heliastes21's Journal

Around 200 red squirrels live on Brownsea Island, a safe haven away from their rival, the grey squirrel which outcompetes them for food and carries the squirrel pox, fatal to the red. The National Trust and the Dorset Wildlife Trust are helping to look after the red squirrels here through careful woodland management.

Brownsea Island (along with the Isle of Wight and Scilly Isles) is one of the very few refuges for the red squirrel in southern England.

The marsh harrier is one of the great success stories of recent times in Norfolk and lowland England. In the early 19th Century they were abundant in Norfolk and throughout East Anglia. However, by the latter part of the century they had become extinct in the UK through habitat loss and persecution. Marsh harriers bred sporadically in the Broads, and occasionally at other sites, from 1927 to 1975. Since then the number of nests in the county has risen steadily. In 1982 the first UK nest of marsh harriers in an arable field was recorded in Norfolk and this habitat has been regularly used by the species ever since. Today more than 100 females nest in Norfolk each year. In winter more than 100 individuals may be seen at roosts around the county.

I regularly see marsh harriers at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen, RSPB Titchwell and NWT Cley Marshes in Norfolk, but also RSPB Minsmere (Suffolk) and at Rutland Water Nature Reserve.