RXwildlife Sightings

As a child one of my favourite seaside pursuits was attempting to defend patches of beach from the incoming tide with sand walls. A similar, but more rewarding endeavour was being pursued by the Medieval inhabitants of Romney Marsh. Land had been progressively reclaimed from the tidal estuary formed in the shelter of the coastal shingle barrier.  Gradually the saltmarshes behind the coastal shingle barrier were turned into farmland. In the thirteenth century, however the sea smashed through the shingle barrier near Rye, causing serious flooding.

The evidence of this battle with the sea remains today in the miles of counterwalls such as this one,  part of the Great Wall which defended the south-western boundary of Walland Marsh in the late thirteenth century.

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Marsh mallow Althaea officinalis is one of a group of nationally scarce wetland plants that can be found on our grazing marshes, growing on the ditchbanks at the edge of the water and occasionally into low lying fields. It is very palatable to sheep however, and in the mid 1990’s we discovered that this plant had suffered a dramatic decline due to changes in stocking levels and a decline in hay cropping. One farmer on Walland Marsh, Howard Bates, had lost the plant from most of his fields, although it still persisted in large numbers on one ditch bank that was not grazed. He was keen to experiment with new methods to encourage recovery of the plant and today I revisited his farm to view the results ten years on. Read the rest of this entry »

Reading Barry’s article of 24 September 2007 on the New Zealand Pygmyweed Crassula helmsii reminded me of my first encounter with this plant in the 1980’s. I couldn’t find it anywhere in my flora, and stood on a patch of the weed for some time trying to identify it. As a submerged plant the leaves are flattened like a typical aquatic plant, but when the water dries up they become swollen and suculent and quite different in appearance. The plant was not in my key and I eventually gave up and went off to monitor another site, but horrors I must have transfered it on the bottom of my wellies for it turned up there the following year, and proceeded to infest every pond becoming a serious pest. So, if you come across it make sure you clean your boots before entering another wetland as even small fragments of the plant will start new plants. I should at this point add that I have not been wading around Castle Water! This plant has also turned up at at least 4 localities on Walland Marsh and Romney Marsh in recent years. Why are fish shops and garden centres still selling this nasty weed?

Walking around Walland Marsh today we got excellent views of a female merlin and a hunting hobby, and regular sightings of two marsh harriers. Whether or not these were always the same birds was hard to tell but it reminded me that it will soon be time to watch for harriers returning to their winter roosts at dusk. Co-ordinated counts at the reed-beds on Walland Marsh and Dungeness in recent winters have confirmed the health of marsh harrier populations in the area. Counts of 19 birds were obtained two years ago and 18 last winter - I can remember getting excited when a single pair of this bird started breeding in the area in the 1990’s! Hen harriers in contrast were disappointing last winter - only 4-5 birds were recorded compared to 17 in the winter of 2002/3. Hopefully this was due to the mild weather last year. What will this winter have in store for us?

These might not seem the most promising wildlife habitats, but desiccation is essential for some species. Today, on Walland Marsh, I came across one of these rather unpromising habitats. However flowering on the bare lumps of rather salty-looking clay were what appeared to be tiny saltmarsh goosefoot Chenopodium chenopodioides (below), a nationally scarce annual plant that germinates on the mud of drying saline ditches. Although abundant on the North Kent Marshes this species is rare on Walland Marsh and at Rye Harbour. It is though similar to red goosefoot Chenopodium rubrum. If anyone can guide me further I would be grateful….. It was growing with another mud-lover, celery-leaved buttercup Ranunculus sceleratus. Nearby seedlings of another mud-germinating plant thread leaved water crowfoot Ranunculus trichophyllus were growing well, indeed one precocious specimen was starting to flower. Come the spring these channels will be shallow water-filled features, covered in white crowfoot flowers.

 
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