RSPB Old Moor Wetland Centre
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RSPB Dearne Valley Old Moor is an
wetlands A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...
in the
Dearne Valley The Dearne Valley is an area of South Yorkshire, England, along the River Dearne. It encompasses the towns of Wombwell, Wath-upon-Dearne, Swinton, Conisbrough and Mexborough, the large villages of Ardsley, Bolton on Dearne, Goldthorpe, Thu ...
near
Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...
,
South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...
, run by the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment throug ...
(RSPB). It lies on the junction of the A633 and
A6195 road The A6195 road runs through the Dearne Valley in South Yorkshire, England. History The road is mainly newly constructed, being built to regenerate the former coal-mining areas of Barnsley in the late 1990s. It has many at-grade roundabouts, ...
s and is bordered by the
Trans Pennine Trail The Trans Pennine Trail is a long-distance path running from coast to coast across Northern England entirely on surfaced paths and using only gentle gradients (it runs largely along disused railway lines and canal towpaths). It forms part of ...
long-distance path A long-distance trail (or long-distance footpath, track, way, greenway) is a longer recreational trail mainly through rural areas used for hiking, backpacking, cycling, horse riding or cross-country skiing. They exist on all continents excep ...
. Following the end of
coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
locally, the Dearne Valley had become a derelict post-industrial area, and the removal of soil to cover an adjacent polluted site enabled the creation of the wetlands at Old Moor. Old Moor is managed to benefit
bitterns Bitterns are birds belonging to the subfamily Botaurinae of the heron family Ardeidae. Bitterns tend to be shorter-necked and more secretive than other members of the family. They were called ''hæferblæte'' in Old English; the word "bittern" ...
, breeding
wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...
s such as
lapwings Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, wailing cry. A gro ...
, redshanks and
avocets The four species of avocets are a genus, ''Recurvirostra'', of waders in the same avian family as the stilts. The genus name comes from Latin , 'curved backwards' and , 'bill'. The common name is thought to derive from the Italian ( Ferrarese) ...
, and wintering golden plovers. A calling male
little bittern The little bittern or common little bittern (''Ixobrychus minutus'') is a wading bird in the heron family, Ardeidae. ''Ixobrychus'' is from Ancient Greek ''ixias'', a reed-like plant and ''brukhomai'', to bellow, and ''minutus'' is Latin for "sm ...
was present in the summers of 2015 and 2016.
Passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...
birds include a small colony of tree sparrows and good numbers of
willow tit The willow tit (''Poecile montanus'') is a passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and across the Palearctic. The plumage is grey-brown and off-white w ...
s, thriving here despite a steep decline elsewhere in the UK.
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of four in South Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of ...
created the reserve, which opened in 1998, but the RSPB took over management of the site in 2003 and developed it further, with funding from several sources including the
National Lottery Heritage Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
. The reserve, along with others nearby, forms part of a landscape-scale project to create wildlife habitat in the Dearne Valley. It is an 'Urban Gateway' site with facilities intended to attract visitors, particularly families. In 2018, the reserve had about 100,000 visits. The reserve may benefit in the future from new habitat creation beyond the reserve and improved accessibility, although there is also a potential threat to the reserve from
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
and flooding.


Landscape

Most of the Dearne Valley area lies on the
coal measures In lithostratigraphy, the coal measures are the coal-bearing part of the Upper Carboniferous System. In the United Kingdom, the Coal Measures Group consists of the Upper Coal Measures Formation, the Middle Coal Measures Formation and the Lower Coal ...
, comprising
Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
and
slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
with seams of coal. The valleys contain fertile
alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
deposited by their rivers, and the sandstone forms rolling ridges cut by the broad
floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
s. The area has been settled continuously since
prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...
times, with villages developing on the drier sandstone ridges above the flood plain from at least the late
Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
period. Mining is recorded from at least the 13th century, and probably back to
Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...
,Ling ''et al'' (2003) pp. 30–33. and the area became heavily industrialised in the 18th century with the arrival of the
Dearne and Dove Canal The Dearne and Dove Canal ran for almost ten miles through South Yorkshire, England from Swinton to Barnsley through nineteen locks, rising . The canal also had two short branches, the Worsbrough branch and the Elsecar branch, both about two ...
. This connected Barnsley to the River Don and beyond, aiding the intensive exploitation of the locality's coal, sandstone and
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
. Over the next two centuries, especially following the arrival of the railway in 1840, the area became dominated by its
heavy industries Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); or ...
. The name ''Old Moor'' may derive from an archaic meaning of ''moor'', referring to a marshy area that was more difficult to cultivate than the alluvium of the flood plain.Hey (2015) pp. 75–77. It had been
enclosed Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
as a farm by 1757, when it was owned by the
Marquess of Rockingham Marquess of Rockingham, in the County of Northampton, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1746 for Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Earl of Malton. The Watson family descended from Lewis Watson, Member of Parliament f ...
.


History

The Dearne Valley was formerly a major
coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
area, with several accessible seams of high-quality
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...
, and in 1950s more than 32,000 colliers worked in its 30 pits. The coal industry dominated the area, and its waste rendered the
River Dearne The River Dearne South Yorkshire, England flows roughly east for more than , from its source just inside West Yorkshire. It flows through Denby Dale, Clayton West, Darton, Barnsley, Darfield, Wath upon Dearne, Bolton on Dearne, Adwick upon D ...
lifeless, although a few isolated wetland areas remained, monitored by local birdwatchers. The miners' strike of 1984 was the first sign of a national programme of pit closures in the UK that led to all the Dearne Valley mines being closed by 1993, with the loss of 11,000 jobs in the industry. About of the former Wath Manvers Colliery, including a
coking plant Coke is a grey, hard, and porous coal-based fuel with a high carbon content and few impurities, made by heating coal or oil in the absence of air—a destructive distillation process. It is an important industrial product, used mainly in iron ...
and
marshalling yard A classification yard (American and Canadian English (Canadian National Railway use)), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, Australian, and Canadian English (Canadian Pacific Railway use)) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway ya ...
, was left as the largest derelict site in western Europe. The ground was heavily polluted and needed to be restored by covering it with clean soil deep enough for trees and scrubs to become established. To achieve this, of material was removed from the adjacent Old Moor, thereby creating a new wetland at that site. The
Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) is an international wildfowl and wetland conservation charity in the United Kingdom. Its patron is Charles III, and its president is Kate Humble. History The WWT was founded in 1946 by the ornithologist a ...
(WWT) were originally intended to run the proposed reserve, and planned a large lake for wintering
wildfowl The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating on ...
. The
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment throug ...
(RSPB) suggested adding
reed bed A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...
s to help the then-struggling
bittern Bitterns are birds belonging to the subfamily Botaurinae of the heron family Ardeidae. Bitterns tend to be shorter-necked and more secretive than other members of the family. They were called ''hæferblæte'' in Old English; the word "bittern" ...
population; only 11 males were present in the UK at one point in the 1990s. The WWT was at that time also working on its
London Wetland Centre WWT London Wetland Centre is a wetland reserve managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in the Barnes area of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest London, England, by Barn Elms. The site is formed of four disused Victorian rese ...
, and pulled out of the Old Moor project since it lacked the resources to cope with two large projects. The creation of the reserve fell to
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of four in South Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of ...
, which offered the site to the RSPB in 1997. At that time, the bird charity was more interested in preserving established habitats than creating new sites, and declined to take on Old Moor. The reserve eventually opened in 1998 as part of the regeneration of the
Dearne Valley The Dearne Valley is an area of South Yorkshire, England, along the River Dearne. It encompasses the towns of Wombwell, Wath-upon-Dearne, Swinton, Conisbrough and Mexborough, the large villages of Ardsley, Bolton on Dearne, Goldthorpe, Thu ...
, and was then developed further with the help of a lottery grant of nearly £800,000 in 2002. By 2000, the reserve had only 10,000 visitors annually, and was making a financial loss before being taken over by the RSPB in 2003. The RSPB had changed it its position since its refusal in 1997, with a greater emphasis nationally on engaging the public, and more opportunities to work with the
Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...
to create and manage new wetlands. With help from the Environment Agency, local councils and others, the RSPB tripled its land holding in the area to in the next ten years, while other conservation bodies also created and improved reserves. Cooperation between conservation organisations and other agencies led to the formation of the Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership (DVLP) in 2014. This is the main coordinating body for the partners in the Dearne Valley scheme,King (2014) p. 1. which include the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United K ...
(DEFRA), local councils,
Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...
, The Environment Agency, the
Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...
,
Yorkshire Water Yorkshire Water is a water supply and treatment utility company servicing West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, part of North Lincolnshire, most of North Yorkshire and part of Derbyshire, in England. The company has its ...
, the RSPB and several local conservation charities. The DVLP is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and its administration is the responsibility of Barnsley Council's Museums and Heritage Service. The partnership's remit includes industrial heritage sites as well as the local environment, and its funding for 2014–2019 was £2.4 million, of which £1.8 million was from the National Lottery. In October 2020, Old Moor was one of the sites from which the
BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
programme ''
Autumnwatch ''Springwatch'', ''Autumnwatch'' and ''Winterwatch'', sometimes known collectively as ''The Watches'', are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom. The p ...
'' was broadcast, hosting presenter
Gillian Burke Gillian Burke (born ) is a natural history television programme producer and voiceover artist, and has been a co-presenter of the BBC nature series ''Springwatch'' and its spin-offs since 2017. Career Burke studied biology at Bristol Univers ...
.


Access and facilities

Old Moor lies about from the
M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...
, and is accessed from Manvers Way (A633) just east of the A6195 Dearne Valley Parkway junction. The nearest
railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
s are at
Wombwell Wombwell () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. The town in the 2011 census was split between a ward called Wombwell, as well as small parts that fell under two other wards called Darfield (specifically ...
and Swinton, both about away. Buses are infrequent, but cyclists can access Old Moor by a bridge to the reserve car park from the
Trans Pennine Trail The Trans Pennine Trail is a long-distance path running from coast to coast across Northern England entirely on surfaced paths and using only gentle gradients (it runs largely along disused railway lines and canal towpaths). It forms part of ...
long-distance path A long-distance trail (or long-distance footpath, track, way, greenway) is a longer recreational trail mainly through rural areas used for hiking, backpacking, cycling, horse riding or cross-country skiing. They exist on all continents excep ...
, which runs along the southern edge of the reserve. The reserve has a visitor centre, created by Barnsley Council from existing farm buildings, which includes a shop, educational facilities, a café and toilets, picnic and play areas and nature trails. The visitor centre and its café are open daily from 9.30 am–5.00 pm, except for 25 and 26 December, the reserve having the same hours in winter but staying open until 8 pm from April to October. Entrance is free for RSPB members, although there are entry charges for other visitors. Old Moor was planned as an "Urban Gateway" RSPB site, its playground, café balcony and children's discovery zone intended to attract visitors. It has nine
bird hide A bird hide (blind or bird blind in North America) is a shelter, often camouflaged, that is used to observe wildlife, especially birds, at close quarters. Although hides or hunting blinds were once built chiefly as hunting aids, they are now commo ...
s and viewing screens, and a sunken hide with a reflection pool for the benefit of photographers. The track to the reed bed is long and the main track is . As of 2018, the reserve had about 100,000 visits per year, with around 3,500 children annually making use of the RSPB's on-site education programmes.King (2014) p. 9. The site uses wood pellets and chippings to fuel a 100 kW
biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...
converter which provides hot water and heating for five buildings on the site.


Management

The main focus on management throughout the Dearne Valley complex is on its key habitats: wet grassland, open water and reed bed. Although the first reeds were planted at Old Moor in 1996, their establishment has been slow because the
topsoil Topsoil is the upper layer of soil. It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs. Description Topsoil is composed of mineral particles and organic matt ...
had been stripped off leaving only hard sterile clay
subsoil Subsoil is the layer of soil under the topsoil on the surface of the ground. Like topsoil, it is composed of a variable mixture of small particles such as sand, silt and clay, but with a much lower percentage of organic matter and humus, and it ...
for planting. Bringing fertile mud from
Blacktoft Sands RSPB reserve Blacktoft Sands RSPB reserve is a nature reserve in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which leases the site from Associated British Ports. Description The site is on the sou ...
has helped, although the reeds still stand in ribbons rather than solid blocks. The reed beds are cut when mature to encourage new growth, and are divided into four sections which can be separately drained. Wet grassland is kept short for breeding
wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...
s through grazing by cattle or
Konik The Konik or Polish Konik, pl, konik polski, is a Polish List of horse breeds, breed of pony. There are semi-feral populations in some regions. They are usually dun gene, mouse dun or primitive markings, striped dun in color. The Bilgoray, p ...
horses, and by mowing. Ditches are cleared in rotation, and islands are flooded in winter, if possible, to suppress vegetation. Surviving plants are then cut down, and the soil is rotavated to break up the hard clay and deter invasive New Zealand pygmyweed. As a man-made site, Old Moor has a complex water-management system that allows water levels to be controlled in separate compartments of the wetland. In general, water levels are kept high in winter, then lowered to expose the islands for breeding and passage waders. The Dearne Valley is one of 12
Nature Improvement Area Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs) are a network of large scale initiatives in the landscape of England to improve ecological connectivity and improve biodiversity. They were launched in 2012. At 2015 the NIAs covered 47,000 acres of England in total ...
s (NIAs) created as part of the UK Government's response to Sir John Lawton's 2010 report "Making Space for Nature", which proposed managing conservation on a landscape scale. Plans to manage the Dearne Valley on a landscape-wide basis involve coordination with other wetland reserves. Five smaller sites are already managed by the RSPB; these are Bolton Ings and Gypsy Marsh close to Old Moor, and Adwick Washlands, Wombwell Ings and Edderthorpe Flash within a few miles. Other reserves are the Garganey Trust's
Broomhill Flash Broomhill is a place name, and may refer to: __NOTOC__ In Canada *Broomhill, Manitoba, a community in Albert Rural Municipality In England *Broomhill, Frome Vale, a district near Fishponds in north Bristol *Broom Hill, Bristol, sometimes writte ...
and the
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is a charitable non-governmental organisation, one of the UK's 46 county-based Wildlife Trusts. It's focus is nature conservation and it works to achieve a nature-rich Yorkshire with healthy and resilient ecosystems ...
's (YWT)
Denaby Ings Denaby Ings are a nature reserve on the River Dearne, encompassing an area of 23 hectares north of Denaby Main, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, near the town of Mexborough. The Trans Pennine Trail passes here. The habitats include open water, water me ...
. The YWT also manages Barnsley council-owned Carlton Marsh, and the Environment Agency is restoring marshes at Houghton Washland. Other parcels of land are being acquired by the various conservation charities as they become available. The Dearne Valley reserves have no statutory protection, but as of 2019, the process to become a
Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...
(SSSI) is under way.


Fauna and flora


Birds

Since the 1990s the RSPB has been attempting to create improved habitats for the formerly endangered UK bittern population, with major reed bed creation at their
Ham Wall Ham Wall is an English wetland National Nature Reserve (NNR) west of Glastonbury on the Somerset Levels. It is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Since the last Ice Age, decomposing plants in the marshes of the ...
and Lakenheath Fen reserves being a key part of the bittern recovery programme initiated in 1994 as part of the
United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plan The United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plan or (UK BAP) was the UK government's response to the Convention on Biological Diversity, opened for signature at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The UK was the first country to produce a national Biodiversi ...
. At Old Moor, in addition to the creation of new reed beds, 23,000 small fish were introduced between 2010 and 2016, mainly of species such as
rudd ''Scardinius'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae commonly called rudds. Locally, the name "rudd" without any further qualifiers is also used for individual species, particularly the common rudd (''S. erythrophthalmus''). Th ...
and
eels Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...
that are preferred as food by bitterns. This project increased the fish
biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...
more than twenty-fold to . Breeding waders include
lapwings Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, wailing cry. A gro ...
, redshanks,
snipe A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/camouflaging plumage. The ''Gallinago'' snipes have a near ...
and
avocets The four species of avocets are a genus, ''Recurvirostra'', of waders in the same avian family as the stilts. The genus name comes from Latin , 'curved backwards' and , 'bill'. The common name is thought to derive from the Italian ( Ferrarese) ...
, the last species having bred on the reserve since 2011. Predation of wader chicks by
foxes Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
has been a problem, so deep ditches and electric fences are being introduced to exclude mammals.
Black-headed gull The black-headed gull (''Chroicocephalus ridibundus'') is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but some birds res ...
numbers have increased from 183 breeding pairs in 2006 to 2,385 pairs in 2017, and have been joined by
Mediterranean gull The Mediterranean gull (''Ichthyaetus melanocephalus'') is a small gull. The scientific name is from Ancient Greek. The genus ''Ichthyaetus'' is from ''ikhthus'', "fish", and ''aetos'', "eagle", and the specific ''melanocephalus'' is from ''mel ...
s, eight being present in 2018. Old Moor is an important wintering site for golden plovers, although numbers have dropped from 6,000–8,000 to 2,000–3,000 in about twenty years. Passerine birds include a small colony of tree sparrows, currently stable at about ten pairs, and good numbers of
willow tit The willow tit (''Poecile montanus'') is a passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and across the Palearctic. The plumage is grey-brown and off-white w ...
s. Willow tits are in steep decline in the UK, disappearing completely from many areas, but numbers are increasing in the Dearne Valley, particularly at Old Moor, where a breeding density of 6.7 territories per square km (17.4 territories per square mile) was the highest in the locality. The post-industrial landscaping and planting in the area have created a suitable habitat for the species containing
willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...
,
alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...
and clumps of
bramble A bramble is any rough, tangled, prickly shrub, usually in the genus ''Rubus'', which grows blackberries, raspberries, or dewberries. "Bramble" is also used to describe other prickly shrubs, such as roses (''Rosa'' species). The fruits inclu ...
close to water and linked by linear features such as railways, canals and streams.
Cetti's warbler Cetti's warbler (''Cettia cetti'') is a small, brown bush-warbler which breeds in southern and central Europe, northwest Africa and the east Palearctic as far as Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. The sexes are alike. The bird is named after ...
and
bearded tit The bearded reedling (''Panurus biarmicus'') is a small, sexually dimorphic reed-bed passerine bird. It is frequently known as the bearded tit, due to some similarities to the long-tailed tit, or the bearded parrotbill. It is the only species in ...
have recently colonised the reserve, and up to three pairs of
barn owl The barn owl (''Tyto alba'') is the most widely distributed species of owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all species of birds, being found almost everywhere except for the polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himalaya ...
s breed there. A calling male
little bittern The little bittern or common little bittern (''Ixobrychus minutus'') is a wading bird in the heron family, Ardeidae. ''Ixobrychus'' is from Ancient Greek ''ixias'', a reed-like plant and ''brukhomai'', to bellow, and ''minutus'' is Latin for "sm ...
summered in 2015 and 2016, and appeared for a few days in 2017. Other recent rarities include a Baird's sandpiper in 2016, a
thrush nightingale The thrush nightingale (''Luscinia luscinia''), also known as the sprosser, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscic ...
and
gull-billed tern The gull-billed tern (''Gelochelidon nilotica''), formerly ''Sterna nilotica'', is a tern in the family Laridae. It is widely distributed and breeds in scattered localities in Europe, Asia, northwest Africa, and the Americas. The Australian gull ...
in 2015, and a
black stork The black stork (''Ciconia nigra'') is a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. Measuring on average from beak tip to end of tail with a wingspan, t ...
in 2014.


Other animals and plants

Lesser noctule The lesser noctule, Leisler's bat or the Irish bat (''Nyctalus leisleri''), is a species of insectivorous bat belonging to the vesper bat family, Vespertilionidae. The species was named to honour the naturalist Johann Philipp Achilles Leisler ...
bats and water voles figure among the scarcer mammals found on the reserve, and
otters Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes wea ...
have returned to the now-clean rivers. Other mammal species targeted for monitoring during the creation process include the brown hare and the
pipistrelle ''Pipistrellus'' is a genus of bats in the family Vespertilionidae and subfamily Vespertilioninae. The name of the genus is derived from the Italian language, Italian word , meaning "bat" (from Latin "bird of evening, bat"). The size of the ge ...
. The alder leaf beetle, formerly believed extinct in the UK, has colonised the Dearne and other local river catchments, probably introduced when the pollution-tolerant
Italian alder ''Alnus cordata'', the Italian alder, is a tree or shrub species belonging to the family Betulaceae, and native to the southern Apennine Mountains (Campania, Basilicata and Calabria, mainly on western mountain sides) and the north-eastern moun ...
was planted on restored land. Other uncommon insects found at Old Moor include the great silver water beetle, the
longhorn beetle The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns, are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than ...
'' Pyrrhidium sanguineum'', the
dingy skipper The Dingy Skipper (''Erynnis tages'') is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. Description ''Erynnis tages'' is different from other skippers because of the predominantly monochrome, gray-brown wing coloration and the marbling, which is only ...
butterfly, and a day-flying moth, the six-belted clearwing. Nationally scarce
nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...
moths include the cream-bordered green pea and chocolate-tip, while the
red-eyed damselfly ''Erythromma najas'', the red-eyed damselfly, is a member of the Coenagrionidae family of damselfly, damselflies. Appearance The species is a small damselfly, long, predominantly black with iridescent blue markings. The male resembles blue-tai ...
and red-veined and black darters are notable among the
Odonata Odonata is an order of flying insects that includes the dragonflies and damselflies. Members of the group first appeared during the Triassic, though members of their total group, Odonatoptera, first appeared in Late Carboniferous. The two comm ...
. Several rare
flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...
have been recorded, including three species, '' Parochthiphila coronata'', '' Calamoncosis aspistylina'' and ''
Neoascia interrupta ''Neoascia interrupta'' is a species of hoverfly in the family Syrphidae. Distribution France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, ov ...
'', otherwise known in the UK only from a few sites in the
East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
n fenland. An unusual plant
gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants, fungi, or animals. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to be ...
found on creeping bent was caused by the
nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...
'' Subanguina graminophila''. Scarce plants include yellow vetchling and hairy bird's-foot trefoil. Marsh orchids flower in grassy areas in the summer, and the same species, along with the
bee orchid Bee orchid is a common name for several orchids and may refer to: *'' Cottonia peduncularis'', a species of orchid from India and Sri Lanka *'' Diuris carinata'', a species of orchid from the south-west of Western Australia *'' Ida barringtoniae'', ...
, has colonised the verges of the adjacent Manvers Way. Other scarce plants found in the area include
hairlike pondweed ''Potamogeton trichoides'' is a species of aquatic plant known by the common name hairlike pondweed, native to Europe and western Asia where it grows in calcareous, usually nutrient-rich standing or slow-flowing water. Description Hairlike pondw ...
, pond water-crowfoot and greater pond sedge.


Threats and opportunities

The Dearne Valley is a natural
washland Washland or washes are areas of land adjacent to rivers which are deliberately flooded at times when the rivers are high, to avoid flooding in residential or important agricultural areas. They often provide for overwintering wildfowl, and severa ...
with a capacity of , and as such it can normally absorb overflow from its river. The floods of 2007 overwhelmed the storage capacity and covered the whole of Old Moor to hide-roof level, only the visitor centre being untouched. In the longer term, the reserve might be adversely affected by
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
, perhaps leading to alterations in the populations of woodland species.King (2014) p. 15. More positive effects may arise as the local environment improves, with habitat creation occurring beyond the reserve and better accessibility.King (2014) pp. 61–62.King (2014) pp. 141–143. A survey by the DVLP showed that 44% of respondents said that they liked to visit the local wildlife reserves, with another 17% mentioning waterways and lakes. When asked what they liked about the Dearne Valley area, 35% of replies said nature and wildlife.King (2014) p. 65. The success of Old Moor has led to the creation of similar RSPB reserves close to urban areas at
Rainham Marshes Rainham may refer to: *Rainham, Kent, Medway, England **Rainham railway station (Kent) *Rainham, London, London Borough of Havering, England **Rainham railway station (London) Rainham railway station is on the London, Tilbury and Southend line, ...
east of London,
Newport Wetlands Newport Wetlands is a wildlife reserve covering parts of Uskmouth, Nash, Newport, Nash and Goldcliff, in the south-east of the city of Newport, Wales, Newport, South Wales. History The reserve was established in 2000 to mitigate losses of wil ...
in
South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...
, and RSPB Saltholme on
Teesside Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...
.


References


Cited texts

* * *


External links


Official site
{{featured article Constructed wetlands Old Moor RSPB visitor centres in England Tourist attractions in Barnsley Nature reserves in South Yorkshire Wetlands of England