Wildlife arriving at newly created wetland

Wildlife is starting to move into a new wetland area that took a year to build.

It was created at the Great Fen nature reserve, near Ramsey in Cambridgeshire, as part of The Great Fen project.

About 25 hectares (62 acres) - the size of about 60 football pitches - of land has been transformed with a mere, channels and reedbeds.

Staff have already seen birds, including lapwings, checking out the potential new feeding ground.

The work is one of the latest phases of the Great Fen vision, called Peatland Progress, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The five-year project will see the linking of two remaining fragments of ancient fens, Woodwalton Fen and Holme Fen.

The Great Fen vision began in 2000 with the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire joining with other bodies to create a new wetland landscape.

Lorna Parker, Great Fen project manager, said: "While it was amazing to see the transformation of this land from arable fields to wetland, we were very grateful to see the last digger roll off so that nature can truly take over.

"The rainfall has helped fill the new mere and channels, and wherever there is water, there is life."

She said muddy edges around the waterways were ideal for insects and molluscs, which "will provide a feast" for wading birds like lapwings, redshank and snipe.

Parker said the site should be open to the public in the summer, enabling visitors to "experience the land returning to nature for the first time in more than 100 years".

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