Magnam swirls take shape.

Heard of Bowers Marsh yet? No? Believe me, if you are a birder, you will do before long. I was back down in south Essex yesterday to look at the continuing development of this new RSPB nature reserve. This massive habitat re-creation project aims to create a range of dynamic, salty to fresh, wet to dry, Thames-side habitats. I have previously blogged about Bowers at an earlier stage of the work. Now the diggers have done most of their work and some areas have started to ‘settle down’. Compare the top picture here with the same view below. Avocets have already moved in and bred on the new ‘creek’.

The new 20 hectare scrape will also function as a reservoir for the grazing marsh habitats; brim full in winter but releasing water through the spring and summer to keep the marsh wet. Today the contactors carefully placed a ‘topping’ of sand and gravel on the islands constructed within the scrape, but how do you explain to dozer drivers how you want the mix spread? Well, I pondered, bit the top off my ice cream (it was a warm day), looked down, and said “We need to create intimate swirls of differing substrates, from sand to chocolate, sorry, I mean gravel”. And so the Magnam swirl island was conceived.

This week, the first tides surged onto the new saline lagoon. The lagoon will eventually support a mix of mud flats, saltmarsh and islands. Tides will flow on daily to controlled levels. Gulls seem to like the new habitat; Meds and Yellow-legs mingled amongst the hundreds of Herring and Lesser Black-backs.

2,120 miles and counting.

I hate the rezzers. I wish I wasn’t stuck with reservoirs in my local patch. All that concrete and water, and nothing else, not a bush in sight. A visit in spring to these concrete doughnuts may yield little more than 5 species actually on site. The faster you walk to get around, the more you gag on irritating little midges that lodge in your throat.

While watching Eastenders the other night I decided to look through a few old notebooks to see how many times I’ve visited the rezzers. By a fag-packet calculation I reckon I’ve walked 2,120 miles around those sodding banks over 40 years. I’m now catching up with the boys of the past – John Fitz, Phil Vines, Tony Gray. Legends. Where are they now? Probably still so bush-intolerant that they can only stare out to sea from coastal retirement homes.

However, with all that superfluous breeding and resident stuff stripped away, what you get is birds on passage. Some of my best spring vis-mig days have been down there. On a lovely late April day with drizzly north-easterlies and low cloud, stuff can pile through. Hordes of Yellow Wags eating the pesky midges, waders zipping through without a tree to hide behind, and, after lunch, Arctic Terns arriving, gathering, then moving off north (never trust a man who sees an Arctic Tern early in the morning).  In fact, I can’t wait to get back down there.  I love the rezzers.


A sample good day:
3rd May 1980. Strong NE-E wind, cloudy, some drizzle.
King George V (early morning): 2 Oystercatcher north, 1 Sedge Warbler on bank!, 1 Sanderling, 16 Common Terns north, 1 Wheatear, 5 Turnstone.

Walthamstow Res (late morning): 1 Bar-tailed Godwit (on the deck), 4 Ringed Plover, 4 LRP, 1 Turnstone, 6 Wheatear, 1 White Wagtail, 5 Shelduck.


Girling (afternoon): 1 Ashy-headed Wagtail with 30 Yellow Wags, 1 Whimbrel north, 1 Greenshank, 2 Wheatear, 1 Turnstone, 27 Bar-tailed Godwits north, then 100+ Bar-tailed Godwits north.

Below - some recent stuff on the King George: White Wag, Dunlin, Ring Ouzel, Little Gull.