
RSPB Ouse Fen Nature Reserve – January 2025 Update
Restoration Business as Usual
At Ouse Fen the RSPB are now working in partnership with Brice Aggregates to transform their minerals quarry at Needingworth into the largest reedbed in the UK, and a wetland that will support threatened bird species like Bittern along with a host of other wetland wildlife. It’s a great place to visit too – so get your boots on this Spring and take a look!
Recent Wildlife News

(Photograph courtesy of Gill Street)
During the autumn migration and lingering into winter we saw a procession of wading birds pass through Berry Fen and one of the partly restored reedbeds including Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Green, Wood and Common Sandpipers, Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers, Ruff, Golden Plover, Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper, Knot, Turnstone and, most unusually, a Black-Winged Stilt. Like any good wetland they were joined by an equally varied range of rarer wildfowl over winter including a Lesser Scaup, a Ferruginous Duck, White-fronted Geese and occasional Whooper Swans dropping by. Along with Cranes, Spoonbills and a sighting of a Purple Heron it has all added to the attraction for a flurry of birdwatchers over the past few months too!
However, our most unusual recent record was of a very rare Penduline Tit in December on Lockspit’s Mere. This winter visitor from Europe is a resident of fenland habitats on the Continent but was seen by just a very few lucky observers.
Reserve & other Project News
Out on the reserve our warden team have been directing management work including slubbing silt from ditches to allow water through, deepening scrapes with an excavator and cutting some of the wetland edges with our sit-in reed harvester to vary the habitat for wildlife and create views for visitors.
In the quarry restoration area, the partnership continues to plan and delivering the same high quality wetland habitat as before. Most recently Brice’s earthmoving contractors have completed another length of perimeter canal and the bones of what will eventually be transformed into the twelfth wetland mere delivered so far.
Springtime – just around the corner
The coming months are undoubtedly one of the best times to visit the reserve – with April, May and June among the very best. The reserve is open during daylight hours via our visitor entrance between Earith and Willingham. It’s a great starting point from which to enjoy the trails that weave through the reedbeds or to take a longer walk connecting up to the public rights of way running through the valley. To plan your visit go to www.rspb.org.uk/days-out/reserves/ouse-fen where you’ll find everything you need to know.
See you on the Fen – The Ouse Valley Reserves Team
email: ousefen@rspb.org.uk

