What’s new?
29 August 2007
The Nene Valley Wildlife Roadshow
Wildlife Trust community event is a success with local people
Local people who visited Wilson’s Pits Local Nature Reserve, near Higham Ferrers, on Sunday 26 August enjoyed a fantastic morning of wildlife activities. Children had a great time building bug hotels and mini-beast hunting with sweep nets, then examining their catch in bug boxes to see what exciting specimens they had found.
A guided walk, led by reserves manager Jane Pearman, allowed people to witness the diverse range of wildlife this beautiful local nature reserve has to offer, and to highlight the improvements made at the reserve thanks to funding via the River Nene Regional Park, from the Department of Communities and Local Government. Some people were lucky enough to see a pair of buzzards slowly gliding overhead.
Improvements to the reserve included two new bird hides, access improvement work, new kissing gates and additional work on the scrape area.
Terry Smithson, conservation manager for The Wildlife Trust said “We hope to encourage more people to get out and enjoy their local greenspace and the diversity of wildlife on their doorstep and funding through the River Nene Regional Park has enabled us to complete a makeover of this site, making it easier for local people to experience this great asset. This fantastic nature reserve supports a wealth of wildlife and during the summer months you can see a variety of dragonflies and damselflies such as brown hawker, ruddy darter or banded demoiselle”.
Wilson’s Pits nature reserve consists of grassland fringed with areas of willow, reedbed and open water. The pits themselves like many other areas in the Nene Valley, were formerly quarries used for sand and gravel extraction. They are part of a large Site of Special Scientific Interest, which is an extremely important refuge for overwintering and breeding birds including ducks such as shoveler and gadwall.