Waterlife 222 July/October 2023

Wilder summer

Pond life guide

Swamp songs

Grey herons

ONE TO SPOT...

Common tern

Breeding common terns are one of summer’s great spectacles. Our reserves offer wonderful views of their aerobatic performances as they nest and raise their young

Common terns are among our most elegant birds with long, slender wings and a long, forked tail. They arrive in the UK in April from their wintering grounds in western and southern Africa. By now they will have formed breeding colonies at many of our centres, where you can watch them raise their chicks throughout the summer. WWT Washington is host to the greatest numbers, but you can also see them at Slimbridge, London, Arundel, Martin Mere and Castle Espie. The birds often nest on rafts or islands we’ve created for them. Common terns are always popular with visitors due to their buoyant, graceful flight and dramatic feeding technique – often hovering before plungediving into the water to catch small fish. Though small, the noise they make is incredible – you can’t help but smile when you hear it!

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WWT

WWT is the leading global conservation organisation committed to the protection of wetlands and all that live in and around them. WWT is the only UK charity with a national network of specialist wetland centres that people can visit. It was founded in 1946 by the late Sir Peter Scott, the renowned naturalist and artist.

HEADQUARTERS

Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust Slimbridge, Gloucestershire GL2 7BT wwt.org.uk supporter@wwt.org.uk

Registered Charity No. 1030884 and SC039410

CENTRES

For full location, address and contact details, please visit the individual centre pages on our website – wwt.org.uk/visit

WWT Arundel 01903 883355

WWT Caerlaverock 01387 770200

WWT Castle Espie 028 9187 4146

WWT Llanelli 01554 741087

WWT London 020 8409 4400

WWT Martin Mere 01704 895181

WWT Slimbridge 01453 891900

WWT Washington 0191 416 5454

WWT Welney 01353 860711

WATERLIFE

The magazine of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust

Managing editor: Sophie Bursztyn waterlife@wwt.org.uk

Editor: Sophie Stafford sophie.stafford@thinkpublishing.co.uk

Chief sub-editor: Marion Thompson

Art director: George Walker

Contributors: Neil Aldridge, Amy-Jane Beer, Paul Bloomfield, Dominic Couzens, Derek Niemann, Andy Parkinson

Editorial board: Tomos Avent, Jon Boardman, Andrew Foot, Geoff Hilton, Peter Lee, Penny Read, Mark Simpson

Sales executive: Jamie Dawson 020 3771 7201 jamie.dawson@thinkpublishing.co.uk

Client engagement director: Clare Harris, Think, 20 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JW thinkpublishing.co.uk

Front cover: © Quentin Blake 2023. All rights reserved

Waterlife is published three times a year, and is printed by Walstead Peterborough on Leipa ultraMag

Plus, an FSC® certified paper containing 100% recycled content.

issue...

('; MIX '1,.,.J Paper from F SC responsible sources wwwf,mg FSC®C010219

Views expressed in the magazine do not necessarily reflect those of WWT.

ISSN: 1752-7392

3 One to spot… Chicks abound on our common tern rafts in summer – don’t miss their antics

4 Welcome and Contents Our Chief Executive, Sarah Fowler, on why WWT are doers by nature

7 Update WWT conservation news from around the world

17 Waterlines Nature writer Amy-Jane Beer on fighting for our rivers and better water quality

18 Your views Your letters, plus our top shots from your photographs

20 ID guide Discover how to identify some of the wonderful life below the water in your pond

22 Small but mighty Why we’re asking you to help us make a big splash for nature in your garden

28 Science in action How experts predict what our wetlands will look like in the future

30 Bewitched by wetlands Author Tom Blass journeys through marsh, meadow and other wetlands

34 Photo competition Our annual contest is open and we can’t wait to see what you can do

37 Wild about... grey herons Andy Parkinson on photographing the silent stalkers of the water’s edge

43 Get closer A selection of the best summer events to experience at our centres

50 Back chat PhD student Lily Unger reveals how she’s helping WWT restore Madagascar’s lakes

Toad on otter’s head by Linda Wilson

GET CLOSER

Turn to page 43 to see our new-look section on experiences and events at our centres

SIMPLY ADD WATER

Headlines in the press have highlighted how precarious the water situation is in the UK for nature and people.

WWT is a charity dedicated to finding solutions. Our work restoring wetlands is vital to solving this precarious situation, because the quickest way to revive nature and our natural systems is to add water: to create wetlands and allow wetland superpowers as water purifiers, flood buffers and carbon sinks to flourish. Adding water allows wetland biodiversity to bounce back, and it does this more quickly than other habitats.

As a wetland conservation charity we stand for wetland restoration; evidence shows the positive impact it has on our wildlife, our world and our society. Our wetland sites create fabulous opportunities for people to connect, enjoy and be inspired by our wetland species. Our job now is to develop replicable and scalable solutions, working to enable and inspire others to restore more wetlands through sharing our expertise and skills. We also have a long history and a strong reputation in quietly influencing and advocating for change to make wetland restoration and protection more mainstream in public policy. But we must go further and faster to accelerate wetland restoration and keep hold of the few precious wetlands we have, if we’re to address the climate, nature and wellbeing crises. With your support we are already getting bolder and louder to inspire a movement of people to take action for wetlands, and we need to do more. This autumn I look forward to sharing our strategy to 2030, which builds on these themes and actions.

Just like tiny ‘pioneer’ plants that create marshland, every small action for wetlands – whether that’s building a mini-wetland in your garden or supporting us by visiting one of our 10 wetland sites – when added together can yield extraordinary results and help us grow optimism for our future. With you with us, we are already making a difference, and together we will restore and create more vital wetlands to build back a better future.

SIGN UP TO OUR MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER

At the beginning of each month we send supporters the latest conservation and event happenings. Don’t miss this monthly round-up of what you can see and do at our sites by signing up at wwt.org.uk/newsletter

VISIT OUR ONLINE SHOP…

…and give back to wetlands and wildlife with every purchase. wwt.org.uk/shop

Sarah Fowler, Chief Executive

Shutterstock

Neil Aldridge

© Quentin Blake 2023. All rights reserved

Andy Parkinson

YOURUPDATES

Lead shot made illegal in European wetlands

We’re celebrating the introduction of a ban on lead shot in and around wetlands in all 27 EU countries as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein – an important milestone for waterbirds, one million of which are estimated to be poisoned by lead in Europe each year. This is the result of years of research, campaigning and advocacy by WWT and partners.

The impact of lead ammunition on wildlife has long been hidden – to the wider public, that is. It’s painfully clear to wildlife experts, explains Julia Newth, WWT’s Ecosystem Health and Social Dimensions Manager. “WWT has been well placed to understand this issue because, unfortunately, we’ve performed post-mortems on many dead birds at our wetland centres, and health-checked lots of living birds suffering from lead poisoning,” she says.

In the UK, thousands of tonnes of lead ammunition are discharged during hunting every year. Foraging birds often

eat spent pellets, mistaking them for seeds or grit, and suffer the results. “Ingestion of lead can affect the reproductive and nervous systems, plus muscles and various organs,” Julia explains. Tests undertaken at wetland centres reveal that a substantial proportion of wildfowl in the UK have significantly elevated levels of lead in their blood. But that’s just part of the evidence-gathering work we’ve undertaken over more than two decades.

In the UK alone, WWT research indicates that up to 100,000 waterbirds perish annually, and the welfare of several hundred thousand more may be compromised. “Lead shot also puts

“We want healthy wetlands, healthy wildlife and a healthy environment for people as well as animals”

people and their dogs at risk, when they eat game meat contaminated with lead,” observes Julia.

We presented this evidence to politicians, other decision-makers and hunters to encourage a move away from lead ammunition. Following submissions to the European Chemicals Agency, and after a lengthy political process, the European ban came into force in February.

Our focus now is on achieving a complete ban on the use of all lead ammunition – not just shot – for hunting and sports shooting in outdoor settings in the EU and UK. A ban in wetlands isn’t enough, because many wildfowl, especially geese and swans, spend much of their time feeding outside wetlands.

WWT research has also shown that compliance with the partial restrictions currently in place in the UK can be poor.

“We want healthy wetlands, healthy wildlife and a healthy environment for people as well as animals,” proclaims Julia.

POLICY AND ADVOCACY

The power of wetlands

Tom Fewins, WWT Head of Policy and Advocacy, shares the latest on our work building political and wider support for wetlands

These days, the issue of water quality is often in the news, with regular reports of the despoiling of local rivers, streams and beaches, and the understandable public outrage. It’s easy to feel helpless when places we love are desecrated, and it can be frustrating to discover there are no easy fixes. But wetlands are one of the best nature-based solutions to pollution, and highly effective at filtering out pollutants – including those from sewage, agriculture and roads –from our waterbodies.

That’s why WWT is calling for the creation of 100,000 hectares of wetlands to help meet water-quality targets. By working in partnership with the private sector, Government and wider civil society we hope to create ‘treatment wetlands’ to clean up waterbodies, and get policies in place to drive their use.

Take nutrient pollution. This is an urgent problem for our waterways, so we’re asking the Government to fund a treatment wetlands pilot scheme, to make wetlands the default option for treating nutrient pollution, and to create a nutrient-offsetting code.

Is this achievable? Definitely! WWT is working hard to build political support for our proposals with a new ‘route map’ showing how we can create wetlands to improve water quality. But to get the attention it deserves we need one other thing: you. With the public behind us, decision-makers will not be able to ignore the water-purifying powers of wetlands.

Read our water-quality route map and stay informed by joining our Wetlands Can! campaign: wwt.org.uk/wetlands-can

It was a successful year in 2022 for the UK’s common cranes. The latest survey reveals 71 pairs, with the population estimated at over 200 birds. Of these 71 pairs, up to 64 pairs bred and these fledged an incredible 39 chicks

Future hopes for Britain’s cranes

New research provides hope for the long-term future of cranes in England. A population of these magnificent birds, long extinct in Britain, has been re-established in south-west England, thanks in part to your support. And, according to the latest study, it has a good chance of thriving.

The common crane once lived in wetlands across Britain. But by the start of the 17th century it had gone extinct here, due to hunting for food and its wetland habitat being drained for agriculture. From 1979, cranes from mainland Europe began to settle in eastern England, with numbers slowly increasing.

In an effort to create a viable population of cranes in western Britain, 2010 saw the launch of the Great Crane Project –a partnership between WWT, RSPB and Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, with funding from Viridor Credits Environmental Company and the Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust.

During the initial phase, between 2010 and 2014, eggs collected from Germany

A new report shows that the survival of our released cranes has been high – unusually, higher than wild birds

were hatched and chicks reared in the UK, and 93 juvenile cranes were released onto the Somerset Levels. However, translocating cranes is very difficult, and it had never before been attempted for the European species.

Cranes are long lived (reaching 20 years old or more), late maturing – with breeding not usually attempted until they are four years of age – and rarely produce more than one chick annually. So it takes many years and intensive monitoring to measure if a reintroduction has been successful.

Now a new report, co-authored by WWT scientists and RSPB staff, outlines a possible future for the reintroduced UK population. The study shows that the survival of our released cranes has been exceptionally high – unusually, higher than wild birds.

However, breeding success rates among reintroduced birds has been slightly lower than among wild counterparts. This is likely because success increases with parent age; even the oldest of our released birds are only now reaching middle age, so this should improve over time. We predict that the reintroduced population should continue to increase slowly – but this outcome relies on maintaining good conditions for these birds, and we must keep a careful eye on the new population.

Nick Upton/WWT

AGM 2023

Save the date: Thursday 23 November

Unlocking saltmarsh’s superpowers

We’re delighted to announce that WWT has been awarded £21m to unlock the superpowers of wetlands thanks to a groundbreaking new 17-year partnership with Aviva.

Join us at this year’s very exciting AGM, which has moved to a new London venue – the Royal Institution.

Come and hear about WWT’s new strategy for 2023-2030 and discover the latest news about our conservation work worldwide. The AGM takes place on 23 November at the Royal Institution (21 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS) and simultaneously as an online interactive event. Despite using our largest WWT venue last year we reached capacity, which unfortunately meant we had to direct some of our members to attend virtually rather than in person. We have listened to your feedback and as a result have moved to a venue that will give everyone the chance to attend in person.

This is your opportunity to meet the WWT team and other supporters, share your views on our work, and direct your questions to Council, the Board of Trustees, our Chief Executive Sarah Fowler and other members of the team. You can also follow the progress of the important conservation efforts you support through your membership – including projects that are helping to save precious species and restore wetland habitats worldwide.

Further information will follow in the next edition of Waterlife. Please register your interest by going to the WWT AGM webpage: wwt.org.uk/agm

This pioneering project will enable us to restore coastal saltmarsh, a hugely biodiverse natural habitat that is rapidly declining. It will also facilitate research into measuring and maximising this vital habitat’s benefits to help combat climate change and reverse nature loss.

Saltmarsh, a coastal wetland habitat flooded and drained by tidal saltwater, is an unsung hero that delivers enormous benefits for people and the planet. However, saltmarshes worldwide are declining, hit by rising sea levels and land reclamation.

We’ve long worked to conserve saltmarsh, proving its value with the creation of 250 hectares of saltmarsh within the 488-hectare site of WWT Steart Marshes in Somerset, in partnership with the Environment Agency. But why is this habitat so important? Well, it’s nature-rich. This green-and-blue mosaic of marshland, tidal creeks and pools teems with wildlife that often cannot survive elsewhere. It’s a richly stocked service station for migratory birds such as oystercatchers,

redshanks and curlews stopping off to refuel, as well as hosting otters, dragonflies and marsh harriers, and threatened species such as water voles, skylarks and European eels.

Coastal saltmarsh also quickly and effectively locks away large quantities of carbon from the atmosphere as tide-borne sediment is deposited and decomposing plants are inundated and buried. In fact, more carbon is trapped in saltmarsh, and for longer, than in woodlands. It helps prevent flooding by reducing the impact of tidal storm surges on communities and land.

The new project will help us develop best practice and fill evidence gaps to encourage further investment in saltmarsh creation. It will also help make communities more climate resilient.

“We’re incredibly excited about our new transformative partnership with Aviva, which aims to unlock the superpowers of wetlands to help combat the interlinked emergencies of climate change and catastrophic biodiversity loss,” says Sarah Fowler, WWT’s Chief Executive. “With these crises showing no sign of slowing, there has never been a more crucial time for this partnership, which will deliver effective natural solutions to urgent man-made problems.”

Sam Stafford/WWT

Ian Luck/Shutterstock

New slices of Severn heaven for curlews

Rare species such as Eurasian curlew and European eel are enjoying more and better habitat thanks to the Flourishing Floodplains project, which ended in March.

The Severn and Avon Vales in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire once comprised a biodiverse mosaic of floodplain meadows, marshes and small waterbodies – but most of those have been lost or ecologically degraded.

Two years ago, the Flourishing Floodplains project was launched to research, promote and kick-start the protection, restoration and reconnection of this precious habitat. The work was delivered by WWT, the Floodplain Meadows Partnership at the Open University and Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group South West.

The project exceeded even its initial ambitious goals, thanks in large part to the efforts of volunteers, farmers and landowners, and other partners. The project trained 27 citizen scientists to undertake botanical surveys of 650 hectares of precious floodplain grasslands, with 120

hectares of hitherto unrecorded species-rich floodplain meadow habitat discovered, and over 300 hectares of grasslands suitable for restoration identified.

Volunteers also joined researchers surveying 100 ponds for the presence of critically endangered eels. They collected water samples and used cutting-edge environmental-DNA analysis to identify traces of these hard-to-find fish, which were positively detected in more than 35% of the ponds surveyed.

“It’s said that such collaboration helps scientists become better citizens, and citizens become better scientists,” notes Jenny Bashford, WWT’s Flourishing Floodplains Project Manager. “This

The project exceeded its ambitious goals, thanks to the efforts of farmers, volunteers, landowners and other partners

knowledge exchange enables us to achieve more and reach further with available funds, to complete large-scale projects far beyond WWT reserves.”

Partnerships were also crucial as we worked with farmers and landowners to share advice on nature-friendly farming methods and to arrange access. The project restored 36 hectares of floodplain meadow habitat at seven sites, and restored or created 42 farmland ponds and small wetland features, providing important natural larders for wildlife such as birds, bats and amphibians.

Flourishing Floodplains also funded research on the 35 breeding pairs of curlew in the vales, including GPS-tagging five birds and monitoring nests to better understand causes of nest failure.

This isn’t the end of work in the area, of course. WWT is developing a landscaperecovery scheme to connect wetland sites in the Severn Vale (wwt.org.uk/eelscapes).

And we’ll continue to build on our vital partnerships.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund distributed the funding from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund in partnership with Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission, on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

WWT-managed land grows

The area of land that WWT manages for nature nearly doubled when we took over the lease of Bridgwater Bay National Nature Reserve on 1 January 2023.

This wonderful site, owned by the Environment Agency and Natural England, sits alongside the Steart Marshes reserve and is one of the largest areas of intertidal mudflats in Britain, and an internationally important feeding and roosting site for waterfowl and waders.

The reserve, encompassing more than 2,600 hectares of land at the mouth of the rivers Parrett and Brue, features intertidal mudflats, shingle ridges, floodplains and the largest area of saltmarsh in Somerset. It’s also the largest UK moulting ground for shelducks, hosting as many as 4,000 of these colourful birds each July.

We’ll improve the management of hedgerows and ditches across the site, and

allow cattle to graze on the saltmarsh, encouraging colonisation of plant species that had previously been lost from the site.

We hope that this work will encourage the spread of threatened species including water voles and great crested newts, and support the area’s resident population of rare great silver water beetles.

“We’re excited to take on the stewardship of this immense reserve with the support of Natural England,” said Alys Laver, Site Manager at WWT Steart Marshes. “We plan to make the site more hospitable to native plants and animals, while also sharing the benefits that wetlands provide to human wellbeing and carbon capture.

“We’ll also be taking a landscape-scale approach to conservation, and enabling the whole peninsula to be managed with climate change, sea-level rise and the movement of different species in mind.”

Working for willow tits

Pioneering efforts at WWT Washington in Tyne and Wear could help bolster the fortunes of the UK’s fastest-declining resident bird.

Between 1995 and 2017, willow tit numbers plummeted 83%, with just 2,750 estimated to remain in the UK today. To breed well, these little birds need soft, rotten wood in which to bore nest holes – but their favoured wet woodland habitat is becoming increasingly sparse and fragmented. Breeding pairs also face being usurped from nest holes by aggressive blue tits, or having their eggs predated by great spotted woodpeckers, numbers of which are rising.

At Washington, a stronghold for the species thanks to habitat management work led by Reserve Manager John Gowland, we’re launching a project to assess the population and threats, improve breeding success and explore how populations could be established elsewhere.

We’ve partnered with the BTO to launch a colour-ringing scheme, and staff and visitors at Washington are encouraged to record sightings of these birds to help us understand their numbers, movements and pairings.

Newcastle University master’s student Becca Orange is installing nest camera traps to measure breeding success and understand the causes of nest failure.

280,000

people have benefited from our Blue Prescribing activities, improving mental health through connecting with nature people interacted with our touring 3D wetlands mural, raising awareness of the many benefits of wetlands 345 7,000

carbon-free kW hours of electricity are generated by solar panels across our sites each year

We’ve devised the first cost-effective, predator-proof willow tit nest boxes, installing them at Washington and WWT Llanelli – and already there are signs of nest boring at Washington. We’re also exploring the possibility of translocating willow tits to rewilded areas where beavers will hopefully create suitable wet habitat.

Find out more about the Willow Tit Project at: wwt.org.uk/willow-tit

The mudflats of Bridgwater Bay

Sacha Dench/WWT

Proving people need wetlands

We know that wetlands host incredible biodiversity. Now a new WWT report reveals the vital role this habitat plays in the lives of communities in the Mekong Delta – helping us push for its protection and restoration.

SpanningtheCambodia-Vietnamborder, theCambodianLowerMekongDelta(CLMD) hostsdiversewildlife,particularlybirdsandfish. It’salsohometopeoplewhocultivatericeinsoil irrigatedandfertilisedbyseasonalfloodwaters.

Today,though,itsnaturalhabitatsareunder threat,chieflyfromagriculturalintensification anddevelopment.Inthepast50years, particularlyinVietnam,farmersareincreasingly producingnotonebutthreericecropseach year,requiringtheconstructionofwatermanagementinfrastructurethatbreaksthe naturalfloodingcycle,anddemandingmore chemicalfertilisersandpesticides.Though farmers’yieldsincreaseinitially,holdingback floodwateralsoholdsbackthefertilesilts theycarry.Overtime,thesoil’sproductivity decreases,oftenleavingfarmersindebtand fallingintoapovertytrap.

Earlieranalysisofsatelliteimagesshowedthat just2%oftheVietnameseDeltanowcomprises naturalwetlandvegetation,withonlyslightly more–10%–intheCLMD.Infact,overthepast 30yearsabout1,600km²ofwetlandvegetation –about65%ofthepreviousarea–hasbeenlost fromtheCLMD.

Followingthatassessment,weundertook biodiversityassessmentsatkeyCLMDwetland sites,documentingspeciesincludingthe vulnerablesaruscrane,endangeredblack-bellied ternandcriticallyendangeredgiantcarp.But thesewetlandsareequallyimportanttolocal people.Tolearnjusthowimportant,lastyear weconductedaseriesofsurveys,called

“Being able to present clear evidence showing the importance of ecosystem services to government is powerful”

RapidAssessmentsoftheWetlandEcosystem Services(RAWES).

Forthefirsttime,thisgaveavoicetolocal communitieswhorelyonwetlands.They confirmedthattheseplacesprovideessential provisioningservices–primarilyfood,water (fordrinking,domesticuseorlivestock)andfuel. That’sinadditiontomanagingfloodrisk,erosion, waterandairquality,enrichinghumansociety–includingbenefitsfromtourism–andproviding othersupportingservicessuchaswaterrecycling.

Earlierthisyear,wepresentedourreportto theCambodianandVietnamesegovernments, toinformpolicydecisionsrelatingtowetlands, agricultureanddevelopment.

“Thisisapowerfuladvocacytool,”explains TomosAvent,WWTHeadofInternational Programmes.“Wecan’talwayspersuade decision-makersusingonlyinformationabout birds,fishorotherwildlife,sobeingableto presentclearevidenceshowingtheimportance ofecosystemservicestothoseatahighlevelin governmentisagreatstepforward.”

Wearehopefulthatourresearchwillbolster callsforprotectionofremainingwetlandsinthe CLMD,aswellaslimitingurbandevelopment andagriculturalintensification.

“Ifyoumanagewetlandswell,andconserve themforecosystemservices,thenwildlifewill bounceback,”saysTomos.“So,byworkingto helpcommunitiesmanagehabitatsforecosystem services,we’llalsohelppreciousbiodiversity.”

Cambodia is one of the world’s most wetland-dependent countries. Millions rely on the wetlands in the Mekong Delta for their survival, living off the rice and fish they provide

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Good news for…

We’re undertaking major wetland habitat restoration for rare species, in the UK and abroad, and sharing our conservation knowledge, thanks to your support and generous awards of funding from corporate donors

Our Blue Recovery

We’re delighted that our Blue Recovery Fund has been awarded £100,000 by The Barratt Foundation, which aims to help the environment and nature alongside Barratt’s commitment to being the country’s leading sustainable housebuilder. This funding will help accelerate and expand WWT’s Blue Recovery projects contributing to the creation and restoration of 100,000 hectares of wetland in the UK, as well as conservation research strengthening the case for investment in wetland creation.

Sharing conservation best practice

In March, Project Godwit held a conference at WWT London Wetland Centre, sharing with some 50 delegates the successes and challenges of its work. The project, a partnership between WWT and RSPB launched in 2017, involved the first UK trial headstarting a wading bird. Attendees, inspired by the project’s success in boosting breeding pairs of black-tailed godwits at Ouse Washes from three to 19, were keen to absorb the lessons gleaned so far. We’re now working with the RSPB to draft a UK Action Plan for the species. Project Godwit is funded by the EU LIFE Nature Programme, The HSBC 150th Anniversary Fund, Natural England and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Species at WWT Caerlaverock

A new Wilder, Wetter Caerlaverock project aims to make the site even wetter by blocking ditches and drains and encouraging natural coastal processes.

Among the species that will benefit are natterjack toads (for which Caerlaverock is a Scottish stronghold), the tadpole shrimp (a rare crustacean – Caerlaverock is one of only two places where it is found in the UK) and wetland birds. This work is possible thanks to support from the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot, with additional funding from the Ecological Restoration Fund.

Wetland species in Cambodia

Birds, fish and communities will benefit from major habitat work we’re undertaking in Cambodia after securing new funding. A substantial three-year grant from L’OCCITANE Foundation will enable WWT and local partners in Boeung Prek Lapouv Protected Landscape Area to restore swathes of grassland – important feeding habitat for vulnerable sarus cranes – and flooded forest, which acts as a nursery for numerous fish species including the critically endangered Mekong giant carp and a roosting site for large waterbirds including the Asian openbill. The award also includes funds to bolster community-led ecotourism at Anlung Pring Protected Landscape. WWT also secured a grant from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation to scale up our sustainable agriculture project at Anlung Pring.

WWT

Don Mammoser/Shutterstock

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But

“Let’s make it abundantly clear that our votes depend on nature being at the top of the political agenda”

OnarecentstrollaroundSlimbridge, Iwasstruckbythedeliberately variednatureofwateryminihabitats.Theyarelargelyfacsimiles, ofcourse,lackingthefullcomplexity, nuanceandinterconnectionoffullywildnature butstilldiverseenoughtomakemethink.There aremyriadwaysinwhichwaterqualitycanvary naturally:fresh,brackishandsalt;stillandflowing; deepandshallow;richandpoorinnutrientsor oxygen;warmandcool.Thisvariabilityispartof theengineofdiversity,ofspeciesdispersalpatterns, andofevolutionbynaturalselection.

Andyetwhenyouseethephrase‘waterquality’, whatcomesfirsttomind?I’mwillingtobetthat, formany,itmightevokeimagesofsewageoutfalls, algalblooms,deadfish,streamscloggedwithlitter, orgraphsindicatinglevelsoftoxicpollution.Let’s faceit,therearefartoomanyexampleswherewater qualityisaproblem.Indeed,a2020Environment Agencyreportshowedthatonly16%ofourrivers, lakesandstreamsareinecologicalgoodhealth.

Itdoesn’thavetobethisway.InZurichandBasel, theriversLimmatandRhineflowsoclearandclean youcanseethebottomthroughtheheartofa metropolitanareaof1.4millionpeople.Different choiceshavebeenmadeintheUK.Notbymostof us,andcertainlynotbynature,butbypoliticians, corporatebossesandregulatoryofficials.

Thankstotherelentlesscampaigningofactivists, theplightofourrivershasbecomeamediacause célèbre.Thereisanincreasingcallforriverstobe givenlegalrights.Manyindigenouspeopleshave alwaysconsiderednaturetohaverights,while undercapitalism,entitiessuchascorporations andorganisationshaveenjoyedlegal personhoodfordecades.

Waterwaysandwetlandsfeatured heavilyintherecentTVseriesWild Isles, perhapsSirDavidAttenborough’sbest, andundoubtedlyhismostpoignant, blockbuster.Atarecentconference IheardaquoteattributedtoSirDavid: “Politicianswilldonothinguntilthey feelthepublicbitingattheirankles.”

Solet’sbite.Let’smakeitabundantly clearthatourvotesdependonnature beingatthetopofthepoliticalagenda. Thatotherprioritiessuchashealthand theeconomyrelyonfunctionalecosystems. Thatwerejectobscenefinancialrewardsto thosepresidingoverecocideandthatweexpect theperpetratorstofaceconsequences.

Natureisnotdefenceless.Wearenatureas muchasthewhitebloodcellsthatfightinfection ortheparasiticwaspsthattreessummontoattack caterpillarswhentheyareoverburdened.Whatif thatprotectivefunctioniswhywe’rehere?

HELP TACKLE RIVER WATER QUALITY

Visit our website to find out what to do if you think your local stream or river is in poor health, and how you can help keep our rivers clean: wwt.org.uk/ clean-rivers

Dr Amy-Jane Beer is a biologist, writer, editor, outdoor enthusiast and mum from North Yorkshire.

Amy-Jane Beer

Your views

We love to hear your thoughts about wetlands, WWT and Waterlife, and share your photos, so please email them to us at waterlife@wwt.org.uk or write to the address on page 4

WELCOME CHILDREN!

We’vebeenmembersofWWTfor23yearsandareregularvisitorstoSlimbridge. RecentlywewerewatchingcranesfromtheEstuaryTowerwhenaclassofschoolchildren cameclatteringupthestairs.Theycouldn’tmakeoutthecranessoweloweredour telescopeforthemtolookthrough–wesoonhadaqueue.Otherbirdersgroanedand complainedaboutthenoise,butchildrenarethenextgenerationofbirdwatchersand conservationists.Soinvitethemtolookthroughyourtelescope–andmaybeyou’llhelp toinspireafutureAttenboroughorPackham! Peter and Deborah Smith

WWT says: Our ethical birding blog highlights the importance of welcoming everyone and helping others to see and enjoy birds. It also offers tips to help you get the most out of your birding. Visit wwt.org.uk/ethical-birdwatching

MAGIC MOMENT •

I was at WWT London over Easter and ready to head home when I was literally stopped in my tracks by this beautiful kestrel. My camera was packed away so I had to be super quick before it took off. What a moment!

Charlotte Weddell

SPOONBILL

SURPRISE! •

This photo was taken in February at WWT Steart Marshes. I’ve never seen a spoonbill in the UK this clearly before.

Ian Hart

TOP SHOTS!

WINNER

I thought you’d like to see this image of a mute swan vigorously bathing in golden light at WWT Arundel. Richard Allan

•FOOD FIGHT

I recently visited WWT Martin Mere with my new camera and arrived in time for the afternoon feed and talk at the Discovery Hide, where I snapped these godwits squabbling over food!

George Wainwright

RUNNER-UP

I visited Slimbridge on a beautiful but cold day to try out my new camera lens. I spotted this kingfisher at the boardwalk fishing in the light of the setting sun. It eventually caught this massive fish. Travis Walker

WIN! WIN! WIN!

Richard wins a copy of Where to Watch Birds in Britain by Simon Harrap and Nigel Redman, worth £25 and available in our shops and online.

We love to see your photographs taken at our centres. Please send your best shots to Waterlife and they could be published in a future issue. Just email your high-res images and a short story about what you photographed to waterlife@wwt.org.uk. We can’t wait to see what you can do!

Help nature thrive.

Because your Summer wildlife are more than just visitors. _ -..........

' ./ Order now \. , f and save up to \ · \ 25% on the food ) they really / love! '

Ark __ Wildlife for a garden full of life

HOW TO IDENTIFY

POND LIFE

Even a small pond offers a rich variety of habitats and will soon be teeming with wildlife. Here’s a quick guide to some of the most common species you might find under the water

WATER FLEA

Daphnia spp.

Small orange-red or greenish dots that look like they’re jumping around are water fleas. They filter algae from the water and help to keep it clear.

GREAT DIVING BEETLE LARVAE

Dytiscus marginalis

Great diving beetle larvae are large, fearsome-looking beasts, with big, biting jaws. They have six legs and two tails and can bite through human skin, so don’t touch!

BLUE-TAILED DAMSELFLY LARVAE

Ischnura elegans

Most damselfly nymphs take about a year to reach adulthood, shedding their skins many times to grow to full size. They have three fin-like structures at the tip of their abdomen.

GREAT DIVING BEETLE

Dytiscus marginalis

Large and voracious predators up to 35mm long, great diving beetles can catch newts, tadpoles and fish. Underwater, their ‘silver lining’ is actually air bubbles trapped in hairs.

WATER SCORPION

Nepa cinerea

This predator lies in wait in dead leaves at the pond edges. It ambushes prey such as tadpoles using its pincer-like front legs. Its long tail acts as a snorkel so it can breathe.

EMPEROR DRAGONFLY NYMPH

Anax imperator

Dragonfly nymphs are voracious predators of tadpoles and small fish. They have fat, stocky bodies and are easily distinguished from damselflies due to having no ‘tails’.

FRESHWATER SHRIMP

Gammarus pulex

Commonly seen wriggling around in the debris near the bottom eating detritus, freshwater shrimps swim on their side. At rest, they curl the tail under in a classic shrimp shape.

Illustrations courtesy of Collins Pocket Guide

Freshwater Life: Britain and Northern Europe

COMMON POND SKATER

Gerris lacustris

From early spring, pond skaters can be seen ‘walking on water’. These bugs eat insects that fall into the water. They have sensitive hairs that detect vibrations on the surface.

LEECH

Glossiphonia complanata

A broad, flat leech up to 27mm long, this leech is armed with a proboscis that it inserts into the soft parts of invertebrates such as snails, sucking out their body fluids.

GREAT POND SNAIL

Lymnaea stagnalis

Our largest pond snail has a shiny yellowishbrown shell, with a tall, slender and pointed spire. It prefers ponds with plenty of aquatic vegetation and can live in stagnant water.

LESSER WATER BOATMAN

Corixa punctata

This fast bug whizzes around near the pond bed. Its long hind legs are covered in hairs, and it uses them like oars to row through the water munching algae and plant debris.

CINNAMON SEDGE CADDISFLY

Limnephilus lunatus

A group of about 30 common caddisfly species, cinnamon sedges need clean water with well-vegetated edges. The larvae make a case from bits of plant, shell or sand grains.

GREAT RAMSHORN SNAIL

Planorbis corneus

This magnificent snail has a shell diameter up to 35mm. It grazes on algae coating plant leaves using its rasping tongue or ‘radula’. Always a prize find during any pond dip.

COMMON BACKSWIMMER

Notonecta glauca

Also known as a water boatman, this formidable predator rows upside down just under the water surface waiting for insects to fall in. It can give a painful nip.

WHIRLIGIG BEETLE

Gyrinus natator

This small beetle is often seen whirling in circles on the surface. It has two pairs of eyes so it can look above and below the water at the same time. It dives if it feels threatened or to hunt.

DISCOVER MORE

These beautiful illustrations by Denys Ovenden are taken from the Collins Pocket Guide to Freshwater Life: Britain and Northern Europe, published by Collins (RRP £20). Available to buy online and from all good bookshops.

Learn more about ponds at wwt.org.uk/ponds

own pond on page 25

Larvae

Adult

SMALL BUT mighty

Watery habitats are essential for wildlife –and they’re good for you too. But 75% of the UK’s wetlands have been lost, and the precious wildlife that relies on them is under threat. Now we’re asking everyone to make a big splash for nature by building a mini-wetland wherever you live…

BY DEREK NIEMANN

Imagine yourself set loose in an unfamiliar garden. No matter whether you are six or 60 years old, instinct will draw you towards a special feature – if it is there –that calms and excites, soothes and delights you. It captivates us: it is crucial for wildlife. There is nothing quite like a pond.

This evening, and on many more evenings to come this summer, WWT Chief Executive Sarah Fowler will retreat with a drink in hand to her favourite spot at the very end of her garden. It’s where she can sit by the modest little pond she made two years ago and unwind: “I get that sense of peace and being close to wildlife. A pond gives you depth, a deeper connection to nature than anything else does.”

For Sarah, birds, bees and butterflies may come and go in her garden, but there’s always something of interest, always something to observe, in and around her pond. And the beauty of making a pond is what Sarah calls “instant wildlife”. An Oxfordshire study showed that within a year of creating a pond most insect families are represented. It is an irresistible magnet for water beetles, caddis flies, dragonflies and damselflies… You dig, and they will come. Though we never know what and when, that delicious serendipity of wondering what will appear next just adds to our enjoyment.

“I get that sense of peace and being close to wildlife. A pond gives you depth, a deeper connection to nature than anything else does” Sarah Fowler

Photos by Neil Aldridge

Paul Hobson/NaturePL

Variety is key to a successful wildlife pond. A range of micro-habitats – floating and marginal plants, shallow and deep areas – all encourage a wider range of wildlife

The added bonus is that in planning a mini-wetland like a pond, we can choose to do as much or as little as we want, without spending very much money at all. Sarah’s second pond is but an old, shallow, broken basin that she patched up; suitable for even the smallest garden, it gives her enormous satisfaction as she watches birds in their improvised bathing pool. Great for us, essential for birds needing to keep their feathers clean and waterproofed to survive.

And this is the wonder of small wetlands like ponds – our pleasure, nature’s necessity. Three-quarters of the UK’s inland wetlands have disappeared in not so many decades. We are turning our towns, cities and countryside into deserts. The ponds we make in our gardens become oases for wildlife and biodiversity hotspots, each pond linked to another oasis in another garden.

What’s more, the statistics show that not only are wetlands home to more nature than any other habitat, but that small wetlands are the richest in natural assets, supporting two-thirds of all wetland plants and animals found in Britain. And ponds often do better than lakes and rivers in playing host to some of our rarest wetland

Not only are wetlands home to more nature than any other habitat, but small wetlands are the richest, supporting two-thirds of all UK wetland species

wildlife. This is staggering stuff, so how do we make the most of the pond in our garden?

An enthusiast in the heart of urban London understands more than most that a pond needs to be more than just a body of water. Eleven years ago, David Fielding and his daughter found a heavily gravid frog in their pond-less garden, desperately in need of water to lay her spawn. Little Ellesha nobly sacrificed her sandpit to serve as a birthing pool and the family’s first makeshift pond.

Over the ensuing years, David graduated to making two bigger, better ponds, and created an alternative persona for himself on Twitter, where he posts as urbanponds101. His extraordinary videos of ponds teeming with frogs croaking and jostling on the surface, bundles of toads engaged in what looks like mud wrestling, and dragon-like shoals of newts underwater are all recorded on digital waterproof cameras. They are viewed and commented on by thousands of admirers all over the world and they have even featured on BBC Springwatch

GREENER GRASS

But some viewers are envious and perplexed. “Lots of people ask me why my pond is so much better than theirs. I try to say that a pond is only the focal point of a habitat for wildlife. It’s the habitat all around the pond that makes the difference. If I got a pound for every time I have to explain that newts spend seven months of the year in a terrestrial habitat, either hunting or hibernating, I’d be a wealthy man. Once newts arrived, I took the view that

David Fielding

Here be dragons.

Most of the common newt’s nocturnal garden wanderings are invisible to us, but David Fielding’s pond reveals the incredible views that are possible during the breeding season

HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN WILDLIFE POND

Creating a pond is one of the most important things you can do for wildlife in your garden. Our step by step will ensure your pond provides a perfect habitat for wetland wildlife

1 Mark out the area for your pond somewhere that gets some sun and is not overshadowed by leaf and sapdropping overhanging trees. Make sure your pond liner is at least twice the size of the pond. If you can, collect rainwater beforehand. Tap water is not ideal because it contains chemicals that could encourage prolific growth of algae.

3 Spread your liner over the hole and fill slowly with water. Press the liner into position, minimise folds and rework ledges where necessary so they are firm under the liner. Put stones or slabs around the outside to hold it in place. Leave it a while to settle then cut the liner to fit and bury the edges beneath soil.

2 Dig the hole, sculpting lightly curved edges throughout. Include shallow ledges and a gentle slope to allow easy access and exits for birds, mammals and amphibians. Once the hole is dug, remove sharp objects such as stones. Line the bottom with old carpets, underlay or builder’s sand to make doubly sure the liner won’t be punctured.

4 Look to grow four types of plant in different parts of the pond. Submerged plants such as rigid hornwort oxygenate the water. Floating plants such as frogbit provide cover, shade and perches. Marginal plants that shelter emerging wildlife include water forget-me-not, while marsh plants such as marsh marigold, often loaded with nectar, hide amphibians under spreading leaves. See our pond plant guide at wwt.org.uk/pond-plants

For full instructions, visit wwt.org.uk/make-yourown-pond. To learn more about the wildlife your pond might attract, turn to page 20.

MY PERFECT POND

BY SARAH FOWLER, WWT CHIEF EXECUTIVE

“Two years ago, a messy patch of the garden used by the previous owner to dump stuff was doing nothing. I wanted a pond because I’d had one before, but I also wanted a source of water for our honeybees. So I built a tiny pond an arm-span wide with a little shallow area for the bees.

“Even before I joined WWT as Chief Executive I went online and followed their advice on how to build it and fill it with the right plants. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of buying non-native species. Even when you ask in a garden centre about what’s native and what’s non-native, quite often they can’t tell you. I also followed WWT advice about the butyl liner, sand and ensuring different depths.

“I bought water forget-me-not as a marginal plant because I love it, and I put in some oxygenator plants, such as water milfoil. My next step is to add other plants, like marsh marigold and maybe a water lily. Frogs and toads started to appear in the first year. Now I’m finding them in different parts of the garden when I hadn’t seen them at all before in 10 years. My pond is a source of water all year round for all sorts of wildlife, not just wetland species, and even in last year’s heatwave it didn’t completely dry out.”

Find out more about the pond species mentioned in this feature at wwt.org.uk/ pond-life

ABOVE

even though they are so mobile I’ll make it so attractive for them to stay that they will never want to go anywhere else. And so I’ve made rockpiles and woodpiles and a hibernaculum, consisting of heavy logs and smaller logs in a spoke-like arrangement, giving amphibians easy access.” In David’s amphibian paradise, the toads and newts prefer the bigger, deeper pond and the frogs choose the smaller, weedy pond.

WILDLIFE MAGNET

When it comes to ponds, there’s no distinction between urban and rural in terms of quality. Scientific studies have shown that the city pool holds similar numbers of invertebrates to its country cousin. And experts agree that a pond should not be so much a pool as part of a wetland complex. David says: “The 18 inches of the emergence zone is probably the most important part. Wildlife needs to have the best possible chance of surviving getting in and out of the pond.”

In the mosaic of micro-habitats – a pond, its marshy edges and the damp surrounds – we find the greatest diversity of wildlife. And there’s no question that life is teeming throughout the summer. We see blackbirds pecking up whole gobbets of mud from the edge to line the inside of their nests. In late spring come the smaller mud plunderers, red mason bees gathering miniscule amounts in their jaws to build the partitions between the egg chambers of their nests. Flowering brooklime is blue heaven for nectar-sipping hoverflies, while hempagrimony is irresistible to bumble bees and red admirals.

The pond itself is a waterhole for the parched summer, tempting robins and wrens by day, and hedgehogs by night. Tall stems rising from the water become perches for hunting dragonflies, or sites of transformation, as a damselfly emerges from its nymphal jacket to spread its new-made wings. A water measurer stalks the surface for

Emanuele Biggi/NaturePL

An underwater story of life and death as a predatory water beetle larva snaps up an unwary tadpole

LEFT Sarah’s pond attracts all sorts of wildlife and is a source of water for many creatures

prey, while down below a female newt parcels up leaves of water forget-me-not around her eggs. And a child’s-eye view takes in the myriad of pond plankton – the daphnia, hydra and suchlike that turns us all into children.

EXPLORE MINI-WETLANDS

In his own London garden, David is keen to emphasise the variety of options open, from an almost-lake to a kitchen sink: “I’ve played around with different types of mini-pond, simply to encourage people to see the joy of ponds. They are so simple to make but people struggle with stagnant water and a lack of imagination. Think scientifically about positioning and choosing the right kinds of aquatic plants and you can quite easily create a nice, self-cleaning pond, even if you haven’t got a great deal of space.”

Let us build our ponds and share the love to encourage our family, friends and neighbours, to create a network of mini-wetlands. David sums up why we should do this: “I’ve tried to become an advocate for two reasons. One is mental health, and I think you derive the same kind of benefits as you do from gardening. There’s something about ponds – and people have told me this worldwide –it takes us back to a time when nature was a bit more prevalent. Most kids my age had tadpoles, many probably saw a newt in water and got quite excited, or stumbled across a toad in their grandmother’s garden. It’s a reminder of a different time. A time of innocence and exploration.

Let us build our ponds and share the love to encourage our family, friends and neighbours, to create a network of mini-wetlands

“The other reason was that I decided to share photos every day to inspire those who don’t have a pond to see the progressions through the year – courtship, mating, spawning, development of the young. People watch my videos on Twitter and copy me – they say to me, ‘this is what my family have done’. Somebody told me ‘You’re the best biology teacher I’ve come across’. That’ll keep me going this week.”

As we move into another potentially drier summer, Sarah has her own big project in mind. “My goal is to connect the pond to the downpipes of the house so that I have my very own in-garden sustainable urban drainage system. That’s some way off but I’ll work it out somehow.” •

CHAMPION MINI-WETLANDS

Every wetland, no matter how small, makes a difference. Play your part by creating a mini-wetland in your garden, backyard, balcony or community. Our downloadable resources provide everything you need to know about a range of mini-wetlands, including some you don’t need a garden for. Dive in at wwt.org.uk/ miniwetlands

Even an old bathtub or sink can serve as a pond – but note the escape ramp for small mammals

Birds such as this young starling will visit garden ponds to drink and to bathe

Botany vision/Alamy

Science in action

PREDICTING FUTURE CHANGE

Climate change predictions for the UK include drier summers and wetter winters. So WWT is investigating the potential impacts of these on our reserves and getting ready to adapt

Here’s a question for you. Which scientific job is laborious but also, in its way, terrifying?

Senior Research Officer

Dr Sietse Los can tell you the answer. He’s a climate change analyst employed to look into the future and help WWT adapt to predictions.

“Everyone knows the climate is warming,” he says. “But model predictions vary. At the moment, the consensus is that the globe will be about two degrees warmer by the end of the century. My role is to also consider worse-case scenarios – and they can be even more alarming!”

It would be irresponsible for any organisation to put its head in the sand and ignore realities, so Sietse follows the data to advise WWT about how the climate around its UK centres is likely to change in the next tens of years, and what should be done to mitigate it.

“At the present rate of warming, we can expect hotter summers in the south of England. This means that rainfall will decrease and surface evaporation will increase, potentially leading to water shortages. This is especially likely in London,” says Sietse. “A good way to look at it is to match the projected climate to an

“At the present rate of warming, we can expect hotter summers in the south. London will have a climate similar to that of Bordeaux today”

existing climate scenario – so, for example, with two degrees of warming, London will have a climate similar to that of Bordeaux in France today.”

He continues: “Warmer summers, wetter winters and wine-growing opportunities may sound pleasant, but these sorts of changes to the climate cause significant issues. For example, the risk of floods may increase dramatically. At WWT Slimbridge, the risk of flood from extreme climate events is likely to increase. Storms that would have been expected to occur only once every 200 years could become more frequent, as much as once every 20 years.”

One priority is to assess what specific impacts climate change might have on wildlife. “This is a difficult and complex task requiring detailed ecological data,” says Sietse. “But we predict that London Wetland Centre could potentially lose some moisture-loving plants such as purple willow due to the land drying out. Grassland and woodland habitats are expected to become more open if we lower the water table.

“The areas around Slimbridge, Steart and Llanelli, might have fewer visiting Bewick’s swans and pintail and pochard ducks, for example, and fewer breeding species such as yellowhammers and willow tits. On the other hand, figures predict that avocets and little egrets will thrive. These are just projections, but they give us an idea of what to expect.”

AROUND THE WORLD

WWT’s climate change assessments aren’t confined to the UK. Mark Grindley, Senior Project Manager (International), has been involved with similar studies in both Madagascar and Myanmar.

“In Madagascar, we’ve been assessing the future of two sites, including Lake Sofia, where we have reintroduced the critically endangered Madagascar pochards, and at nearby Lake Tseny,” says Mark. “We use a methodology developed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which looks at climate impacts on key species and habitats, and also so-called ‘village vulnerability,’ which considers local livelihoods. We are also training site managers elsewhere in the country to apply the same approach.”

WORDS: DOMINIC COUZENS

In London, we predict that a drop in water levels could affect about 50 species, with some, like this little egret, doing better and others worse

The Cetti’s warbler is one of the species predicted to thrive in a warmer Britain. It was recorded here for the first time in 1961 and now has about 3,500 breeding territories.

The Lake Sofia assessment predicts higher average temperatures in the future, with more intense and more frequent highrainfall events, increasing the chance of flooding – which isn’t so different to Slimbridge! But the lake hosts two highly threatened species – the Madagascar pochard and Madagascar grebe – that would be vulnerable to these conditions, especially the grebe’s eggs and young. When you’re dealing with species with low global populations, the stakes for the future are high.

Climate science is a complex subject and projections are, by their own nature, uncertain. But Sietse doesn’t mince his words when it comes to the potential worries. “Don’t forget,” he says, “that since the last Ice Age the world has warmed about five degrees in 10,000 years. We are now talking about a change of two degrees in 100 years (1960-2060). We aren’t giving plants and animals any time to adapt.” And when he puts it like that, the enormity hits. n

The UK assessments were funded by Eversheds Sutherland. The assessments in Madagascar were funded by BIOPAMA (biopama.org) and the Darwin Initiative (darwininitiative.org.uk).

STEP BY STEP

The Bewick’s swan is expected to decline as a wintering bird in the south. Ninety per cent of the entire European population is restricted to just 10 sites.

1 CHOOSE SCENARIO

Which degree of warming?

There are many different climate predictions, but most scientists expect a global temperature rise of around two degrees by the end of the 21st century. The target of 1.5 degrees is likely to be missed. Once the scenario is chosen, our experts look up Met Office predictions for temperature, rainfall, windspeed, and evaporation for the target location.

2 ESTIMATE WATER NEEDS

Moving water around

The climate predictions suggest that at most WWT centres it will be warmer and drier in summer and wetter in winter. In summer, evaporation from waterbodies will increase and local demand will be high. Most sites are already managed to move water around where needed, through a network of channels. But local competition for water resources could play a significant part.

3 PREDICT ECOLOGICAL CHANGES

How will species be affected?

One way to predict how plants will be affected by a changing climate is by analysing the climates in which they occur at present. The analysis is based on weather data, citizen science projects and scientific papers. It is not easy; for example, how much will a few centimetres’ difference in water affect a plant community and how will this affect the fortunes of a bird?

4 MAKE PLANS FOR THE CHANGES

Mitigating for less or more water

There’s little point in carrying out studies and making informed predictions unless you’re prepared to act on the results. Among the changes that WWT could make at its sites are connecting centres with adjacent wetlands, increasing water storage during the winter, and increasing the diversity of sites with different water regimes.

Creating

WETLANDS BEWITCHED BY

Wetlands can be hard to define – some are permanent, others seasonal. Some are ancient and wild, some are ‘artificial’ (and many are somewhere in between).

Some cover vast expanses, others less so. But, says Tom Blass, they all deserve our appreciation

Tom Blass is a writer, editor and author of Swamp Songs, a traveller’s celebration of swamps, marshes, bogs and other wetlands. Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, the title is available at wwt.org.uk/ shop, where you can give back to wetland nature with every purchase.

It always strikes me that the word ‘wetlands’, as a generic term, fails to do justice not only to the diversity of the swamps, marshes, fens, bogs, mires, mangroves and more to which it refers, but also to their rich connotations of eeriness, mystery and otherworldliness. Perhaps there are so many kinds of ‘wetland’ that the term is in danger of being stretched too thin. Though one might presume a wetland to be easily recognisable as such, even that might be pushing the figurative boat out a little. A reed-fringed marsh or a cypress swamp will easily tick the box. But what about a repurposed sewage works, a reservoir seasonally squatted by migrant birds, or a flooded field? To my mind, the answer has to be yes for any of the above.

When I set out to write Swamp Songs, I had a vague idea of using Romney Marsh as a yardstick against which I could compare other wetlands. In doing so, I thought I could arrive at a sense of whether they share common traits, or whether their diversity –physical, cultural, geomorphic and other – are such that any attempt would be futile. Ultimately, I think I reached both conclusions, such is the ambiguous nature of wetlands!

SHAPED BY HUMANKIND

Romney Marsh sits at the south-eastern tip of Kent. To be strictly accurate, it consists of three areas, Romney, Denge and Walland marshes, each fed by a different confluence of river courses, but which cover around

Opposite: Romney Marsh is famous for its variety of wetland habitats, from small farm ponds to the vast shingle expanse of Dungeness

100 square miles. Like so many wetlands, it is not a ‘pure product’ of nature, its origins lying in the early Church’s efforts at land reclamation by ‘inning’, draining and protecting pasturelands. These were mostly given over to grazing sheep in astronomical numbers until the post-war push for food, which saw much of the pasture turned over for arable land. But the Marsh sits mostly below sea level, and its patchwork of fields form a kind of tessellated mosaic, each piece in the puzzle separated from its neighbour by one of the ancient ditches or ‘sewers’ –rich habitats for fish, amphibians and birds.

Were it not for the sea wall that protects most of it, and the natural bulwark of the vast shingle ‘desert’ around Dungeness, Romney would most probably revert to a muddy lagoon, its boundaries indistinct and coming and going at the behest of the tides and the seasons.

For much of the 16th through to the early 19th century, the Marsh was largely given over to a smuggling economy – first, the illicitly tax-free export of wool to the Continent, latterly, the import of tobacco and spirits and fine clothes – with a complex system of governance comprised of ‘lords and jurats [a person who performs a duty on oath] of the Marsh’ in place to ensure landowners took equal responsibility for protecting its seawall and waterways.

I found an unexpected but moving parallel in the mangrove swamps of West Bengal’s Sundarbans, where I went in search of tigers on an island called Bali (spoiler alert – I saw none!). It brought to life the hardships of life at the fringes of Romney in the past, and the travails of the Bali inhabitants in the present.

RECOVERED FROM THE SEA

Bali is largely reclaimed, and surrounded by a sea wall that protects low-lying crops such as rice and millet, and grazing for sheep, goats and cows. The islands of the inner Sundarbans reserve, where the Bengal tiger still holds sway, lie some distance away and are only reachable by boat. At low tide, the mangrove juts, dagger-like, through the mud. At the fringes, monkeys forage on the foreshore and slender deer are briefly bipedal as they rear up to reach the tenderest leaves on the sundri trees that give their name to the Sundarbans.

While Bali’s villagers mostly subsist on what they can earn through selling their crops, each year fishers or their families are killed by tigers as they venture into the inner reserve to fish or gather honey with which to supplement their incomes. Yet there is great respect for the big cats, and a rich folklore in which Ma Bonbibi, the tiger goddess,

It strikes me that the word ‘wetlands’ fails to do justice not only to the diversity of swamps, marshes, fens, bogs, mires and mangroves, but also to their rich connotations of mystery and otherworldliness

The Sundarbans is the only mangrove forest in the world inhabited by tigers, which share the land with fishers, crab collectors and honey collectors

plays a major role in a pantheon of local gods and demigods.

But it is the rising level of the sea caused by climate change that poses the greater existential threat to the islanders’ livelihoods – and indeed, the tigers themselves. In 2009, Cyclone Aila battered the Sundarbans, destroying the earthworks that constitute the sea wall, flattening houses and crops. Shortly after I left the island in 2020 a friend sent me footage of villagers working continuously to stop rising, swirling floodwaters tearing at the wall. Bali cannot afford the concrete barrier that now prevents Romney Marsh from slipping back into the English Channel. For centuries, it was beaten mud, built on a bed of blackthorn, that protected the wetlands, the Marshmen pitching in each year to ensure the wall would be strong enough to withstand winter storms.

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

One of the greatest aspects of the diversity of wetlands is that while some cover vast swathes (the Sudd of Sudan covers nearly 60,000km2 in the rainy season), even the smallest confer great benefits – for man and nature alike. My express purpose in travelling to Cyprus was to see the salt lakes – fabled in antiquity for their uniqueness and extraordinary saline bounty.

For bird lovers – or indeed, aficionados of all things pink – flamingos provide the big draw, with first cohorts arriving in late November or December, and numbers

Where the salt lakes are shimmering, viscous and intimidating in their sun-beaten expanse, Oroklini, discretely hidden by reeds, is lush and intimate

increasing so that by the height of the spring season, up to 12,000 are feasting on a brine shrimp, Artemia salina. The shrimp, and the flamingos, mostly have the lakes to themselves now, but for centuries, and up until the 1960s, the salt was harvested in the height of summer when the lakes were at their driest. During the British occupation, it was strictly forbidden for the inhabitants to gather salt without the requisite permissions.

Arriving in May, I came a little too late for the flamingos, most having moved on to the next leg of their Mediterranean tour, leaving only a few stragglers, juveniles and perhaps the lazy, to fossick among the remaining, evaporating pools. But I found myself enchanted by a much smaller marsh, close to Larnaca airport.

Where the salt lakes are shimmering, viscous and intimidating in their sun-beaten expanse, Oroklini, discretely hidden by reeds from the road in an otherwise unprepossessing plain of scrub and low-rise development, is lush and intimate. It’s a kind of mecca for bird species, some of which we see in the UK (red-crested pochards, Kentish plovers, little terns), but others that would be included on a UK rarity list.

When I visited, it was breeding season for the black-winged stilts, red legs a flutter

among the rushes. The spur-winged lapwings were there too, somewhere – but keeping their heads down. Harriers, ibis, grebes, multiple representatives of the egret mob are all variously long-term inhabitants or regular visitors to Oroklini.

Absent (in this case, European Union) funding, the marsh stood to fall prey to an unholy alliance of familiar menaces to wetlands: invasive plants such as eucalyptus and acacia overrunning the native vegetation, desiccation caused by local development, run-off from agricultural land poisoning the water life. But the dedication

Atchafalaya Basin, America’s largest river swamp, is a near million-acre maze of picturesque meanders and quiet bayous. Giant bald cypress trees, their knees in water, provide an atmospheric home for wildlife

of local environmentalists ensured that this small wetland jewel could continue to provide a haven not only for the 190 species of bird that use Oroklini but for the other two-legged creatures that come to observe them. For if there is any near-universal quality possessed by wetlands, whether on home turf or further flung, it is both their fragility but also their receptiveness to sensitive environmental management.

Birds are particularly quick to respond to the opportunities presented by wetlands, for feeding, breeding and shelter. What I think is near unique about such habitats is that, if astutely managed, avian species and our own can enjoy them, even with a degree of complementarity.

LIVING TOGETHER

Rye Harbour sits at the southern corner of Romney Marsh, separated from the dunes at Camber Sands by the last straight stretch of the River Rother, and illustrates both qualities perfectly. It is a popular spot for dog walkers, families, couples and solitary spirits alike – but the not-inconsiderable numbers that typically perambulate its perimeter paths do nothing to deter the birds that feed and breed among its pools and islets.

Egrets, Mediterranean gulls, little terns, godwits, plovers of assorted sizes, gadwall, garganey, avocets and ouzels are regulars –and since the rehabilitation of the reserve over the past decades, flora such as viper’s bugloss, yellow horned-poppy, purslane and scurvy grass have returned, needing little encouragement. (My favourite time to be at Rye is towards the end of the day when the cormorants are returning, like squadrons of military aircraft, from their fishing grounds off the coast of Dungeness.)

Rye Harbour is a very actively managed site – grist to the mill, perhaps for that

potentially unanswerable question as to where the boundaries between ‘nature’ and ‘artifice’ lie. To me, this says that there is no necessary contradiction between the needs of the plover, the cormorant, the twitcher –or a family of five stretching its legs.

We are a small island, with numerous competing needs. Sometimes the buffers between nature (which is seldom pristine) and the appurtenances of modernity are perilously slender. By dint of their fragility, wetlands are particularly sensitive to such distinctions. Industrial overreach can have devastating effects. And yet they can also be surprisingly resilient – if the right accommodations are made.

IN THE SUNKEN FOREST

The Atchafalaya Basin, to the east of New Orleans in the US state of Louisiana, is to my mind one of the ‘wetland wonders of the world’. In deep ‘Cajun country’ (many locals still speak the French that they brought with them via Nova Scotia in the early 18th century), the classic tropes of the American swamp are here: semisunken forests of cypress, draped in moody Spanish moss, and a local industry of harvesting crawfish that draws tourists, but also some 60% of migratory North American birds.

The basin is crucial to the routinely hurricane-bashed state because of its ability to absorb excess floodwaters – and thus protect the (very visible) industrial plants, including oil refineries and aluminium smelters, with which it coexists.

There are many who are concerned that the various activities of the oil industry in particular – such as dredging new waterways and cutting conduits for pipes – will lead to silting and the drying out of parts of the swamp, to the detriment not only of the

ecosystem for its own sake, but for the state and its inhabitants. But these are sensitive local issues in Louisiana, a poor state that relies on industry for employment and revenue, and they take skilful negotiation between stakeholders: environmental groups, government, employers, fishers and others.

Much of the basin is bounded by a levee. The first step to getting to grips with the swamp’s issues, the mayor of the basin town of Henderson told me when I visited him on the stoop porch of the weatherboarded building that his office shared with the two-person police station, was just to look over the lip of the levee. And then to start to appreciate the wonders that lie beyond it.

In his case, said Mayor Sherbin Collette, he had lived in such close proximity to the swamp for so long that it took an outsider, a PhD researcher from faraway Missouri, to help him peel back the layers of familiarity and recognise something so much more than the everyday. ‘She said, “Mayor Collette, what do you see when you look out at the swamp?”, and I said, “What do you mean what do I see? I see the alligators. I see the swamp trees. I see the egrets…”

‘She said, “But Mayor Collette, don’t you also see the beauty?” (This latter word he pronounced in the strong Cajun accent that rhymes it with ‘moody’ and ‘foody’.)

This was the moment of his epiphany. All of a sudden, the swamp became beautiful to him, opening new vistas of meaning, purpose and pleasure.

Perhaps all wetlands, whether their expanse is a million acres or a few hundred metres, should be so revered and regarded. And perhaps this is the elusive truth about them, which transcends the many differences. n

OPEN YOUR EYES

In researching my book Swamp Songs, I travelled all around the world to write about wetlands. But perhaps I needn’t have ventured so far: the UK has 175 designated Ramsar sites – more than is listed for any other country – among them, saltmarshes and peat bogs, mires, fens and meres. So why not visit your local wetland and open your eyes to the beauty? Find a map of all WWT sites at wwt.org.uk/visit

In winter, thousands of pink flamingos flock to Larnaca Salt Lake, Cyprus, one of Europe’s most important habitats for waterbirds

Your best photos

Wetland wildlife is amazing – beautiful, ephemeral, mesmerising. As our annual member photo competition returns, we hope you’ll be inspired this summer to show us these watery wonderlands through your eyes

Where land and water meet, magic happens. The UK’s wetlands are full of beauty, botany and birdlife that blows in on the wind, follows the sun and changes with the seasons. Their vibrant energy cannot fail to renew and refresh the spirits of anyone who gazes upon their sun-sparkled waters, breathes in the scent of squelchy, life-giving mud, and hears the voice of the breeze in the reeds.

Now it’s time to go through your archives and send your best shots in to this year’s photo competition. Images must have been taken at a WWT centre between 1 April and 30 November 2023 and, as always, you must be a member to enter (you’ll need your member number ID).

The photographers among us know better than any that our wetlands support an incredible variety of life. Every year, our photography contest shows us things we might never see without the eagle eyes, saintly patience and lightning-fast reactions of our entrants. Last year’s competition brought us everything from life and death moments to an otter with a toad on its head. Visit our website (below) to savour last year’s winners and finalists.

You’ve only got until 30 November 2023 to enter. A shortlist of winning and commended shots will be published in the March/June 2024 issue of Waterlife, and the overall winner will be awarded a pair of Swarovski Optik CL Companion 8x30 binoculars worth £970.

The winner aged 16 and under will receive a pair of Viking Otter 8x32 binoculars, courtesy of VIKING OPTICAL.

Make the most of every wildlife sighting with the Swarovski Optik CL Companion 8x30 binoculars. These elegant binoculars are perfect for seasoned birders and novice nature lovers. They offer lightweight, rugged durability and amazing performance, and fit perfectly in your hand. Enjoy unique wildlife experiences wherever you go. swarovskioptik.com

Steve digs deep with TURMERIC+ GOLD

Landscape gardener and former triathlete, Steve Chalk, 60, from Weymouth, turned to Turmeric+ Gold when he began to experience discomfort in his inner right knee.

'The discomfort was especially noticeable at night when I was turning over from my left to right side.' Steve remembers.

'It was starting to wear me down and prevent me from running, which I love to do.

'I was looking for something to help me and I read about the Turmeric+ Gold capsules.

'I was interested that it had helped other people and I liked the science behind the supplement. I thought I'd give it a try, as frankly I had nothing to lose.

After about three months, I was sleeping better, I realised I was no

longer feeling the discomfort in my knee.

I love my sport and am back to competing in park runs on a regular basis - it certainly worked for me.'

Turmeric contains compounds called curcuminoids, the most notable of which is curcumin.

Not only is curcumin responsible for turmeric's distinctive yellow colour but it's also what makes it such a powerful spice.

However curcumin is difficult for the body to absorb so the scientists at FutureYou Cambridge used a patented Curcuma Phospholipid Complex formulation to make Turmeric+ Gold

FREE Turmeric+ Gold

Just pay £1.50 postage

FutureYou Cambridge is offering you the chance to try its premium joint health product, Turmeric+ Gold, for just the cost of the £1.50 postage.*

The latest addition to their bones and joints range is based on the same formulation as their bestselling product Turmeric+.

The products were formulated by FutureYou Cambridge, well-known for its science-backed health supplements.

The company, based in Cambridge, regularly consults with highlyregarded scientific and nutritional experts and has also developed close

30 times more absorbable than standard turmeric.

They also added vitamin C, which contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of cartilage and vitamin D, which contributes to the maintenance of normal bones and maintenance of normal muscle function.

Developed Science you in Cambridge con trust

ties with world-leading educational institutions.

Turmeric+ Gold is the most advanced and purest turmeric formulation yet, providing the same 100mg of curcumin as its counterpart but delivering it using sunflower lecithin which makes it allergen-free.

It also comes in an easy to swallow capsule rather than a tablet.

Both versions contain the patented Curcuma Phospholipid Complex which makes them 30 times more absorbable than standard turmeric.

They also contain vitamin C which contributes to

normal collagen formation

Cleevely, Chair FutureYou Cambridge.

GREYHERONS WILDABOUT...

Two grey herons have a dispute over a popular perch. In March and April, when the young are already quite well grown, there is constant activity in the heronry, with adults coming and going all the time. Inevitably, where lots of birds congregate disagreements will occur.

THIS SUMMER, SHARE A MOMENT OF STILLNESS WITH THE STATUESQUE GREY HERON

BY ANDY PARKINSON

Grey herons appear to defy gravity, flapping slowly and seriously through the air. As such, they make easy subjects to photograph well. Watching a heronry for a while to identify the birds’ habits is critical to photographic success – it allows you to see a pattern of behaviour emerge, such as a clear flight path, so you can plan your image. I’m not a fan of photographing birds against clear blue skies, I prefer to show them in their habitat. However, a neutral, clutter-free backdrop like this one can reveal previously unnoticed details with stunning clarity.

This was the first time I saw a grey heron walk on water! The bird fell from the skies and plunged into the middle of a lake. A fish prize secured, the ungainly bird then struggled to get airborne. In doing so it did appear, for a little while at least, to be striding across the surface of the water. Since this occasion, I’ve seen herons do this on many occasions, so watch out for your moment.

A grey heron as most of us will likely encounter them, silently stalking our waterways – even in large cities and towns – looking to pick off an unsuspecting small mammal or fish. Relentlessly patient and stoic, a heron will typically freeze before unleashing a lightning-fast strike. The unfortunate prey is then repositioned according to the heron’s preference, usually head-first down the bill, and swallowed whole in a few gulps. Then the hunt resumes.

ANDY PARKINSON

is one of Europe’s leading photographers and a Nikon Europe Ambassador (Wildlife). His work has been published in National Geographic and many other magazines.

NOW YOU DO IT

We love to see the photos you’ve taken at your local WWT centre. If you’ve been inspired by Andy’s grey herons, why not see if you can capture their behaviour on your next visit? The best images will be published in our Your views section. Send them to waterlife@wwt.org.uk

In thesummerof 1901,a mysteriouscontraptionwas discovered in a shipwreckoff the Greekislandof Antikythera.Theobjecthasoftenbeenconsideredto havebeentheworld'sfirst knownanaloguecomputer. Thisbafflingmechanismwasallegedlyusedto predict astronomicalpositionsandeclipses.

Inspiredbythegeniusof the ancientGreekastronomers, this superbwoodenpuzzlechallengesyouto turnthedials untilall 12columnsaddupto 42 simultaneously. It's a brilliantchallengefor thewholefamilyto enjoy. Boxsizeapprox.17.5cm x 16.5cm.Ages10to adult.

A father's love and devotionleads to incredible patented pillow

ANEARtragedy has led to an amazing new development in sleep technology. When Georgia Miles was recovering from a lifethreatening accident, her father Alexander looked everywhere for a pillow that would keep her comfortable throughout the night.

After purchasing dozens of different types and finding none that worked, Alex, a renowned furniture and domestic product designer, decided to engineer his own.

UNIQUEBREAKTIIROUCH

He made a breakthrough when he realised that all pillows spread out and flatten down as the weight of the head rests on them. This flattening progresses through the night, leaving the head and neck poorly supported - and sleep interrupted. This is why many people find themselves half awake and 'pillow-punching' in the middle of the night, desperately trying to get comfortable.

EXTRACOMFORTANDSUPPORT

The innovative model that Alex designed has internal ties that hold the filling in place, and pull the pillow in and up to cradle the head and neck. This provides extra comfort and support that lasts through the night and ensures that you get the most benefit from an undisturbed sleep.

, , I canhonestlysay thatyour pillowhasmadetheworldof difference andfullyendorse yourpillowas beingqniteuniqne in its abilityto maintain supportthroughoutthenight.' '

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Made in the UK, the Gx Pillow comes in a choice of two levels of support: Medium-soft, which most people seem

AlexanderMiles,inventoroftheGxPillowpicturedwithhisinvention to prefer, or Medium-firm for those who like a little more resistance. Alex's desperate desire to help his daughter Georgia has led to a pillow that has also transformed the lives of thousands of people. So if you have spent a lifetime looking for the perfect pillow, your search may well be over!

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GET CLOSER TO NATURE…

…at our wetland sites this summer

DrawntoWater:QuentinBlakeatWWT

Explore the wonder of wetlands through the eyes of the UK’s best-loved illustrator, with unique pictures from Quentin Blake’s personal archive. Enjoy illustrated trails, art and nature-inspired activities, exhibitions and more!

Dates: This summer at our 10 WWT wetland sites

WHERE: ALL CENTRES

Wild times at our centres...

Drawn to Water exhibition and trails

Enjoy a unique chance to explore some lesser-known works from Quentin Blake’s personal archive, and discover his passion for wetland wildlife, at our ‘Drawn to Water’ touring exhibition.

Catch it before it closes at WWT London (until 14 July), then enjoy the exhibition at WWT Slimbridge throughout the summer holidays (21 July to 16 September). Look out for it at WWT Martin Mere and WWT Castle Espie during the autumn.

All 10 of our sites are also hosting three new illustrated seasonal

Rediscover the joy, together

This summer, rediscover fun family activities such as pond dipping and minibeast hunts! Our experts will help you discover the weird and wonderful creepy-crawlies that live in our woods and ponds. Then be inspired by Quentin Blake and draw some of the cool beasts you found to take home as a memory of your adventure.

WHERE: CASTLE ESPIE AND OTHER CENTRES

THERE’S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE...

trails – and our spring/summer trail is on now! Discover our wonderful wetlands, get closer to nature and create amazing memories guided by our beautifully illustrated maps, which are full of Quentin’s instantly recognisable drawings. It’s a full day out for the whole family.

Don’t miss our autumn and winter trails later in the year. Each trail has a different illustrated guide for you to collect and keep.

WHERE: EXHIBITION AT LONDON, SLIMBRIDGE, MARTIN MERE AND CASTLE ESPIE; TRAILS AT ALL 10 SITES

Art attack!

We’re hosting an exciting range of art- and illustrationbased activities for everyone. From natural printing in the woods, storytime crafts and watercolour workshops to nature journalling, charcoal drawing and largescale murals, there’s sure to be something for you!

WHERE: WASHINGTON AND OTHER CENTRES

MAKE A DEEPER CONNECTION

Experience the highlights of the seasons with our summer and autumn Quentin Blake trails. Collect a trail card and some ideas or materials to take out with you to enjoy nature in a new way. Make a nature journal, a viewfinder or a soundscape while you explore – a great way to remember time spent in nature.

WHERE: WELNEY AND ALL CENTRES

THROUGH YOUR EYES

See our wonderful wetlands with fresh eyes inspired by our ‘Drawn to Water’ trails. A series of frames will highlight different viewpoints around the reserve, and encourage you to connect with nature using all your senses. Take a photo of one of our framed views, then try to recreate the scene in watercolours.

WHERE: CAERLAVEROCK

Sam Stafford/WWT

© Quentin Blake 2023. All rights reserved

History comes alive at WWT Martin Mere

This summer holiday, be inspired by our ‘Drawn to Water’ trail and have a go at your own creative projects. Step back in time to discover how wetland materials were used in the past, then gather your own wetland tools and get arty. Make clay models, try weaving and discover how materials like charcoal were made! Nick Brooks, Centre Manager, says: “Learn about the history of wetland materials in a fun and interactive way with foraging and crafting!”

WHERE: MARTIN

Grab your sketchbook

Feeling inspired by Quentin Blake’s whimsical creations? Enjoy a whole host of art and illustration activities and competitions for all ages and abilities throughout the summer. As well as free sessions, artist Rhiannon Collins will host a series of special workshops for children and adults during the school holidays. All materials are provided, including your very own sketchbook to fill with ideas.

WHERE: LLANELLI

After-dark delights

This summer, experience WWT London in a whole new way. After exploring the very best of our wetlands by day on our new ‘Drawn to Water’ trail, don’t miss your chance to discover the magic of our junior bat walks by night. London Wetland Centre is one of the best places in the capital for bats, which flit over our lakes and ponds after dark. Learn about these mysterious creatures, using special bat detectors to hear their hunting calls. We finish up around the campfire where we can share stories and toast marshmallows. It’s a magical evening for everyone.

WHERE: LONDON

Create together

Explore the wonder of nature through art and discover your creative side this summer.

We’re getting all arty as part of our ‘Drawn To Water: Quentin Blake at WWT’ programme of events.

Families are invited to drop in for nature-related art activities at ‘Birds of a Feather Create Together’ sessions from 24 July to 1 September. Try mud painting, making a viewfinder, creating pine cone animals and more – the activities change every week!

On weekends, children can use fun, outdoor drawing challenges to connect with nature at our ‘Let’s Draw’ workshops.

During the summer holidays, come and get cosy at Peter’s chair in the Wildlife Garden every afternoon for storytime with books by Quentin Blake. WHERE: ARUNDEL AND OTHER CENTRES

YOU SAID…

“We had such a wonderful day and all of us loved it. There was so much to see and the children loved the added extras of pond dipping and the arts and crafts activities” SammieA

Malcolm Marner/WWT

MERE

Agami

Photo Agency/Shutterstock

© Quentin Blake 2023. All rights reserved

© Quentin Blake 2023. All rights reserved

At last, usingyour smartphone can be easy, simple and stress-free...

Modern mobile phones - smartphones as they're called - can do so much more than just make phone calls.

From browsing the web to being a sat nav making video calls to sharing photos

But using them isn't always as easy as you'd want - and that's putting it mildly!

Do the manufacturers do it on purpose?

Sometimes it can seem like the manufacturers deliberately make them complicated. It can drive you absolutely bonkers.

Whether you have problems with the basics or you're trying to do something slightly more advanced, it can be easy to use them once you know how. But until you've been shown, it can be like talking a different language.

That's why we've published these books: iPhones One Step at a Time, Android Phones One Step at a Time and Doro Smartphones One Step at a Time.

Plain English ... and that's not all

They explain how to use the phone, in plain simple language with pictures of the screen showing you exactly where to tap or slide your fingers. No jargon!

These books show you the things most people want to know about - how to keep in touch with friends, or stay up to date with news, plus the very basics of using them the things that make using

a smartphone simpler, easier and less frustrating.

All explained nice and simply, in plain English.

Only half the story

That's only half the story but we don't have room to explain here. We've put together full information on the books - who they're for, what they cover and so on.

What's more, the books come with a free gift - but there's no room to explain that here either.

Don't buy now, do this instead

The books are only available direct from the publisher. Send off now to get a completely free, no-obligation information pack. It'll explain what the books cover and how they could help you. Call us on 01229 777606 (weekdays 8.30am-5.30pm, Sat 9am-l.30pm). Or pop the coupon in the post today using the address on the coupon to get your full information pack. If you prefer, email WL0723@helpfulbooks.co.ukand ask for a free infopack.

Either way, we'll put it in the post to you straight away (don't worry, we'll keep your details private).

Best order your info pack now and soon you could be getting so much more from your phone - with much less hassle.

Formoreinfo on what'scovered,howthe bookcouldhelpyouandhowto get yourcopy

'' Thanksfor a.fantasticsmartphonebook. Verypleasantstaffas usual.

1thinkthis bookshould be sold withevery smartphone. 1haveleamtsomuch from it,the info you getwiththe phone isnon-existent. Smartphonesare quitecomplex,and your booksspeakin plainEnglish.11

JamesBarnes

99.2%of readers say they would recommend them to a friend.

Yesplease,I'd liketo find out moreabouthow usingmy smartphonecould be a doddle, whetherI havean iPhone,an Android phoneor evena Doro. Pleasesendme the free infopackwith no obligation...

Name

Address Postcode

t:j Post to: TheHelpfulBookCompany, : 13BDevonshireRoadEstate,Millom, : Cumbria,LA184JS

:t:j Emailyour nameand addressto: WL0723@helpfulbooks.co.uk

c@ Or call 01229 777606

D (But best do it now, beforeyou forget) We use the details you give us to send you infonnation on the products mentioned. We store the details securely and only share them with the Royal Mail for posting the infonnation. Full privacy notice at www.helpfulbooks.eo.uk/privacynotice

SLIMBRIDGE TUDORARMS

RealAle,RealFoodPubwith 14well appointedensuitebedrooms ENGLISHTOURISTBOARD4*

10MinuteStrollfromWNT Slimbridgeandsituatedadjacent to Gloucester-SharpnessCanal CaskMarqueaccreditedsince2015.

T: 01453890306

E:enquiries@thetudorarms.co.uk

W: www.thetudorarms.co.uk

PEMBROKESHIRE ROSEMOOR COUNTRYCOTTAGES

In a lovelyvalleyin the PembrokeshireCoastNational Park,Victorian-builtRosemooroffers characterful accommodationin spaciousgrounds.Unpolluted beaches,Skomerand tidal wetlandsnearby(2 miles]. Our own30-acreNatureReserveis hometo badgers, otters and a greatvarietyof birds and plants.

JohnM. and JacquiJanssen

RosemoorCountryCottages & Nature Reserve

Walwyn'sCastle HavefordwestSA623ED

Tel:01437-781326

E-mail: rosemoor@walwynscastle.com www.rosemoor.com

The Snug and Cassia at Mill Barn - Somerset

Cosy, clean character lets for two.

Ideally situated on the doorstep of WI/I/TSteart and Stockland Marshes, working wetlands that are attracting unusual avian visitors such as black winged stilts, avocets, spoonbills and glossy ibis. Beautiful peaceful setting, perfect for bird lovers, ramblers and cyclists.

Address: Mill barn Stockland Bristol

Bridgwater Somerset TAS 2PY

Phone: 07906722312 or 01278 653073

Email: the.carrolls@live.co.uk

Website:

https://www.millbarnruralretreats.com

CAERLAVEROCK

Groundfloor flat for two in Glencaplecloseto WWT.Very comfortablewith wood-burningstoveand small sunny garden.In winter barnaclesfly past morningand eveningand are seenfeeding on the merse.Flocksof ducksand waders are here in large numbers.In summer ospreysnest nearby. Goodwalking and cycling.

www.glencapleholiday.co.uk

tel: 01387770348

email:sue_greigrayahoo.co.uk

Scottish Government Short-term Lets Licence DG00039F

Caerlaverock Cottages

HolidayLets set within a National ScenicArea of outstandingbeauty availablefor short breaksor weekly bookings,all within 1/2 mile of WWT Caerlaverock, NNR and CaerlaverockCastle

A

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MY wildlife

I grew up in London andfellinlove withfreshwaterhabitatsthroughmy gardenpond.Ifollowedthispassion totheUniversityofBristol,where theresearchformyundergraduate degreewaspartofabiggerproject investigatingtheuseofalgaeto remediatewatersthathavebeen pollutedwithheavymetals.

At University College London Idid amaster’sinaquaticconservation ecologyandrestoration.HereIfirst learntaboutpalaeolimnology.Over time,lakesdepositlayersofsediment thatpreserveanamazingrecordof thelifewithinandaroundthelake. ThatiswhatIstudynow.

WWT is a partner inmyPhD research.Together,weaimtouse palaeolimnologytoinformplansto restorelakesinMadagascar,andhelp theconservationofthecritically endangeredMadagascarpochard.

On two amazing field trips to Madagascar,Ihavecollected sedimentcores(cylindricalsamples) fromthreedifferentlakesthatare importanttotheducks.LakeAlaotra, Madagascar’slargestlake,iswhere thespeciesusedtobepresent.Lake Matsaborimenaiswheresomebirds wererediscoveredafterthespecies wasthoughttohavegoneextinct. LakeSofiaiswherecaptive-bred pochardshavebeenreintroduced.

A typical day of fieldwork in Madagascar involveswakingup inyourtentrightbythelakeand enjoyingspectacularviewsover breakfastmadebythecampcook, whoispartoftheteamthatworksat thesiteyear-round.Thenit’souton theboatstoconductsurveys,looking atwhatplantslivethereortaking water-qualitytests.Ifit’snottoo windy,wealsotakesedimentcores, whichrequiressomecomplicatedkit andgoodcommunicationmoving aroundincrampedconditionsto makesurenobodyfallsin!

I found that Lake Sofia wasonce hometoextensivebedsofsubmerged plants,whichmeansthewaterwould havebeenmuchclearerthanitis today.Thismaybethekeyto restoringthelakeandincreasing populationsofmacroinvertebrates, thepochard’smainsourceoffood.

I also discovered that, centuries ago,deforestationoftheLake Matsaborimenacatchmentarea createdapulseoferosionthat affectedthelake’swaterqualityand ecology.Ittookalmost500yearsto recover,demonstratingthepotential timescaleneededforrestoration.

It seems that the key torestoring theselakesiscombatingerosion.This canbeachievedeitherbyimproving vegetationonthelandsurrounding

thelake(inthecatchment)orby encouragingtheregenerationof papyrusmarsh,whichactsasan effectivefilterforanythingcoming intothelake.Thiswillhelptomake LakeSofiathebestpossiblehabitat forthereleasedpochards.

From microscopic remains in the sediment,we’vedescribedtwo newspeciesofbryozoan,asmall colony-forming,filter-feeding freshwateranimalthatlooksabit likeananemone.Wenamedthem afterLakeSofia,wherethesediment corewastaken,andtheTsimihety peoplewholiveinthearea.

One of the main themes of my experience hasbeenamazing femalecolleaguesandrolemodels. I’veworkedcloselywithLaurence Rasoamihaingo,aMalagasystudent whoisdoingherPhDonmodern aspectsofMadagascarpochard conservationalongsidemyown. Wetalkalot,exchangingand discussingideas.Shejoinedusfor allourfieldworkinMadagascar andwecouldn’thavedoneitwithout herhelpandlocalexpertise.

Another highlight hasbeenthe opportunitytoconnectwithWWT colleaguesinMadagascar,knowing thevitalroletheyareplayingin applyingthisresearchtorestore numbersofthisrarebird.

Lily Unger PhD candidate at UCL with case partner WWT

Lily and Laurence’s (second from right) research will help improve key lakes for the rare Madagascar pochard and local communities

Waterlife chats to PhD student Lily Unger about her work with WWT to restore wetlands in Madagascar

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