Had a walk around Houghton Washland today. Thats the big slab of land owned by the Environment Agency that runs from south of Edderthorpe Ings down the river to Darfield.
The bottom end of this (Little Houghton Marsh) has been drained by the Environment Agency two years ago. They put deeper ditches in to attract water voles and by doing so its dried the marsh out. The RSPB have taken over the management of this particular part of the washland but they still haven't started work on the site yet.
The top half of the washland is where the old lake used to be (old records of breeding BN Grebes in this area). Its been flooded for the last few years and turned some good stuff up, especially good numbers of waders. However, last year the Environment Agency allowed the farmer to drain it. The lake is just a field of rough grass now.
A walk all way around the site from top to bottom today produced 1 heron and 2 moorhens.
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