Wicken Fen Wildlife Highlights

A fantastic year for wildlife at the National Trust's Wicken Fen nature reserve was topped off by the first ever recorded breeding of avocets on the reserve.

The avocet, the iconic wading bird with it's up tilted bill and black and white markings normally lives and breeds in shallow coastal lagoons around the coast of East Anglia, but this year three pairs bred at Wicken Fen. Other feathered highlights included stonechats breeding on the reserve for the first time in 70 years together with at least two pairs of rare bearded tits. The arrival in spring of a squacco heron, normally resident of the warmer climes of Southern European created great interest amongst 'twitchers' who flocked to Wicken Fen to see this rare visitor to British shores.

The species list for Wicken Fen grew to an amazing 8230 species during 2009, comfortably making it the most species rich nature reserve known in the UK. New to the list this year are the squacco heron, 4 species of moth, 43 species of lichen and on the smaller and perhaps more obscure side, 35 species of nematode worm.

Water voles have been the fastest declining mammal across the UK in recent decades especially threatened by poor water quality and mink. Studies conducted during the summer by researchers from the University of East Anglia found healthy populations of water voles in many of the ditches both on the classic fen and across the Wicken Vision lands.

The increasing range of habitats provided by the Trust's landscape restoration project, the Wicken Fen Vision, seems to be providing new opportunities for a wide range of plants, birds, mammals and insects according to Dr Stuart Warrington, the Trust's Regional Conservation Advisor for the East of England.

"We are seeing lots of interesting wildlife colonising the Vision land, especially where we have added water, such as the ditches, ponds and pools. These species range from the larger and more visible birds, such as water vole, herons, waders and warbler, down to lots of rare (and tiny) water beetles. The Konik ponies and Highland cattle that graze much of the Vision land do seem to make great habitats for other wildlife."

The Wicken Fen Vision is a 100 year project by the National Trust to create a landscape scale nature reserve and green lung for Cambridgeshire and the East of England, covering 53 sq km, from the existing Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve to the outskirts of Cambridge. The Vision will see the re-creation of a mosaic of fenland habitats to help protect and conserve endangered species of wildlife whilst providing a vast area for public access for leisure, relaxation, exercise and education.