There isn’t much more to tell you about the Marshians this week.
We’ve been working on the dams to hold back water
We’ve been clearing paths
And we’ve been pulling up balsam.
While we have a drought and the vegetation is growing and there is still balsam to be pulled that’s all we’re doing.
But there’s more. There’s so much life that when we’re not working we’re marvelling at it.
The wet ground supports Purple Loosestrife, beautiful and vigorous and teeming with insects. The pollen and the nectar attracts countless bees, flies, bee flies, hover flies, butter flies, and wasps.
Willows like it wet too, and they support many moths including the wingless Vapourer moth who lives in a cocoon with her young.
We’ve been lucky this week as we’ve seen otters in the marsh twice.
Mostly we find their droppings. We seem to find many more these days. Are there more otters? Difficult to say. There certainly seems to be a lot of poo.
And there wouldn’t be any otters if there wasn’t any water. And there wouldn’t be any water if Marshians hadn’t built dams.
Wasp spiders. Not everyone likes spiders. Especially spiders that look like wasps. They are harmless and beautiful and becoming more common. We can’t take any credit for them appearing. They like the areas we haven’t done anything to.
Badgers roam quite far from their sett. It’s bone dry and rock hard there. But the soft spongy soils of the marsh are so full of things for them to eat it’s worth their while wandering far away. And where we’ve cut the path those worms are much easier to get to.
Roe deer who spook at the slightest hint of an earthling seem completely relaxed in the presence of Marshians. They don’t quite come for a hug. Who knows, one day they might.
The wet pool at the heart of the marsh is always teeming with birds. A Black tailed godwit a couple of green sandpipers, a wood sandpiper and a little ringed plover were the highlights of the week.
According to birdwatchers July is a notoriously bad month for birds. But when the countryside is baking dry and burning our little wet patch is a magnet for them.
And there are still more life forms we have yet to learn about
Rural Reading 