Isolated reserves are not enough. Wildlife needs space, connectivity and the ability to move across the landscape - for food, breeding, migration and climate resilience.

This land is more than just a nature reserve; it’s a stepping stone, helping to link fragmented wetlands together and allowing species to spread and survive. Bringing it into conservation management will strengthen that network and protect a site already bursting with life.

This land is already a thriving haven for wildlife - a rare example of a wetland that still functions as it should. Its patchwork of damp meadows, willow-lined ditches and seasonal floodwaters supports an incredible range of species.

Lapwings still return to breed here, with curlews still clinging on nearby. Buying the land offers the chance to provide a secure home for these iconic species, as well as opening up new opportunities for others, like shelducks and little ringed plovers, which occasionally breed on the marsh. Winter floods attract thousands of teals and wigeon along with nationally important numbers of pintails. 

Classic wetland species like ospreys, redshanks, marsh harriers and common cranes have been recorded passing through while little and great white egrets are increasingly common here. It’s not all about watery wildlife, though, and year-round residents like yellowhammers, skylarks and barn owls rely on the hedgerows and meadows for breeding and feeding space.

The ditches and meadows are alive with colour and motion. Damselflies - including beautiful demoiselles, azure and common blues - flit between flowering margins whilst emperor dragonflies, brown hawkers and marbled white butterflies patrol sunny clearings.

Otters use the drainage ditches as safe hunting routes. Brown hares, harvest mice and field voles inhabit the meadows and margins. There’s also hope that water voles may still persist along quieter streambanks.

Frogs, toads and great crested newts are present in the site’s ponds. Grass snakes can often be seen basking or hunting in these sun-warmed wetlands. Deadwood and long grass away from fields that flood provide ideal hibernation spots.

Floodplain flora includes great burnet, angelica and rarer species such as pepper saxifrage, corky-fruited water dropwort and the scarce narrow-leaved water dropwort. Yellow flag iris, reeds and amphibious bistort line the wetter margins. Patches of drier grassland host common spotted orchids and a range of classic hay meadow plants.