NEW WETLAND BIRD RESERVE STARTING TO TAKE SHAPE SEVEN MILES FROM GRIMSBY

SIMILAR IN SCALE TO RSPB FRAMPTON MARSH - BUT OVERHEAD POWER LINES ARE CAUSE FOR CONCERN 

  

WORK is progressing well on creation of a new wading bird and wildfowl reserve in North East Lincolnshire.

 

Land at the site adjacent to Poplar Farm, off South Marsh Lane at Stallingborough, near Grimsby  has been excavated and the banks will be grass-seeded in spring.

 

It is hard to judge the size, but it looks roughly similar in scale and layout to the one operated by the RSPB at Frampton Marsh near Boston in South Lincolnshire some 60 miles away.

 

The new reserve - to be named Cress Marsh - is being created as a "mitigation habitat" for the thousands of birds likely to to be displaced by proposed industrial development along the South Bank of the Humber. 

 

Wildlife groups have largely been supportive of the project (which will accommodate a hide for watching and recording birds), though a caution has been sounded on the collision risk (especially after dark or in misty conditions) posed by the overhead power cables that traverse the site. 

 

To reduce the threat, there have been calls for deflectors - visibility markers -  to be installed on the cables.

 

The reserve will be managed by North East Lincolnshire Council, with occasional oversight from Natural England.

Lincolnshire Bird Club members are keen to be involved with monitoring, and, subject to availability of resources, there could also be input from other groups such as the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, the BTO and the RSPB.

It is understood the reserve will be complete and ready for a formal opening ceremony in December, though the hope is that it will be frequented by large numbers  redshanks, curlews, godwits, plovers and other wetland birds long before then. 

Below are a selection of photographs taken in mid-afternoon on the frosty afternoon of Sunday February 3, 2019.