Meden Vale Bottoms

Walk May 9 2005 – led by Andy Lowe

Although I only live a short distance away in Warsop, I am ashamed to say I had never explored this beautiful place before. The village of Meden Vale is not instantly attractive and only a small area of the proposed Local Nature Reserve is visible from the road. It is, however, in all the guide books used by birds and invertebrates. I anticipate they give it a 4 star rating.

The Meden river runs through the site. It is delightful. In 1995 it was a grade C river, but it is now grade A. It supports fish, kingfisher and water vole as well as invertebrates. The closure of the pits and the sewage works has led to the improvements in water quality. There are far fewer phosphates in the water now. There is a healthy level of weed in the river and we all saw a water vole move from bank to bank.

This is a wetland habitat and the plan is to enhance this and restore a larger area of wetland. There are already ponds and flat areas that are particularly attractive to winter birds such as teal, water rail, redpoll, siskin and gadwall. In the past there have been reed bunting on the site and it is hoped they can be encouraged to return.

We heard many birds including mistle and song thrush, robin, wren, stock dove, pheasant, green finch, chaffinch and chiff chaff. We saw swifts, heron, coot and their chicks, swan and mallard.

There was the familiar odour of ransoms as we walked along. We also saw figwort, meadow sweet, buttercup, colts foot, field mustard, red campion, herb Robert, hops, cuckoo flower and the wonderfully named veronica beccabunga!

Apparently the area is very well supported by the local Friends Group who are excellent fund raisers. We wish them every success in restoring this area and maintaining it in the future. We will return in the winter, if not before, to see the birds who visit.

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