What a strange year 2020 has been for us all. Despite us being rather quiet on our website, we have still had a busy year! At the beginning of the year, Countryfile visited us to film an episode about the Dungeness NNR. Matt Baker discussed the movement of shingle and the rare form of blackthorn found on the NNR with our very own Owen Leyshon.
In February, we had a successful joint work party with our RMCP volunteers and Natural England at Greatstone Dunes, using Natural England’s tree poppers to clear sea buckthorn. This was our first use of this tool on the Marsh, a tree popper is a big yellow lever that we can use to uproots the whole plant (including the roots). Sea buckthorn is a native species; however, it has become invasive on the dunes, taking over the natural vegetation.
Dungeness Ranger Jake Jones left us in March to start a new adventure with Kent Wildlife Trust at the Romney Marsh Visitor Centre. During the lockdown our Rangers worked from home where possible, enabling them to progress with some of the all-important paperwork. Once the lockdown lifted our sites were very busy with visitors! Unfortunately, in August, Greatstone was subject to an illegal party, with hundreds of people turning up and littering the beach and streets. Thanks to an amazing community effort, residents cleared hundreds of bags of rubbish early the next morning and the beach was spotless by noon.
We welcomed our wonderful volunteers back in August, with a bit of a twist, to ensure that the tasks were as safe as possible during Covid-19 times. This meant that tea breaks now involved bringing a flask from home and tools were wiped down after each person had used them.
Lottie Glover joined us in September for a few months as the Dungeness Ranger, working hard to keep the Dungeness Estate a welcoming place for wildlife and people during the busy late summer and autumn months.
Work in the autumn of 2020 on Dungeness included widening pathways and clearing vegetation in invertebrate hotspots, aiming to create a more suitable, grassy habitat for them next summer. At Romney Warren volunteers helped to plant 400 hedgerow trees along the roadside, which in years to come will help to reduce the busy traffic noise from this road and provide further benefits for wildlife.
Rare species seen across The Marsh in 2020 included the Large Conehead, a bush cricket, found on Dungeness NNR by Dungeness Bird Observatory and a local naturalist. Ranger Owen had a Currant Clearwing in his garden in Littlestone. On Dungeness we also had a Portuguese Man O’War wash up, a third for Dungeness with no records elsewhere in Kent over the last few decades.
Large Conehead
We look forward to what 2021 brings and continuing to work with our volunteers and the local community to help the wildlife on Romney Marsh.