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Wildlife along the Haddiscoe New Cut
The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads is a unique area of water, grazing marshes, fen and woodland, and home to some of the rarest plants and creatures in the UK. It is Britain's largest protected wetland, having similar status to a national park.
The Broads is more than a collection of important sites and species. The different landscapes, land-use, habitats, and the wildlife they support make up an internationally renowned wetland ecosystem.
In winter at Haddiscoe, the bleak, cold marshes here become feeding grounds for hundreds of waders and wildfowl. Listen and look out for lapwing, golden plover and snipe pecking for food in the shallow, flooded areas. Bewick's and mute swans, herons and widgeon can also be seen. And in the spring, the marshes provide nest sites for many species including redshank and oystercatcher. If you're lucky you may even see a marsh harrier or a short-eared owl swooping low over the marshes seatching for voles and shrews.
In terms of flora there are a whole host of species, including hemp agrimony, rare varieties of orchids and the more common yellow flag.
Reed and sedge-beds are a very important habitat for all kinds of wildlife. Rare birds like marsh hariers and bitterns nest in the reed-beds as well as birds like reed buntings and bearded tits. Reed-beds are full of all kinds of plants and insects too. Haddiscoe New Cut is a haven for wildlife, some of which no longer exists anywhere else in the UK, as in the example of the swallowtail butterfly and the norfolk hawker dragonfly.
Aquatic plants play a vital role in this freshwater system. Water soldier, holly-leaved naiad, waterlilies, hornwort and bladderwort are just a few species that flourish in the open water of the broads.
However of major concern are the murky waters which have led to the extinction of many plants and animals in this area and which is now a focal point for local and national conservation groups.
