Reedbed reboot leads to rare raptor return - NatureScot

A four-year project to restore the special reedbed habitat at NatureScot’s Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve (NNR) has been hailed a success with the return of marsh harriers to the site.

Reserve staff have been working to improve and expand seven hectares of reedbed in the hope of encouraging the birds to breed.

Marsh harriers, once very rare, are now recovering across the UK but remain a scarce breeding bird in Scotland, with reedbeds their favoured habitat.

In the summer of 2019, a pair of birds attempted to breed at Caerlaverock NNR but their nest failed. Staff set out to understand how the site could be improved to help the birds to return and breed successfully.

Visits to other breeding sites as well as vegetation and hydrology surveys suggested that the key to success would be to raise the water table, cut the old reeds to allow room for fresh reeds to grow, create open areas of water and increase the length of reedbed edge habitat.

Staff have worked on one quarter of the reedbed each year to maintain the habitat for species during the project, checking the impact after each stage. An excavator was used to dig out sections of old reed and create open water areas, while ongoing management of the pools and reed growth is carried out by hand using scythes.