In the current (June 2009) edition of British Wildlife there is an article by Simon Wotton et al (Boom or bust - a sustainable future for reedbeds and Bitterns?) about conservation of bitterns and reedbeds. The authors spell out the state of the bittern in the UK, weigh up the danger of saline invasion of the Minsmere-Walberswick reedbeds and assess the impact of this on the UK bittern population. (In 2008 there were 41 booming bitterns across the UK, the highest number since the 1950s, but only 39 occupied nests, seven of them at Minsmere, making the Suffolk sites the ‘core nesting area’ in the UK - with only seven nests! The chance of a major storm surge, with tides 2.5 m above normal may be as high as 1 in 50 in any given year. Permanent saline incursion of existing sites, rendering them useless for bitterns, is a matter of ‘how soon’ rather than ‘if’). Reedbed creation/restoration is under way at a few sites e.g. Lakenheath, but these must be close to existing sites and a ten-year lead in time is needed to create a functioning bittern habitat. Many more are required.

      Wet reedbeds suitable for the bittern provide habitat that supports many other wetland species (water voles, a range of threatened moths, many invertebrate species, UK BAP priority species such as the harvest mouse, the European eel, great crested newts and so on). So creating new sites is a ‘win-win’ investment (it is also a government obligation under Annex 1 of the 1979 EU Birds Directive). The authors summarise by suggesting a way forward to meet the bittern and reedbed conservation challenge in a four-pronged effort. These are: audit and restore existing reedbeds; create new reedbeds near to the existing ones; protect existing sites in Suffolk as long as possible to provide colonisers for new sites; manage new and existing reedbeds to give the right mix of wet reed and open water.

      The above précis does not do justice to the mass of detail and argument of the original paper, which may in time prove to be a seminal study.

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      Just over a month ago the deadline for copy for White Admiral had passed and I had received only two items. In desperation I e-mailed my naturalist colleagues with a plea for material. Thank you all who came to the rescue – this newsletter is the result. There are some fine articles and it wouldn’t be fair to single out one as the best. As usual there is poetry. Some may think it a bit peripheral. However, we celebrate nature and Suffolk in a variety of ways in these pages: read them and see what you think...