I read with interest Martin’s recent comment,
below.
“4) a bit later in the day I noted that there was water
visible between the vegetation in Kelly's Swamp in front of the Ardea and
Bittern hides. It doesn't seem to have spread to the area in front of
Cygnus yet. There could be all sorts of of crakes, rails and bitterns
lurking in that jungle (even herons if they crouched a bit).”
While I claim no wetland expertise, I would have thought
that the ‘swamp’ is now at an early stage in its waterbird-attracting
cycle, and that the advantage of the present dry-land veg is not that it will of
itself attract birds but after inundation will decompose and then provide an
abundance of food for the underwater-veg eaters and then, much later, attract fish
and invertebrates and much later again in the cycle will eventually provide
food for the next stage of visitors, including crakes, if any of them have
survived anywhere.
I haven’t read through the proposed plan, but, Jenny,
it might be worth insisting on a science-based approach to the management of
inflow into Kelly Swamp. If it is to be truly a refuge the time to put
water into it, to a minimum level, would surely be just when other ephemeral
shallow bodies are drying out completely. This seems to be the time when
the swamp is allowed to dry completely. This might be the ‘natural’
cycle but it denies a refuge to the hard-pressed shallows-frequenters. I
wouldn’t be prescriptive about what they should do, but if it’s a
refuge surely they should have objectives and a plan. During the time
Kellys was bone-dry, the nearby silt trap impoundment was full but of no use to
waders that feed in shallow water.
