RSPB St. Aidan’s: A Conservation Success Story

RSPB St. Aidan’s is a brilliant example of a potential end state for global industrial infrastructure.

Originally operating as an opencast mine, after closure, the site was leased to the RSPB and became a clean slate for a ‘build your own wetland reserve’ project. In just 10 years, what was once a 70-meter hole in the ground is now one of the most successful reserves in the North of England.

During our visit, RSPB Ranger, Jonathan Taylor, told us of the management efforts that go into maintaining the 400-hectare site that hosts around 120 breeding bird species.

The staff and team of over 200 volunteers are responsible for preventing reedbed succession to shrub, controlling the invasive mink population, managing the ever-growing presence of human and canine visitors on the site, and so much more. Jonathan stressed the importance of volunteer action at the site. Without this, the vital wetland habitat that exists at St. Aidan’s would quickly be replaced by woodland, drying up completely as plant litter builds up on the surface.

Humans soon won’t be the only helpers at St. Aidan’s. Carneddau ponies have just been acquired by the RSPB and will be released as grazers, helping reduce rush spread and maintain grassland habitats suitable for many species.

The site has the capacity to hold 7.5 million cubic meters of water. To provide a bit of perspective – that’s the same as around 21,126,760,563 cans of Coke! With this in mind, St. Aidan’s provides a vital form of natural flood management to the surrounding towns of Allerton Bywater and Castleford, towns that are both located beside the River Aire.

After we finished eating lunch (and having a quick nap) in the sun, enjoying the sound of thousands of squawking birds flying overhead, Jonathan went on to explain how the site floods every year, always in a particular way. The reserve was designed to encourage water to travel between lakes, filling one at a time, and keeping the pathways accessible until the very last moment. This design allows areas of the grassland to remain unaffected by the flood until enough water travels in to complete the process.

Although my initial reaction to hearing that this valuable habitat for ground-nesting birds experiences such severe flooding, my worries were quickly calmed when Jonathan went on to explain that the flooding only occurs in the winter before nesting begins. In fact, the flooding actually provides several benefits to the site – slowing the drying process of the reedbeds and helping maintain wet meadow habitats.

As should be expected when you set a group of conservationists loose in an RSPB reserve, the day quickly turned into a bird-watching adventure. Given that St. Aidan’s is a haven for several nationally rare species – including bitterns and bearded tits – it’s not a surprise that the binoculars were out in force. We marveled over cormorants, redshanks, white-fronted geese, lapwings, and many more incredible species (we counted 31 in total). Although a bittern and a Cetti’s warbler were only heard rather than seen, we were lucky enough to watch a black-necked grebe paddling through the reedbeds – a personal highlight of mine since only 55 breeding pairs existed in the UK in 2017.

It’s fair to say my bird ID knowledge is now 10x better than what it was before I visited St. Aidan’s and I can’t wait to return and improve it even further!

Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?

– David Attenborough

If you’d like to learn more about RSPB St. Aidan’s or find out how to start volunteering at the site, be sure to visit the RSPB website.