The Wetlands

Photo my own. All rights reserved

In December, our family went to the Somerset Levels; mainly to see the starlings, but also to see the unique habitat. The first thing I noticed was the lack of hills. As a country girl, I am used to the hills, both walking up them and just seeing them out of my bedroom window. But this place looked like someone had sanded down the hills till they no longer existed. The area is a largely flat expanse of land, sandwiched between three sets of hills; the Quantocks, Mendips and the Blackdown Hills. It is laced with rivers and streams on their way to the Bristol Channel and is therefore prone to flooding. As we drove there, we noticed multiple ditches filled with water; most were close to overflowing. These ditches were everywhere, and I could imagine that they provide a 'road' network for otters, fish and water voles. Beyond the ditches there were big freshwater lakes surrounded by reeds, in which bitterns would happily make themselves a home, and starlings would roost. On these lakes I saw multiple types of duck, coots, moorhens and cormorants enjoying the lakes.

Photo taken by my faithful mother. All rights reserved. (Me and my sister)

Beavers and Bovine

If you've ever visited a wetland, you may not have wondered 'what is under the water?', and 'what makes them so special?'. Years ago, wetlands were sought after as a supply of peat; a nutrient rich soil cherished by gardeners, and they were dredged and dug up and destroyed as a result. However, now ecologists have realised how important these diverse habitats are for animals, birds and people, and are now trying to recreate wetland habitats by introducing beavers and rotational grazing practices. Beavers are proving useful in areas (I don't think they've used them at the Somerset Levels?) by lopping trees, and building dams which causes flooding upstream and thus over time creates a wetland habitat. The beaver dams trap the leaves and sediment from upstream, which, overtime decompose and form peat under the water. Grasslands upstream, which are now underwater, also rot down and become peat, forming bogs and marshes.

Photo my own. All rights reserved.

Rotational grazing of the meadows helps a wide variety of plants and grass heights, which benefits a wide variety of animals and insects. This is done through the disturbance of the soil through foot-fall, allowing seeds to grow in the exposed bare earth. In addition, animals are understandably repelled from grazing where their droppings are, which means that as the manure decomposes (releasing lots of nutrients), the grass grows higher than the surrounding area which is grazed.

So just a couple of beavers, and a herd of bovine (cows!) can turn a river and grasslands into a river system (like frayed rope, as opposed to a strand), wetlands (including bogs and marshes), and meadows.

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Wonderful wetland wildlife

The Somerset Levels is one of the lowest and wettest places in the UK, (no surprise, after all, great British weather is wet weather!) There are many species of animals that live in the wetlands, such as bitterns, ducks, (such as teals, shovelers, tufted ducks, etc) coots, moorhen, cormorants, eels, warblers, tree creepers, water voles, grass snakes, bearded reedling, grebes, overwintering birds, (starlings, ducks and waders, redwings, etc) marsh harrier, otters, cuckoos, great white egret, herons, egrets and swans. Because it has so much wildlife, and is a pretty awesome place in general, I would like to visit it often.

Photo my own. All rights reserved.