Fen Management Handbook - Scottish Natural Heritage

Waders e.g.
Lapwing
Redshank
Curlew
Common
Snipe
Black-tailed
Godwit
Short-eared
Owl
Long-eared
Owl
Vanellus
vanellus
Tringa totanus
Numenius
arguata
Gallinago
gallinago
Limosa limosa
All year
Greater
numbers in the
non-breeding
season
UKBAP
UKBAP
Sch 1;
Sch1(NI);
UKBAP
Asio flammeus All year Ann 1;
Sch1(NI)
Grazed or cut fen in floodplain
Outside the breeding season typically
frequents open wet ground such as watermeadows,
washes, marshy edges of
waterbodies. Breed in wet grasslands e.g.
flood meadows where grazing and/or hay
cutting means the vegetation is relatively
short at the beginning of the breeding season.
Common Snipe will use taller fen and marsh
particularly outside the breeding season.
Grazed or cut fen in floodplain
Occurs in this habitat outside the breeding
season hunting for small mammals over
unflooded areas where grazing or cutting
means that the vegetation is short.
Asio otus All year Sch1(NI) High marsh and carr
Nests in taller scrub and trees hunting
small mammals in the breeding season and
switching to roosting birds in the winter.
Kingfisher Alcedo atthis All year Ann 1; Sch
1; Sch1(NI)
Cetti’s
Warbler
Savi’s
Warbler
Vegetated margins of open water bodies
Require relatively shallow and slow-moving
freshwater, with abundant small fish
population on which to feed, and vertical
banks of fairly soft material where they can
excavate their nesting burrows.
Cettia cetti All year Sch 1 High marsh and carr
Reedbeds and mixed fen swamp
Typically associated with tangled low woody
and mixed vegetation such as young willow
or alder carr. Habitat often flanks water. The
species shows a preference for vegetation
that is providing cover over exposed bare
mud and suitable for foraging, than that which
emerges from water. Where areas of reedbed
are inhabited, the species prefers those areas
with some scrub.
Locustella
luscinioides
Reed Warbler Acrocephalus
scirpaceus
Sedge
Warbler
Aquatic
Warbler
Acrocephalus
choenobaenus
Acrocephalus
paludicola
Apr-Sep Sch 1;
UKBAP
Reedbeds and mixed fen swamp
Occurs in larger, wet reedbeds adjoining
sedge beds.
Apr-Sep Sch1(NI) Reedbeds and mixed fen swamp
Favours breeding within stands of reeds that
may be small in area. This includes stands of
reed fringing waterbodies or in narrow lines
along ditches. Breeding and passage birds
regularly forage in other vegetation adjacent
to reedbeds, such as scrub and carr.
Apr-Sep Mixed fen swamp
Typically breeds in low dense vegetation,
usually avoiding reedbeds in standing water
and the presence of trees and tall bushes.
Aug-Sep Ann 1;
UKBAP
Reedbeds and mixed fen swamp
Occurs in south and west England on autumn
passage and on some sites particularly
favours Schoenoplectus dominated areas.
281