Murmurations: Lucy McRobert
Lucy McRobert fondly recalls a first visit to a special site in Suffolk, but the RSPB’s flagship reserve is under threat and needs our help to protect it.
Lucy McRobert fondly recalls a first visit to a special site in Suffolk, but the RSPB’s flagship reserve is under threat.
One of the first nature reserves I visited was Minsmere RSPB, Suffolk. I was 21 and beginning to fall back in love with nature (after the ‘wilderness’ teen years where I didn’t so much as blink at a bird). I was visiting the site archives for my undergraduate history dissertation, researching the career of Derek Moore OBE.
Derek cut his teeth in conservation under the tutelage of Bert Axell, warden of
Minsmere (1959-75), and was one of the volunteers who helped to dig the Scrape. They were rewarded for their efforts with nesting Avocets in 1963; the birds had nested here once before in 1947, but had been absent from the UK for more than 100 years before that. Derek passed away in 2014, but the story of Minsmere has always stayed with me. During my investigation I uncovered remarkable documents, stories and artefacts, including Max Nicholson’s first permit to visit the reserve. I loved reading about the unorthodox management styles of those maverick wardens, who had the freedom to shape a landscape using common sense, trial and error and creativity. I fell in love with Minsmere through my research into the people and the place.
Special experience
Visiting Minsmere is an experience. As the roads narrow and you wind through the woodlands, you feel like you’re approaching somewhere very special, removed from the rest of the world. Even with the addition of the stylish visitor centre, the area feels wild. The surrounding heathlands come into their own on a summer evening, with purring European Turtle Doves, screeching Eurasian Stonecurlews and serenading Common Nightingales. Eurasian Bitterns boom, Otters frolic, and every twitcher has a story about visiting Minsmere: Western Swamphen, Lesser Kestrel, Collared Pratincole and so on. The first time I visited, I’d just started listing and I scored Marsh Tit on the feeders outside the archive window.
Minsmere might have become too popular for some, but I always get a pleasant knot of excitement in my stomach on the approach.
It’s one of the few nature reserves where they have something for everyone, from families to seasoned birders.
But Minsmere, our Minsmere, the Minsmere
❝I fell in love with Minsmere through my research into the people and place❞ the
we love, share and fondly remember, faces a new threat. Plans have been submitted by EDF Energy to build another nuclear power station practically on top of the reserve. Sizewell C would directly border the site, threatening many of the species that use this space as a highway as they move around the area. Suffolk Wildlife Trust has raised concerns over protected species such as Water Vole, Otter, Western Marsh Harrier, Natterjack Toad and Barbastelle Bat. Toxic chemicals and over 3 million dead fish could be pumped into the sea every year.
We risk being ‘nimbyist’ if we oppose every development proposed on our doorsteps, dismissed as tree-huggers standing in the way of ‘progress’. However, for me, the issue is more fundamental: if Minsmere RSPB isn’t safe from development, then where is?
The plans for the development include the direct loss of 10-12 ha of SSSI. Our system of designation and protection of land for wildlife in the UK leaves much to be desired. How can we justify jeopardising a site that is not only protected by law but is also responsible for bringing hundreds of thousands of people closer to nature. Shouldn’t this have been thrown in the bin the moment it landed on the desk?
Almost every person reading this magazine will have a birding or family story rooted at Minsmere. It needs us now. It’s not often I’ll ask you to sign a petition, but in this instance, I implore you. The RSPB and Suffolk Wildlife Trust are campaigning hard to save this precious landscape, and they’re going to need our help: bit.ly/3LoveMinsmere. ■