The British landscape has changed a lot over the past millennia. That won’t be a surprise to anyone; it’s no secret that there were no concrete high rises or sprawling suburbs in the middle ages. What you might not have considered, however, is the impact that these changes have had on the wildlife that used to inhabit this same land.
Luckily for us, some people have thought about it, and are actually working to protect those at-risk animals. One charity based in Cambridgeshire, for instance, is currently trying to construct a brand new wetland habitat to boost the populations of multiple wading bird species.
The Countryside Regeneration Trust (CRT) needs to raise £8,000 to build the space, which it says will be vital for the local wader birds. It hopes that birds like the northern lapwing and the black-tailed godwit, both of which need wet, marshy land to thrive, will benefit from the project with a boost in numbers in the coming years.
Helena Darragh, who works in conservation for CRT, described the land they’re trying to cultivate as ‘simple yet potentially life-saving,’ for the birds, explaining that ‘without areas of damp grassland, wading birds struggle to find food over the colder winter months’.
The CRT plans to create the marshy bogs by artificially creating tunnels for water to flow through on natural grassland, and then connecting it to already existing water sources like rivers or ponds. This will create loads of muddy puddles, which is the perfect home for a bird like these. The project hopes to begin work soon, with a view to having the terrain ready for moving in next winter (2025).
All of this only a few months after spoonbills were reintroduced to the English countryside, and a crane chick fledged (reached flying age) in East Anglia, both for the first time in centuries, and overall it’s been a pretty good year to be a bird-watcher in the east of England. With a bit of luck, this will be the start of a new age for Britain’s once near-extinct feathered friends.
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