Sponsored by
Flying visitors splash down at widlife oasis
It's been voted top by bird watchers. But Tophill Low is also a big hit with families, as Roger Ratcliffe reports.
Watch nest-cam footage of Tophill Low's family of spotted flycatchers
THE British Trust of Ornithology has awarded Tophill Low the title of Best Large Wetland site in the country. It's not hard to understand the appeal of it to people and wildlife alike.
There are miles of virtually nothing else but bare fields in this part of East Yorkshire, and then there's this oasis of woods and scrubland, marshes and reservoirs. If you were a bird flying overhead on migration, you'd know there just had to be a meal waiting for you at Tophill Low.
The 300-acre site – centred on a water-treatment works and pumping station – is also prized by naturalists and people looking for a good day out. And since the owners, Yorkshire Water, appointed a warden and opened its gates to the general public, there have been thousands
of visitors.
It is, says warden Richard Hampshire, an exciting time for the reserve. Conservation efforts are starting to pay off, not just for birds but also other forms of wildlife, among them otters, water voles, grass snakes, great-crested newts, damsel and dragonflies, bats, butterflies, moths and orchids.
Tophill Low was opened in 1959 to extract water from
the River Hull – the most northerly chalk river in England as well as one of the cleanest – and pump it to the kitchen taps of Hull, some 20 miles to the south.
A small village grew up at Tophill to accommodate first the construction workers and their families, then the waterworks employees who kept the pumps and filter beds running round the clock. They even had their own village hall and cricket club.
Today, the pumping station is automated and run mostly from an office in Bradford. The hall has been transformed into a wildlife centre for visitors, and the erstwhile cricket pitch is a bird-feeding station, wildflower meadow and pond.
Visitors can look out on a rather tame water rail creeping out of a swampy area to eat food that has fallen
from the feeders. There are also nesting moorhens, woodcock and great spotted woodpeckers. Spotted flycatchers are in a nesting box high on one of the gables, and comings-and-goings are monitored by a CCTV camera connected to a screen inside the centre.
However, the most powerful magnets of all for both birds and people are two large storage reservoirs and several areas of marsh and lagoon.
Their appeal changes with the seasons. In autumn and winter, the reservoirs host an estimated 45,000 gulls – mostly common gulls. They also draw one of most charismatic migratory ducks, the smew, which is one of Tophill's signature species in cold weather.
The lagoons are also busy between September to April, supporting thousands of migratory wading birds and being especially famous for green sandpipers. Then
there are the frequent sightings of rarities, birds like Slavonian grebes, and last year's celebrated visit by an Amur falcon.
This bird is normally found in the Far East and was originally dismissed by many Top Gun twitchers as its European cousin, the red-footed falcon, until someone realised the bird was moulting. By then it was too late for most twitchers, who found they
had missed the chance of the first-ever UK sighting of an Amur falcon.
Although exotic species are always fascinating, the real story of Tophill Low is the work that's being done to improve the various kinds of habitat or, in some cases, create new ones.
In the two years since he became warden, Richard Hampshire has overseen the re-profiling of some of the wetland to make breeding conditions more ideal for the new nesting colony of common terns that has been established, and for a small number of breeding little ringed plovers.
"The common terns are particularly interesting," says Richard. "A couple of years ago, with all the Hull floods, these marshes went under water and the chicks that had just hatched out actually ended up floating about. Some of our volunteer wardens put out some wooden pallets for them to jump onto.
"When the young birds leave here, they go down to the coast of West Africa for a couple of years and then return to their breeding site. This year we reckon we've got at least one pair that survived the flooding with our help."
Giving nature a helping hand is one of Tophill's major functions. The original treatment works, now disused, support numerous pairs of nesting swallows because the windows have been left open to give them access. There's an artificial sand martin colony – a large box with nesting holes to simulate a riverbank.
There is a new kingfisher nesting box, designed to be out of reach for predatory mink, which, when it becomes occupied, will be wired up by CCTV to the Wildlife Centre. Another camera may be put in a man-made otter hole.
And all over the reserve you see rectangles of tarpaulin and piles of hay among the vegetation to provide cover for grass snakes.
Better access paths and improved observation facilities, including a new 20,000 hide, have been put in as the place is discovered by more and more people.
"When funds allow, we're hoping for a new visitor centre overlooking one of the reservoirs," Richard says. "And more open days like the one we had at the May Bank Holiday.
"But the wildlife obviously comes first. Thankfully, there are a lot of trees and other natural barriers to leave nature undisturbed. It's amazing how quiet the place can feel even when it's busy."
Tophill Low Nature Reserve
Tophill Low Nature Reserve is off the A164 Beverley-Driffield Road, just south of Watton. Follow the signs along an unclassified road for four miles to the water-pumping station.
Signposts then direct you to the reserve, normally closed Mondays and Tuesdays, but open on Bank Holiday Mondays (opening times 9am-6pm).
Day pass 2.50 for adults, 1 for concessions.
Keep to the trail paths. Do not look over the reservoir walls as
this will disturb birds. Use the
12 viewing hides.
Further information from.yorkshirewater.com and
click on the "Leisure Time" link to Tophill Low pages.
For wildlife updates, also see Valley Wildlife Group's website at www.hullvalleywildlife group.org.uk
Email to a friend
Print this page- Leeds lose Ward to Palace: Is there anyone they can afford now?
- Sheffield Wednesday leaving it late to hijack Leeds United over Ward
- As Snodgrass dithers over Leeds, Warnock throws a lifeline
- Ball is in Leeds United’s court over contract - Snodgrass
- Police turning blind eye to Asian voter fraud, says MP
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
