The hide looks over the new extension to the nature reserve, and was kindly funded by member of the public in memory of her brother, Dennis Wood, who died 2nd October 1942 when the Queen Mary hit HMS Curacoa and sank it, with the loss of 337 men. Mr Wood’s sister, Margaret, is a long-standing life member of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and a regular visitor to the reserve, and was keen to give Dennis a space to be remembered back in East Yorkshire where he grew up.
The celebration day will showcase the very best of the Trust’s nature reserve, with activities for families as well as long-term wildlife watchers. Guided walks with wildlife experts will give visitors a chance to spot some of the reserve’s most exciting wildlife, which recently has included the rare black-crowned night heron, an osprey, and butterflies, moths and dragonflies galore.
Smaller wildlife adventurers can enjoy pond dipping and mini-beasting around the reserve’s beautiful dragonfly ponds, and there will also be staff on-hand to help ID any species finds as part of a reserve bioblitz logged on iNaturalist. There will also be a stand talking about how you can use technology to identify and monitor your local wildlife.
North Cave Wetlands reserve manager Tony Martin, says, “North Cave Wetlands is a very important and locally-beloved nature reserve, a fantastic example of a 21st century nature reserve for people and wildlife. The reserve has up to 2% of the national breeding population of avocets, one of Yorkshire’s biggest sand martin colonies, and up to 2,000 pairs of black-headed gulls, a nationally significant number.
We are absolutely delighted to be able to open The Dennis Wood Hide in memory of an East Yorkshire war hero. It provides a wonderful place for visitors to experience the wetland at its best, and offers a beautiful view over the water. We hope visitors will enjoy all of the wildlife-spotting opportunities the new hide will bring, and the chance to put the reserve and our experts through their paces as part of the celebration day.”
The soon-to-be-opened reserve extension at North Cave Wetlands which the hide looks over is eagerly anticipated by the growing number of regular wildlife watchers that visit the site as the next phase in the site’s steady growth and change from quarry to nature reserve.
It has been designed to provide breeding habitat for rare and endangered ground nesting birds such as avocet and little ringed plover through controllable water levels, which can be managed to flood and expose islands of bare shingle as needed. New areas of reedbed nursery have also been created to allow for further future expansion and provide habitat for other important wetland-dwelling wildlife.
The habitat has been created by Breedon Ltd following completion of sand and gravel quarrying, with work carried out by contractors SH Plant to a design by Biodiversity Advanced Ltd, and reflects the overarching success of the entire reserve in transforming a post-industrial landscape into one managed for wildlife. The relationship with Breedon is ongoing and will see further extensions to the reserve in the years ahead.
The celebration day runs from 10am to 4pm. All events are free and spaces can be booked on the day.