Titchwell Marsh, Norfolk photo: Laurence Rose For the past two years I have been privileged to work in one of the great wetland areas of the UK - the stunning North Norfolk Coast. During my time working with RSPB colleagues based at the Snettisham and Titchwell nature reserves I have witnessed the greatest tidal surge in living memory, marveled at spectacular flights of massed waders and geese, been excited by the appearance of rare visitors, and delighted in the commonplace.
Despite thirty years in a wide variety of conservation roles, from fundraising to international advocacy, I had never worked at the sharp end, on the ground. So I jumped at the opportunity to be seconded to work at two of our top wetland nature reserves.
World Wetlands Day, on 2 February each year, unites all such places around the world. It is a reminder that wetlands are among the most beautiful, vital and threatened places. My secondment comes to an end in two months’ time and I have been reflecting on a host of memories. I have a favourite, and it’s a simple one that could easily have passed me by on any other day:
Despite thirty years in a wide variety of conservation roles, from fundraising to international advocacy, I had never worked at the sharp end, on the ground. So I jumped at the opportunity to be seconded to work at two of our top wetland nature reserves.
World Wetlands Day, on 2 February each year, unites all such places around the world. It is a reminder that wetlands are among the most beautiful, vital and threatened places. My secondment comes to an end in two months’ time and I have been reflecting on a host of memories. I have a favourite, and it’s a simple one that could easily have passed me by on any other day:
 photo: Jim Almond http://shropshirebirder.co.uk/ | All experience of nature is about content and context. Rarely would a gull be the headline act in the Infinite Variety Show, even if it is the world’s daintiest. But it will have been the smooth light of the first after-work walk of spring; the sense of emergence that this always brings. This would have made me stop to study closely how this swallow-gull would play the faintest breeze to gain advantage over the dizzy midges, and to make a feast of them. |
A month later, the air over Titchwell was again the stage for a balletic battle, but this one an epic contest between two perfectly matched protagonists:
Hobby pursuing swift at #RSPBTitchwell utterly relentless, merciless, battle between supreme athletes. Hobby looking favourite into clouds
— Laurence Rose (@Laurence_R_RSPB) May 6, 2014 Norfolk Miniatures
| To mark my departure from Norfolk I have been writing a cycle of nine piano miniatures. None is much longer than a minute, and they will be for players of varying abilities. For World Wetlands Day I am releasing the first, Reflected Sky. This is a computer rendition using sampled sound. Get in touch if you'd like a copy of the sheet music. The remaining pieces, all responses to moments spent in the company of nature in Norfolk, will be ready in March. They include a piece that tries to capture the rolling, puppetic rhythm of that little gull's flight, and one that surges and crashes like the tide on the night of 5 December 2013. For a celebration of more of the world's great wetlands, click here. | |
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