What improvements have we seen so far: The Wilder, Wetter Caerlaverock Diaries no. 8
The Wilder, Wetter Caerlaverock Project is over halfway through now (somehow!). A lot of the completed habitat restoration and creation work has settled down, vegetated over and most importantly has become home to lots of fantastic wildlife! Let’s take a look at how species have been affected by the project.
Wigeon
wigeon by Alex Hillier
Open water and wet grassland are integral for wintering wigeon. It isn’t unusual to see big flocks of these birds feeding on plants, seeds and roots. It probably comes as no surprise that much of the breaking of field drains, creating of scrapes and channels and grazing improvements has benefited this species. In some instances, creating these habitats has increased wigeon numbers from as low as zero in some of these fields to hundreds in as little as a month.
Teal
teal by Mark Fallon
Similarly to wigeon these birds can be found in large flocks here at WWT Caerlaverock and were one of the first birds to start using our new water bodies. Teal feed on seeds and invertebrates and have even bred on parts of the reserve restored under the project! Their numbers have also been boosted through the project.
Lapwing
lapwing by Alex Hillier
Lapwings love wet grassland – flooded fields with plenty of standing water. These birds feed on insects in exposed mud and invertebrates washed in by flooding water and so benefit from short grass which we provide in some areas through grazing or late summer cuts. As many fields have gone from semi-wet goose pasture and rush pasture to wet grassland with increased open water, their numbers have increased over much more of the reserve.
Dragonflies
common chaser by Alex Hillier
So much of the rewetting work done through the project hasn’t had a summer to settle down yet but a portion of land at the northern part of the reserve had field drains blocked and water bodies created much earlier in the project which meant it was one of my favourite spots this summer. We call it Bog Field and not only did it have breeding lapwing and teal on it but the water bodies have become a hot spot for dragonflies and damselflies. Bog Field was teeming with common darter, azure damselflies, four spotted chaser, blue tailed damselflies and emperor dragonflies! Even though a lot of these water bodies are of similar age, certain ponds were popular with these species, at the height of the season it wasn’t uncommon to count between 20 and 40 individuals with multiple species by a single pond. In the past, this part of the reserve wasn’t heavily recorded for dragonflies so it’s hard to put numbers on the change we’ve seen but the increase and creation of habitat can only benefit dragonflies going forward!
Fencing
volunteers fencing by Jess Byers
One of the big jobs we’ve been working on since the project started in 2023 is fencing over the reserve, particularly the northern portion. It’s very hard to quantify these benefits but put simply the fencing was in a state that made it very hard to graze with cattle. Since the work started, we have been able to graze many fields without the worry of escaping cattle meaning we can sleep easy at night! With our grazing capabilities expanding our variety in grassland structures have too, meaning we have shorter areas with exposed mud, longer areas with herbs and wildflowers in the summer and areas of vegetation allowed to die off in the winter which are great for overwintering invertebrates and seed-eating birds. In the summer these fields were teeming with invertebrates, it was a meadow brown butterfly heaven – I saw more than I could count! These type of habitat changes can be tracked back to the fencing we have done. Biodiversity has increased no end.
This is just a sample of the species that are benefitting from the WWC project. To really discover the changes, why not come down and see them for yourself!
This project is supported by the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot.
Words by Jake Goodwin
Feature image by Ted Leeming
