Lambrok wetland areas
Clive Knight has sent in pictures of the wetland scrapes in Lambrok Meadow. Now that the rain has refilled Lambrok Stream and spilled into the scrapes, we can see how they are intended to develop.
If all goes well, water will stand in these shallow pools all winter. By the early spring, we can almost guarantee that there will be common frog tadpoles here, attended by some of the land-dwelling creatures that eat tadpoles: wading birds, foxes, brown rats and hedgehogs. All of these hunters will have muddy feet from the last pond they waded into and the mud will bring water plant fragments and seeds, insect eggs and larvae to colonise the new habitat.
Later, dragonfly and damselfly will come to lay their eggs in the water; the eggs will hatch into ferocious aquatic predator-nymphs that will be there to stalk and hunt next years crop of tadpoles. There will be mosquito larvae (there are always mosquito larvae in standing water) and three spined stickleback and bullheads will come in from the stream to eat them.
By midsummer next year, the muddy areas will be sporting a fringe of sedges and reeds among tufts of water meadow grasses, iris, purple loosestrife and teasels. Looking forward to it.
Header image: Clive Knight’s picture of the newly established dog dip, full right to the top step.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 
Have just read the post on the wetland scrap very interesting ,but how do you intend to kept the dogs out ,because waders and other birds would not settle there with disturbance from dogs.
We have constructed a dedicated dog dip in the stream, with reinforced banks and a stepped entrance. We are hoping to persuade people to take their dogs there rather than let them run through the scrapes. Unfortunately, a lot of the people who bring their dog to the park don’t seem to realise that it is a nature reserve and the behaviour of those dogs is always a problem.
Sorry but I do not think dogs let alone their owners will recognise the difference between a stepped entrance to the stream and a scrape , unless you can in some way secure the scrape area I think it will just get used as a dog dip .Its a shame because it would be a good asset to the park to have waders ect there
I understand your point of view but we have to start somewhere. We can’t put a stop to the development of the reserve as important wildlife habitat just because some people do not properly control their dogs. We can’t request that dogs be controlled near the wetland scrapes if there are no scrapes; we can’t ask people to respect the wildlife if there is no wildlife. Next time you see a dog racing through the scrapes, point it and its owner in the direction of the dog dip.
Will do.
Thank you.