IF and when Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust warden Simon Wellock comes to write his memoirs, he will definitely not be short of material.
When
he worked for the Red Cross in Sudan, he was once
part of a relief convoy that was ambushed in the desert. He survived but three
of his colleagues died.
In
a fascinating illustrated talk to this
month’s Grimsby branch of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Simon described his
two and a half years with the charity as a “Hell on Earth - I will never forget
the conditions which people endured.”
Still
only 50, Simon’s CV also includes a spell in the Army and periods working for
the RSPB, either as a volunteer or as an employee, variously at its reserves at
Leighton Moss in Lancashire, on several islands in the Orkneys, in
the Inner
Hebrides and at Blacktoft Sands (also covering Read’s Island and Tetney Marshes)
in Lincolnshire.
Rousay ("the Egypt of the North") in the Orkneys was home to no fewer than seven pairs of nesting hen
harriers and 2,000 pairs of Arctic skua, but Simon’s main focus was safeguarding
and encouraging corncrakes, a notoriously tricky species with a high mortality
rate.
On Egilsay, he succeeded a warden, who through
no fault of his own had seen the number
of pairs reduce over three years from 10 to nil, and it was ironical that, on Simon’s
arrival , a first calling bird was heard
after a long absence.
“People
though I’d brought it with me in my rucksack,”he joked.
A
graduate in Countryside Management from Bishop Burton College, near
Beverly, Simon also worked for three years at a bird observatory in Israel and, for a
while, set up and ran two bird tour businesses in the Hebrides - first Coll
of the Wild, then Wild Tiree
Simon,
who is originally from Keighley, also spent some time working as an ornithologist
for a an engineering consultancy firm - chiefly surveying raptors - in
Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands, but he found this a dispiriting experience.
When
he read the final report, he was dismayed to discover that its contents did not
tally with the data he had recorded.
“I
felt as if I had had sold my soul to the devil,” he confessed. “I suspect
pretty well most consultancies are the same.
“It can be
a dirty business - he who pays the piper . . ."
As
a lad, Simon was introduced to the delights of birds and wildlife when his grandfather
pointed to a kingfisher while the pair were out fishing.
That
set him poring through as many bird books as he could get his hands on.
“At
first, I was a bit disappointed that so few British species were as brightly
plumaged as kingfishers,”he continued. “They were little brown jobs!”
Following
a month’s induction with retiring warden Lionel Grooby, Simon took over in
charge of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust's showcase Far Ings reserve at Barton-upon-Humber in
September, 2015. The portfolio also includes some eight nearby LWT reserves of
various sizes.
In
his presentation, Simon described the impressive progress he and a band of
fantastically dedicated volunteers (including 16 on most Wednesdays) have made
in enhancing the Far Ings habitat for
bitterns, bearded tits, marsh harriers and other wildlife
It
has been arduous and heavy work, some of it in treacherous conditions, to restore
or create channels, to manage water levels, to revitalise dried out reedbeds, to drain stagnant water and to
repair or replace drains, pipes and culverts which have an unhappy knack of
collapsing if nor regularly maintained.
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| One of the Far Ings reedbeds - maintaining them is a never-ending battle |
Overhanging
hawthorn and encroaching have also had to be cleared better to create the
optimum habitat for rarer species. The team are also keen not to encourage unwelcome
predators such as magpies and foxes whose population seem to be increasing on adjacent arable land.
An
additional part of the strategy is to encourage the presence of more rudd and
elvers - both favored by bitterns - as opposed to less popular larger fish such
as carp and pike which are more problematical as prey.
The
annual budget for the Far Ings and its sister northern Lincolnshire reserves is
very small - it would barely pay the price of a top-end camera - but Simon has
deployed his people skills to cajole
favours involving use both of mechanical diggers and a trusty Truxor (regularly loaned from
Scunthorpe-based North Lincolnshire Council) for cutting reeds and clearing channels.
There
have been many setbacks over his two-year period at the helm - not least the
vandalism and antisocial behaviour that has necessitated no fewer than 120
calls to the police over the past 26 months.
After
dark, alas, hides are vulnerable to a range of unwelcome activities including
boozing, drug-taking and couples having sex. Episodes of criminal damage and
arson are also a recurring headache.
 |
| Sadly hides are always vulnerable to criminal damage |
Not
necessarily in Simon’s time but there have also been incidents of youths
shooting ducks from the roof of one hide and even of two swimming out to a tern
raft and upending the nest to allow them to stretch out and sunbathe.
Habitat
is also regularly damaged either by angling or illicit motorcycling - he once
had to skip out of the way when a rider he had challenged rode straight at him.
“I’m
afraid you get all sorts of weird people,” he said ruefully.
Even
so, the hard work is paying off. Marsh harriers are holding their own, bearded
tits are increasing and 2017 brought the first confirmed successful breeding of
bittern since 2004. (This winter, there are thought to be five birds in
residence).
Far
Ings will probably never be able to match bittern breeding hotspots such as a
worked out Hanson gravel pit in the Ouse Fens in Cambridgeshire and a former
Fisons peat bog Ham Walls in Somerset (at the latter, there were no fewer than 47
booming males this summer!)
Simon
explained that, at both, the wildlife conservation planners had benefited from
“starting with a blank slate” to create the most suitable habitat for bitterns
which favour stretches of interface between reedbed and water.
His
presentation concluded with a whistlestop tour of nearby reserves, highlighting
some of the birds and flowers (including plentiful orchids) which live on them.
Among
the most interesting are Barrow Blow Wells, Barrow Haven Reedbed, Dawson City Clay
Pits, Eastfield Road Railway Embankment and Killingholme Haven Pits, the last
being a site favoured by nesting avocets and, on passage, ruff (there was a
peak count of 56 this October) and
black-tailed godwit (a peak of 4,500 in the same month) not to mention
tentacled lagoon worm.
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| Black-tailed godwit - a species that loves to feed at Killingolme Haven |
Killingholme
is notably challenging because of continuously
encroaching reedbed and the ongoing
requirement to main optimum water levels. But the trust is restricted in how
the site can be managed because of its heavy metal content meaning that consents
are not readily available.
Simon
has worked in much more scenic locations than northern Lincolnshire and may one
day, possibly after he has retired, return to Scotland.
However,
for the moment, he relishes the challenges and rewards of his current post
where he has the satisfaction of knowing that he is making a welcome and much
appreciated contribution to the welfare of birds and wildlife.
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