October has been a busy month, working with farmers across Kent to improve marshland and rivers for wildlife.
The North Kent Breeding Wader project is gaining pace helped by a grant scheme administered by Kent Wildlife Trust. This funding scheme gives grants to landowners to undertake work on their land for the benefit of wetland wildlife. Almost all the farmers I worked with applied for the grant and, while the land is still dry, they have been busy creating scrapes, restoring rills, fixing pumps and improving water control.
Mid month I joined farmer Mr Wood and contractors Taylor Bros near Conyer to scrape back rush from an overgrown rill in order to create bare earth ideal for lapwings to feed on.
Surveys carried out by KWT had shown there were no water vole present and so we could use the opportunity to create a shallow sloping edge. Good visibility is important for ground nesting birds so they can see and drive off predators. Crouching down at the water’s edge, I tried to look at the world from a lapwings point of view in order to get the correct bank profile.
This month also saw the completion of the first round of parrots feather removal from Chislet Marshes near Birchington on Sea. The River Stour Internal Drainage Board worked with Kentish Stour Countryside Partnership volunteers to remove every fragment of the plant from 500m stretches of the upstream reaches of three channels which the plant has colonised.
Volunteers from KSCP search for Parrot’s feather on Chislet Marshes
In future years we hope to work slowly downstream pulling out the plant from the margins as it is hopefully eradicated from the upper reaches. This approach has been chosen so that we can remove the invasive without damaging other marginal flora .
Officers from the EA and IDB discuss improvements for white clawed crayfish.
Lastly this month I met with white clawed crayfish experts from the Environment Agency to talk about management of channels which are proving strongholds for these endangered creatures. Working with the landowners and the IDB we hope to cut the weed from the channels in a way which will help maintain connectivity between isolated populations and add cobbles to the channel to give the crayfish places to shelter under.
naturegirl 
Carol, that looks like a perfect profile to provide perfect habitat for breeding lapwings and redshanks and their chicks. Nice work, great that the farmers are so involved and active.
Thanks Barry. Really appreciate your input. It’s good to know that the profile looks good and yes, I am delighted with how on board the farmers are to make improvements.
What a great scheme. When I was a child the farm fields around our home were full of lapwings. Their calls used the haunt our nights. In the last few years we have started to hear, and see, the odd one or two. I hope they might increase here, but meanwhile, keep up your excellent work.
Great to hear the lapwings are coming back to your area. They like short grass and wet in the spring and bare mud later on. It is sad that they have been lost from so many places they used to breed.