Netherfield Lagoons
by Peter Smith
Netherfield (or Stoke Bardolph) Lagoons are all that remains of a
large industrial site. Over the years the area was used for railway
sidings, with allotments, gravel extraction and depositing coal mining
waste. The nearby land, belonging to Severn Trent Water, has been used
as a legendary sewage farm and to spread slurry. What was once a broad
open area of several acres of grassland with pools is now condensed to
around three acres with three pools and about an acre of grass and
scrub. The former haunts of Whooper and Bewick Swans and lemuring
Short-eared Owls are now covered by industrial units, warehouses and
supermarkets. What is left is full of interesting natural history but
is a pale reflection of what was once there.
The site can be reached from the Colwick Loop Road, by taking the road to the Victoria Retail Park and parking in Morrison's car park. Access to the site has changed in recent years. See below for new access details. The site consists of a large, full, slurry tank, the deep pit, which was due to be filled the same as the slurry tank and a large and a small fishing pit. Beyond these is a small area of grassland and scrub. The whole area is bounded by the River Trent to the South, a railway embankment to the West, the Ouse Dyke to the North and tall hawthorn hedge and agricultural land to the East.
The first slurry lagoon is a forbidding, open, grey area, permanently flooded at one end. It looks very uninviting but is actually very attractive to waders, gulls, ducks and corvids. Most of these birds use the area to roost, including a winter roost of around 100 Carrion Crows that sleep on the ground with the Lapwings and Golden Plovers. During passage times a wide range of waders pay usually all too brief visits and Whinchats and Wheatears are regularly seen along the bank tops and fence posts. There are reed beds around the water of the slurry pit and around the deep pit that hold good populations of Reed and Sedge Warblers with Water Rail in the winter. Along the outside of the bank to the North of the Slurry Lagoon are large colonies of Marsh and Spotted Orchids and there are a few more Spotted Orchids inside the Deep Pit. A colony of about fifty Bee Orchids is along the outside bank of the Deep Pit, opposite the railway embankment. The Deep Pit is the preferred breeding site with most of the Anatidae, including Gadwall and Ruddy Duck although most of them then take their offspring up onto the Slurry Lagoon to rear them.
The Slurry Lagoon and Deep Pit are divided by a causeway but combine to make them the main exposed area of the site. Below them are the more sheltered Fishing Pits and their surrounding areas of grass and scrub. This area is often the winter haunt of Short-eared Owl and Stonechat and in summer reeling Grasshopper Warblers can be heard and it is alive with dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies. To date fifteen species of dragonflies and damselflies, and twenty-four species of butterflies have been identified.
The Railway Embankment is also an important wildlife asset being covered with dense scrub with several tall trees and is beloved by Sylvia warblers. There are plenty of Rabbits in this area and so Foxes and Weasels are regularly seen with occasional Stoats and, unfortunately, Mink. The mammal count is up to nineteen species but Water Vole and hare seem to have recently declined and Water Shrew and Harvest Mouse have only recently been discovered. The tall hawthorn hedges around the site are another asset, providing shelter for many species of passerine as well as roosting Long-eared and Little Owls.
For most visitors to the site it is the flocks of birds on the Slurry Pit that provide the main spectacle. When a Peregrine tries to snatch a Golden Plover from the flock the whole place erupts with 2,000 or more birds exploding into the sky. Gulls, Golden Plovers and Lapwings perform breathtaking aerial manoeuvres as they try to get above the falcon and escape. The other obvious attraction of the site to birders is its ability to keep coming up with rarities, such as divers, Bittern, Crane, Avocet, Stone-curlew, Dotterel, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Grey Phalarope, Arctic Skua, Iceland Gull, Glaucous Gull, White-winged Black Tern, Richard's Pipit, Marsh Warbler, Great Reed Warbler and Twite. The bird list currently stands at 201 species, since 1990, with sixty-two species breeding
The site currently belongs to R.J.Budge who are reported to be reclaiming it for public use, the work being done in a way to enhance its value to wildlife, before turning it over to Gedling Borough Council. GBC have earmarked it as a nature reserve in the local plan and intend to manage it in conjunction with local wildlife groups and a fishing club. Eventualy it is hoped the site will be given Local Nature Reserve status. With this aim in mind the Netherfield Wildlife Group has been formed and we intend to keep the pressure on Budge and the Council until this objective has been met. Our membership currently stands at around sixty and we would very much like to double this number.
If you are at all interested in the Netherfield Lagoons and would like to help our cause please contact the Netherfield Wildlife Group, c/o Phil Burnham, 57 Tilford Road, Newstead Village, Nottingham, NG15 OBW
New access details
by Derek Huskisson
Since Pete wrote this article, British Car Auctions in their mission of covering the world in asphalt, have blocked off the original access path via Mallard Road, and also have covered over one of the orchid sites. The present access is via Teal Close, which is the left turn at the island. Proceed almost to the end of Teal Close and then turn right into the unsignposted, but allweather surfaced path along the side of the Ouse Dyke, cross over the footbridge and enter the site. The path is shown marked in red . Some limited car parking is available on Teal Close.
An alternative way in is via the Colwick Industrial Park and driving to the end of Road No 4, and walking down the path to the River Trent, turning left, under the railway bridge and entering the site from the south-west.
