FINAL BIT IN PLACE FOR BIRD HAVEN, MARAZION
Work complete on RSPB Marazion Marsh reserve
The final piece of construction will be in place by the end of Wednesday 22 October at the RSPB’s Marazion Marsh reserve near Penzance. A custom-made sluice gate, measuring 3.5 metres wide by 1 metre deep, completes a five-year project designed to create optimum conditions for one of Britain’s rarest breeding birds, the bittern.
Over the summer, Alaska Environmental Contracting Ltd., have been using large earth-moving equipment on the reserve to make three areas of open water, totalling 1.5 hectares, together with some water retaining bunds. The new sluice means that water levels can be controlled in Cornwall’s largest reedbed habitat, creating a potential haven for the bittern and the type of eco-system they depend on for food and shelter.
Bitterns, a small buff and black, streaked heron, were extinct in the UK by the end of the nineteenth century but gradually returned in small numbers. Thanks to the efforts of many conservation organisations and individuals, the bittern is returning to old haunts and turning up at new ones.
