Whilst we were away in the Picos de Europa Spain in slightly less heat than the UK, we were saddened to hear of the devastating fire engulfing 33 hectares of Snettisham Coastal Park as shown on the BBC News coverage.
The term 'Coastal Park' perhaps, does not convey fully the importance of the area to nature to someone that may not know the area that well. It may merely evoke a picture of a less unique, more common type of Country Park which it is not.
The Coastal Park is situated between the coastal holiday accommodation of Snettisham beach and South Heacham Beach, and is enjoyed by local residents and by those visiting for walks, many of whom have been doing so for some years.
It is actually part of Wild Ken Hill.
Gravel was extracted from the coastal pits, between the 1920s and 1959. Some of the pits now form the RSPB reserve and lagoons behind the Snettisham scalp holiday homes. The quarry closed in 1961 and the northern area built over for the caravan park.
The gravel was extracted by the Etna and Single Co Ltd. More information can be found here.
Most of you will probably know the RSPB Snettisham reserve side well, as it is famous for the high tide wader roosts. The lagoons there are deeper, more open and less well vegetated.
The lagoons found in Snettisham Coastal Park are much shallower and less wide than on the RSPB reserve, forming a lovely intermix of reed bed, marshland and scrub of varying heights, with the occasional fully mature tree. Heading north through the Coastal Park, it becomes drier with more low lying scrub. To some extent, this is quite a unique habitat due to the interwoven quality of vegetation, especially in the wetter southern area.
So, while the RSPB lagoons are great for waders to roost on at high tide and hold wintering wildfowl, the Coastal park is superb for breeding birds, of which there is quite a high degree of diversity. It is a highly important part of the area for breeding Turtle Doves (the UKs fasting declining species), with at least five singing males present this spring, fortuitously mainly to the south of the park, but at least one male's territory was in the fire effected area.
Because of the habit mix, the area held every regularly breeding UK Warbler except Wood Warbler. Cetti's, Grasshopper, Reed and Sedge have been present in the reed/scrub habitat, also Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler (although some of these may have been passing through, using the park as a migration stop off, they are all confirmed as present on other areas of Wild Ken Hill in the breeding season).
There are good numbers of Linnet and several pairs of Meadow Pipit and Stonechat. It also attracts good numbers of migrants such as Tree Pipit, Wheatear and Redstart in spring and autumn.
We had only managed to ring there twice before the fire, in a limited area along one single track, and the results we had from those two visits lead us to believe that potentially the Coastal Park is one of the best reed/scrub breeding areas for passerines and Turtle Doves in coastal Norfolk, if not the county, and this is probably down to the habitat mix, making it a good breeding area supporting a broad mix of species in good numbers.
No doubt the fire damaged areas will regenerate over time, with reed often quick to recover as is bramble growth, but some other mid height vegetation such as elder, hawthorn and sea buckthorn taking longer to regenerate to an optimum height and density.
Summers are without doubt becoming warmer and drier. Yes, we did always get the occasional blip as we did in the summer of 1976, a summer never to be forgotten that I spent working at a social services summer camp in Dorset through the middle of it, seeing kids from urban areas getting out into the country and seaside, some of whom were there as part of their court assessment process prior to sentencing. But, that was as they say one summer. Global temperature trends have warmed significantly since then.
Where for me the real change has become most noticeable is when recalling those many years birding in London in the 80/90s, and enjoying that winter surge of the easterly airflow, bringing snow and freezing conditions several times most winters, bringing with it an influx of unusual water birds to the West London reservoirs. It often heralded a great winter day's birding with divers, sea ducks and the odd wild swan, wild goose or wader gracing inland waters.
But for many years now, winters have been dominated by warmer Westerly airflow coming off the Atlantic, with days rarely getting very cold, often overcast, dank and windy. The winter wildfowl numbers are generally lower, with little weather from the east to bring any hope of excitement. The weather change then simply made it less thrilling to be out as there with much less prospect of finding a few unusual birds. There is also the question now, that the fact that losing the really cold biting weather has another impact. Were the cold temperatures significant then, in helping to eradicate the bird flu pathogen in our winter visitors?
Even in Norfolk, the more frequent dominance of the Atlantic westerly weather has effected the bird migration patterns, with fewer easterlies influencing migration. Clearly, population declines will be a factor here too, but looking at the old ringing records of RAR from Blakeney Point and Cley, ringing with Redstart after Redstart on the record sheet, again something unlikely to be experienced in this modern era. I doubt we'll ever see the day in May again when birders can go out and try and out do each other to see the most Bluethroats in one day, when a total seen then on one day, would now be a delight to have recorded over an entire year.
There is no doubt, that climate change is effecting our weather world wide, and thanks to the monitoring efforts of bird ringers worldwide, we have firm proof that bird population numbers and habits are changing as a result. Although we do now have a more diverse range of herons in the UK, a few species of which, in living memory, you would only have experienced in Europe, and also a small population of Swallows now gambling on seeing the winter out in the west country rather than undertaking risky and lengthy migrations, such exploitation of new range opportunities and novel behaviours are inherent survival strategies of species individuals, in response to environmental changes. Having seen flocks of Hirundines decimated by severe November storms in Kenya, with sizable hail stones and heavy downpours that led to unprecedented flooding, the ability of some birds to react to change might provide a glimmer of hope for their species persistence.