for its own sake, but we also know it is the foundation of our society and economy.

Ultimately everything we eat and drink; the air we breathe; our fuel, clothes and shelter derives from the natural world. So does everything we value: our health, wellbeing and possessions.

Yet, we have taken it for granted; mined the natural world mercilessly. Isn’t it time for us to enter a new era in our relationship with nature?

Acts of Parliament are an expression of what a nation values. Acts have ushered in healthcare and education for all, and made us safer in the workplace. The 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act and its successors have protected some

vital rich wildlife sites. But we know this is not enough and soon we won’t have the safety net of the EU courts either.

The UK and each country within it needs visionary legislation that explicitly aims for nature’s recovery on land and at sea. Only Governments can ensure there is a long-term framework that puts nature back into our landscapes, townscapes and society. We all deserve a world-class environment: clean air, clear water, a stable climate, healthy seas and thriving wildlife in the places we love. So do future generations. If we all make enough noise, and explain this is what we want, it can happen. n STEPHANIE HILBORNE OBE is Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 25

LIVING LANDSCAPES

The stuff of life ERICA OLSEN/FLPA. WORM: DAVID CHAPMAN

Unsustainable farming practices are pushing our soils to the edge.

Agronomist Caroline Corsie explains why we need to save this precious resource.

24 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 26

I

t may not look like much, but soil is one of the most important substances on earth.

The quality of soil underpins society – how we grow food, how water is stored and moved through the landscape, and how carbon is locked up. It’s the foundation of life on earth and we all depend on healthy soils to survive.

Civilisations have risen and fallen because of the quality of their soils, so we need to show ours a little respect!

This is something that’s been missing in recent decades. And something The Wildlife Trusts are trying to change.

Increased carbon emissions, increased

flood risk and reduced water quality are having an impact on homes and businesses, not to mention the thousands of species of plants and animals in the UK that rely on rich, healthy soils.

Soil is made from lots of ingredients blended together in a complex recipe.

Minerals come from bedrock beneath the surface breaking down, creating soils from below. Organic matter from plants and animals decays on the planet’s surface, feeding soils from above. About

Some arable land could fail within a generation

half of soil is made up of air. The space this creates provides paths for water, roots and crucial habitats for wildlife.

Pull up a handful of soil and you’ll notice it feels cool and wet. Most soil creatures need this liquid to live in and move through and so thrive in this dark, damp environment. And there are a lot of them: at least a quarter of the Earth’s biodiversity can be found in the soil. These life forms – from fungi to earthworms – form intricate networks beneath our feet and so play their part in keeping soils healthy. Interplay between organisms form a complex web which fertilises our crops and plants.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 27

LIVING LANDSCAPES Wildflower field margins reduce soil loss, and create habitat and nectar sources.

STEVE AYLWARD

But across the UK and indeed the world, the quality of our soils is declining.

Healthy soils are fundamental to our society and estimates put the cost of soil degradation in the UK as high as £1.4 billion per year. Some of our most productive arable land is at risk of becoming unprofitable within a generation due to the loss of soil organic carbon.

Modern agricultural systems are exhausting our lowland soils, stripping them of their organic matter and natural nutrients. Some farmers are totally reliant on fertilisers to grow crops, along with high levels of pesticides. Nutrients aren’t being fed back into soils and this (alongside regular tillage) is damaging soil structure. This in turn can’t support bacteria, fungi and invertebrates – the powerhouse supporting other wildlife up the food chain.

In the uplands, soils are suffering from compaction. When livestock numbers are too high, or pressure from feet and traffic is too continual, soils become hard. The ground can’t absorb rainfall, so water pours off the hillsides. As well as causing flooding downstream, the runoff gets into water supplies: literally muddying the waters and taking with it vital nutrients needed to keep the soil healthy.

Our soils are also releasing their carbon stores. Peatlands are one of our most important and endangered habitats, covering 12% of the UK. Not only do they support unique wildlife, but the formation of peat by sphagnum mosses captures and stores carbon, removing greenhouse gases

from the atmosphere. In the last 10,000 years, UK peatlands have locked up around 5.5 billion tonnes of carbon. And yet, 80% of our peatlands are in a poor condition because they’ve been drained of water or damaged by extraction over several centuries.

We have a huge job to undertake in restoring our soils, for people and wildlife.

Luckily, there’s plenty we can all do to reverse this downward trend. n

WHAT FARMERS CAN DO NOW Farmland soil is crying out for some care

Wildlife Trusts work with thousands of farmers each year. The best farmers work hard to look after their soils, working with our microscopic allies, bacteria and fungi. Good soil management on arable farms really helps to increase soil organic matter and reduce soil compaction and erosion. This includes: l Planting ‘catch-cover’ crops to keep the soil covered up

These intricate networks are what keep soils healthy

DOWN & DIRTY – WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW

l Replacing artificial fertilisers with natural organic matter (poo!)

Our top three ways to help soil in your garden and beyond.

l Ploughing less often or stopping tillage altogether.

The developer at Avoid slug pellets, pesticides and Trumpington Meadother chemicals. Instead, encourage ows understood naturalthe predators and ensure your value of high quality garden has lots of variety when it comes to plants and grasses.

26 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 28

Lilla, aged five, discovers a slow worm in the garden compost heap.

Earthworms are soil engineers.

FIND OUT MORE iFIND OUT MORE wildlifetrusts.org/soil

RUPERT PAUL

KEITH HEPPEL

Buying compost for your flower beds or containers? Make sure to buy peat-free, and let your garden centre know why it’s important.

CAROLINE CORSIE is Agronomist and Farm Manager at Worcestershire Wildlife Trust.

THE WILDLIFE TRUSTS

Buy or build two or more bins, so you can fill one while the other ‘cooks’. Kitchen and garden waste, brown cardboard – it all breaks down in the end, reducing landfill and creating habitat for insects, amphibians and reptiles, too!

We can have healthy soil once more The era of soil loss has to end. Here are three projects that show another way.

Pumlumon Project,

Lower Smite Farm,

SHUTTERSTOCK/DAN HILLIARD

Spreading compost on fields builds up soil fertility and stores carbon.

Spreading dung on pasture as part of Cornwall’s Pass the Poo project.

Pass the Poo Project, Cornwall

Cornwall Wildlife Trust is pioneering a way to protect soil to benefit farmers, wildlife and the wider environment. For many centuries, mixed farms produced dung from livestock and ploughed it back into their cropping soils.

Today, many farmers focus on either crops or livestock, with crop farmers tending to buy artificial fertiliser to spread on the soil. This leaves the soil without enough organic matter, so it’s poor at holding onto nutrients and water, and prone to washing away. Livestock farms produce more dung than they need, which takes up valuable space and risks polluting streams and rivers. To solve this, farm advisers at Cornwall Wildlife Trust are helping share dung across the county, moving it to where it is most needed and improving soil for crops. Farmers are already reporting an increased crop yield!

MONTGOMERYSHIRE WT

Like many upland areas, Pumlumon holds vast reserves of peat and this land could absorb and store huge amounts of carbon. Unfortunately, in the 1950s/60s, much of it was drained and degraded in an unsuccessful attempt to improve grazing.

Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust has undertaken a monumental project to restore the landscape. The project area holds 347 square miles of key habitats including blanket bog. On one holding alone they have blocked 6.8 miles of ditches, restored 260 acres (105ha) of peat bog and safeguarded 82,500 tonnes of carbon. As the bogs become wet again, mosses start to grow eventually, absorbing carbon and locking it away as new peat. At the same time, existing peat is protected from further erosion.

JAN DINSDALE

A 150-acre (60 ha) arable farm managed

by Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, Lower Smite is restoring soil health as a first step to helping all its farmland wildlife recover.

The plan is to double soil organic matter on all the arable land, and reestablish a mix of crops and livestock.

Half the land is organic, grazed by the neighbour’s sheep and horses. Some non-organic land grows winter wheat and spring barley for a neighbour’s dairy.

There are no insecticides or slug pellets.

At least 10% of all fields are managed for wildlife with flower-rich mixes, woodland, grass margins and plants for wild pollinators.

WENDY CARTER

Worcestershire

Montgomeryshire

Blocking the drainage ditches allows the mosses to regrow.

nd rtility a Soil fe ilds up over nia, ce bu resilien or even mille f s o e decad ugh billions en thro etwe tions b nd fungi. c a r e t in sa , plant here animals ee schemes t r o h t o The t to reb attemp rocess. that p

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 29

LOVE WILDLIFE

Nature's own stunt pilots The UK’s annual starling airshow is one of winter's true wildlife wonders. Look out for a display near you.

DAVID TIPLING

A

s the days get shorter and cooler, look to the skies at dusk and you might come across a strange, dark cloud of small chattering birds, swirling rapidly before a sky of pinks and oranges.

These are common starlings, flocking together in a behaviour called murmurating – a hypnotic display of aerial acrobatics.

Just before dusk in the autumn and winter, small flocks of starlings from the surrounding area come together, forming a growing cloud that can become almost opaque as the birds turn through the air.

28 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 30

Find like thisa sight near yo u Discove r

magic murmura tions, w al onderfu wader fl l oc gaggles ks and huge o f g e ese this winter w it Trust: vis h your Wildlife it wil org/me dlifetrusts. gaflock s

But why do these charming birds that we know so well from our gardens, display this intriguing behaviour? There are thought to be a few reasons. Firstly, safety. By constantly changing direction in a tight flock, starlings can evade aerial hunters. Predators such as sparrowhawks are confused by the rapid movements, and so struggle to single out an individual bird and pursue it. Secondly, to share information, perhaps about good nearby

Some flocks contain over a million birds

food sources that individuals have found on their daily forages.

The third reason is warmth. After wheeling through the sky in a stunning aerial performance, the flock pours down into a reedbed or woodland to roost for the night as one large group. By forming a cluster the starlings can share body heat as the air temperature drops.

Starlings also roost in more urban settings, on buildings and structures – anywhere sheltered, without an immediate threat from predators.

Some of the best-known places to see this amazing natural spectacle are

Redgrave & Lopham Fen, the Somerset Levels, Brighton Pier and Gretna Green, but there are other sites across the UK too, including many Wildlife Trust nature reserves. The largest murmurations in Britain can contain over a million birds and displays can last over an hour. This really is the ultimate reason to brave the cold this winter. Find your nearest murmuration and prepare to be wowed. n SORREL LYALL is a young birder, naturalist, wildlife artist and writer.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 29 31

A legacy for Suffolk's wildlife

T

Buying or enlarging our nature reserves is one of the most powerful ways in which we secure a better future for wildlife. Legacy gifts make this possible. Indeed they have been instrumental in every nature reserve purchase in

recent years.

A gift in your Will to Suffolk Wildlife Trust will be kept separate from the Trust’s day to day finances to be used for projects which have a direct and lasting impact on the county’s wildlife.

LITTLE OWLS: PAUL MIGUEL FLPA

he extraordinary generosity of Trust members and friends who remembered Suffolk Wildlife Trust in their Will has protected some of the county’s most inspiring natural places, for people to cherish for generations to come.

To find out more about how a gift in your Will could help Suffolk’s wildlife, please contact Christine Luxton on 01473 890089

Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Brooke House Ashbocking, Ipswich IP6 9JY 01473 890089 info@suffolkwildlifetrust.org suffolkwildlifetrust.org Registered charity no 262777

suffolkwildlifetrust.org