How do you view the countryside?

Barry Yates
, 10 September 2016
How do you view the countryside?
Rye Harbour saltmarsh

Is it the beauty of the countryside that appeals to you, or the patterns, or the plants, or animals, or the tranquility?

In 2005 the Environment Agency constructed a new sea defence at Rye Harbour and this enabled the re-creation of saltmarsh habitat in 2011. Since then we have documented the changes from an arable field, back to a rich and diverse community of plants and animals. This is how we view this little piece of Sussex...

Beauty – is best demonstrated by the superb aerial images taken from a drone. Have you seen the video on our webpage ?

Patterns – the saltmarsh plants grow in zones that are dictated by subtle differences in ground level and in Autumn their leaves go through colour changes much like trees. This creates intricate patterns.

Animals – after the sea was let in the mud was soon colonised by Corophium shrimps – 10,000 per square metre in the channels - and also lots of ragworms, all providing a feast for many wading birds. The sea also brings in many young fish and prawns that attract little egrets (photo), kingfishers, cormorants and a regular spoonbill. Monitoring of invertebrates has found some very rare species, most noteworthy was the first record in the UK of the beetle Euaesthetus superlatus - read this blog about it.

Plants – from bare mud to mature saltmarsh will take a few more years, but all of the flowers found in the old saltmarsh along the river Rother have now established in the new area. To follow the progress of the habitat we identify the plants growing at thousands of pre-determined points along a 700m. transect in September and the results for this year are just in...

Tranquility – the character of the saltmarsh changes through the year. In Spring the soundscape is dominated by redshank and lapwing and in Winter there can be thousands of golden plover. For most of the year it's home to curlew (photo) and their evocative calls fill the early mornings.

So, this exciting habitat re-creation project carried out by the Environment Agency with guidance from the Sussex Wildlife Trust team at Rye Harbour has re-created the saltmarsh habitat that was there until 65 years ago. It is now attractive countryside with many specialised plants and animals, some are quite rare. It has all the wildlife designations possible including the international wetland Ramsar. This new habitat is visited and seen by hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. I often wonder how they view it?

There is a snapshot of their views captured on TripAdvisor , but what's your view?

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