Photostoryette - Part 2

From the river Bank of the Arun we cross the last field and up onto the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Reserve. Here the ground rises as in the photograph above. I have noticed that in winter the bank on the right is quite unstable. It often washes down where there has been some ditching. I see on the British Geological Survey Soils & Drifts Map that this is 'made up ground' and I guess that this is where soil has been dumped when the water meadows were leveled back in late Georgian times. (it's the photo that's not level LOL)

The Pulborough water meadows or North Brooks are artificial in that they were leveled to provide early spring grazing land for sheep and cattle. The meat sold at a premium and, I understand, sheep off water meadows were thought to be free of fluke because the ground was flooded for long periods every winter. Interestingly there are no rabbits on the brooks but the occasional mole only burrows on the river banks which stand proud of the high winter water levels. The North Brooks were traditionally grazed by sheep but taken off in the winter - I guess moved over to land called 'Winterfields' on the east side of the A283.

Bycontrolling the water levels and holding back the winter floods, wildfowling grounds were created encouraging ducks and waders to settle on the shallow tracts of water. The shepherds became wildfowlers during the winter months and could net hundreds of lapwing and shoot many duck, making a better living in the winter than they could from their sheep all year. A brace of lapwing fetched 1/6 in London Markets.

The meadows were very labour intensive to manage and fell into disuse. The RSPB purchased the land in the 1990's to continue to manage the grazing with 'conservation' cattle and the water levels by means of their charitable funding and volunteer labour to encourage back migrating and overwintering birds, albeit for watching rather than killing. The flagship RSPB Pulborough Reserve attracts 120,000 visitors every year.

The RSPB encourage many other birds onto the Reserve's higher land by careful planting of seed fodder crops for bird and small mammals and many berried shrubs have been established in hedgerows. Here are bracts of beautiful berries on a Wayfarer tree.