Wildlife finds refuge in East Anglia’s ‘Noah’s Ark’

21 May 2013 02:26 PM

Lesley Orrock and Payne Gunfield signed up to join Natural England’s Environmental Stewardship scheme - which pays farmers to use environmentally friendly farming methods on their land - and the couple are now reaping the benefits with a rich harvest of wildlife.

Since helping Lesley and Payne enter the stewardship scheme, Natural England's local wildlife adviser Sarah Brockless has noticed a big difference in the amount of wildlife around the farm.  Lapwing now successfully nest on uncropped areas in fields; wild flower corridors have been established along the edges of fields to provide pollen and nectar for rare Carder bumblebees and other crop pollinators; and the network of farm hedgerows has been re-established through new planting and coppicing.  A family of adders has moved into the farm’s specially-designed ‘reptile refuge’, known as a hibernacula, which has been constructed from recycled concrete rubble.

Last winter, Lesley and Payne were rewarded with the sight of a flock of more than 160 corn buntings and yellowhammers feeding on the farm.  A specially formulated seed mixture crop is provided every winter to help the birds survive the ‘hungry gap’ between January and spring, when natural seeds can be scarce in the countryside.  In addition, Lesley and Payne put out a mixture of oil seed rape, wheat, millet and canary seed across the farm throughout the winter months.

Lesley says: "We are privileged to live and work in such a fantastic place.  We love the wonderful variety of wildlife we have on the farm but we wanted to do more to help secure the future of the wildlife we have and to increase the biodiversity whilst still maintaining a commercially viable business.  With the combined help of David Sunnucks who farms the land and Sarah Brockless at Natural England, who helped us set up the Environmental Stewardship agreement, we feel we are well on the way towards achieving our aim."

Nationally declining farmland bird species that nest on the farm, such as turtle doves and yellow wagtails, will also benefit from the creation of new wildlife habitats providing sites for feeding and breeding.  Turtle doves, which are now rare summer visitors to the UK, nest within the area known as ‘Noah’s Ark’, a large scrub area on the farm.  The doves feed on the abundance of flower seeds that grow wild on the farm and also in crops, such as clover, that have been specially sown on the land.

The kind of wildlife habitat creation work underway at Morevons Farm is essential for securing a future for turtle doves in England.  A steep decline in the birds’ population has led to the setting up of Operation Turtle Dove a three-year collaborative project between the RSPB, Conservation Grade and Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, supported by Natural England.

Natural England’s Sarah Brockless added: “The knowledge, enthusiasm and hard work of Lesley and Payne have lead to outstanding progress during the establishment of the scheme.  There is a true balance between a viable farm business, good practical farming and great nature conservation on Moverons Farm.  It is through the hard work of farmers like Lesley and Payne and their participating in environmental stewardship schemes that we can make a real difference to our land, conserve wildlife and protect natural resources.”

By re-planting and coppicing the farm’s old elm hedgerows, a series of wildlife corridors will be created across the farm and rotational cutting will provide a source of berries for the birds and field mice to feed on during the autumn and winter months.  A patch of Hogs Fennel has also recently been created on the farm to attract the Fisher’s Estuarine moth, one of Britain’s rarest and most highly threatened species of insect.

The next chapter in the farm’s success story will see the gradual re-introduction of traditional sheep grazing which will greatly enhance the importance of the farm’s sea wall for wildlife.  Unlike cutting, which creates a uniform habitat, extensive grazing will create a variety of habitats for wildlife.

As well as rare bumblebee species, the farm’s sea wall supports populations of grasshoppers and crickets, such as the short-winged conehead and great green bush-cricket, which are now almost entirely restricted to the Essex coast sea walls and scrub areas such as Noah’s Ark.  Sharp-eyed walkers may also notice common lizards and slow worms on warm days.  Interesting plants to look out for are shrubby seablite, golden samphire and the nationally scarce dittander.

The farmland is visible from the well-walked sea wall footpath coming out of Brightlingsea.

Operation Turtle Dove
Turtle dove numbers have fallen dramatically in recent years and the population is now just 9% of that in the 1970s.  The species has disappeared from most UK counties and the birds’ remaining stronghold in England is now East Anglia and the South East.  In an urgent mission to provide a lifeline for these charming doves Operation Turtle Dove was launched last year.  Operation Turtle Dove is a three-year collaborative project between the RSPB, Conservation Grade and Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, supported by Natural England.

About Environmental Stewardship

Environmental stewardship schemes are administered by Natural England, on behalf of Defra, and fund farmers and land managers throughout England to deliver effective environmental management on their land.

The objectives of Environmental Stewardship are to: