A Day in the Life of an Environmental Consultant – Spring 2024

May is the most beautiful month of the year in England; hedges full of hawthorn blossom, lambs in the fields and out on the marshes, all is hope.

May day dawned, bright with a rare hint of warmth after what has primarily been a cold spring. I washed my face in the dew (an old tradition) and took to the marshes outside of Luddenham. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much. Tim Malpas at Blackbird Farming had commissioned IG Pilcher Ltd to create scrapes and rills here in the autumn and the work was excellent but it can take years for birds to respond. This is especially true in landscapes which are relatively isolated from other decent wader habitat. Around Conyer a few farmers had been holding the fort for lapwing and redshank for many years but I was hopeful that the work at Luddenham would create a block of wetland able to support many more pairs to breed.

However as I splashed across the fields I heard it: that unmistakable fluting call of a lapwing displaying. There they were, all wing buzz as the male beat across the fields and pirouetted to earth in mid flight. The pair were joined by another, plus oystercatchers and yellow wagtails. This long, dry grassland suddenly alive with wetland birds once again. It felt as if an overly tight tap had been loosened just a little and wildlife was flowing back once again. To bring birds back to a landscape which hasn’t seen them in many years gives me joy, makes all possible.

A few days before I had introduced Tim to Alan Johnson, Area Manager for the RSPB and Heather Richards Senior Conservation Officer for Kent. We discussed the possibility of funding more work on  these marshes and Tim told the pair about his desire to create a farm where food production and nature could co-exist.

Tim Malpas CEO of Blackbird Farming speaks to the RSPB’s Alan Johnson and Heather Richards.

Another landscape I visited last month was Foulness Island near Shoeburyness in Essex. This MOD site holds such fabulous potential for wildlife with it’s miles and miles of flat, open, low lying fields. Clouds of lapwing should be pirouetting here and yet we saw few birds. The fields appear heavily drained with little standing water to attract birds to breed. It is a crying shame. We do need fertile soils to produce food but there must be a balance so that landscapes like this can support birds that could be lost from the county if more is not done to create suitable habitat.

To see miles of grassland with no waders felt unacceptable and I came away feeling frustrated and determined to set my cap at whoever I need to in order to provoke change here. I sense this may be a challenge but one that I am willing to take on.

A small scrape on the island of Foulness but is it enough to support breeding lapwing?

Elsewhere in Essex, farmers are doing their bit, engaged and invested in “their” birds and are reverting unproductive arable areas to grassland, a bold and inspiring move which is much needed if we are to create joined up habitat in the county.

It was this message that I took to the Hoo Peninsula Farm Cluster at the end of April. Farmers working alongside wildlife advisors can achieve great things on a landscape scale. Now all we need is a government  that supports both farmers and wildlife and sends out a clear message which both can plan around.

Farmers on the Hoo Peninsula listen in as Olwen Belgrove from the Zoological Society of London talks about Transforming the Thames