Strumpshaw Fen Reserve Marks 50 Years Under RSPB — SkimNews
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- Strumpshaw Fen nature reserve marks 50 years under RSPB stewardship, covering 450 hectares (1,112 acres) of wetland on the Norfolk Broads — the equivalent of 630 football pitches.
- Reserves manager Helen Deavin said the site supports "rare and unusual species" including nesting bitterns, swallowtail butterflies, and a pair of cranes that successfully raised a chick this summer.
- The reserve regularly hosts marsh harriers, bearded tits, waders, otters, water voles, fen raft spiders, orchids and rare sharp-leaved pondweed; Deavin called it a "hidden gem" where wildlife is "quite accessible" to visitors.
- Deavin said the summer's heatwaves had been "tough" and that the reserve was preparing for flood events and "saline surges" driven by seasonal autumn tides.
- The site, originally unmanaged fenland before the RSPB took over in the mid-1970s, is hosting guided walks on Sunday to celebrate the anniversary.
- BBC Look East camera operator Shaun Whitmore shared that the reserve helped him through a personal breakdown in 2016 and was where he proposed to his future wife in December 2019.
Why it matters: Five decades of habitat work at Strumpshaw helped species like bitterns recover in the UK, but Deavin's warning about heatwaves and "saline surges" shows the reserve now faces climate-driven threats to the very wetland conditions its wildlife depends on.
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