An Anchor In The Fens

In order to locate this Anchor you need to head towards the village of Sutton-In-The-Isle, then turn off a street with the unlikely name of The America and trundle down Bury Lane. Here you will find The Anchor, a traditional pub which nowadays, I believe, also operates as a cafe and guesthouse. Last time I passed this way the place had closed down, but it appears to have been rescued.

The building dates from the seventeenth century, when it was constructed to house workers who were digging the New Bedford River, which was part of the scheme to drain the Fens. We can set off on our walk southwards along the top of the flood bank that those men built, alongside the river.

Over most of its length this man-made river follows a ruler-straight line, but here it's forced to curve around the slightly higher land which is the most westerly edge of the Isle Of Ely. The lands over the other side of the waterway are the Ouse Washes, a large area which is allowed to flood in times of high rainfall. The road beyond The Anchor is often under water in winter.

The depth of the floodwaters on the Washes varies from place to place and at the moment the "Goldilocks" area, where the birds agree that everything is "just perfect", is right here. The birds were mostly too distant for the camera, however the 'scope revealed a few hundred Black-Tailed Godwits and Wigeon, as well as half-a-dozen Great White Egrets, one of which is just visible in the photo above.

 

Over on the arable fields on our left there was a large flock of Whooper Swans (only part of which is shown here). Sorry about the rather misty picture but that's how conditions were, though I hope it gives you some idea of the Fens in winter. Have pity on the poor bird-watcher who has to scan through the entire flock, trying to find the rarer Bewick's Swans, which are only slightly smaller and have less yellow on their beaks. There weren't any! 

Above is a fine example of a Fenland footbridge - no wonder that in times past the fenmen used to prefer to vault across the drains and ditches on long poles!

We'll now wander back to where our car's parked, near The Anchor, have a cup of hot chocolate, then walk northwards along the floodbank.

As long as it's not too muddy, which it wasn't, the floodbank makes for excellent walking - dead flat, no need for a map and raised up enough to see over the surrounding countryside. And plenty of excuses to stop to look for birds - whether they're there or not!

A long, narrow pit beneath the floodbank is used for fishing and the "scarecrow" you can see is, I imagine, an attempt to keep Herons from stealing the fish. The fishing platforms look to me to be both unnecessary and unsafe.

The Washes here appeared to us to be exactly the same as those we'd seen earlier, but not to the birds, who shunned these soggy meadows as being distinctly inferior.

The path brought us to Mepal Gault Hole (they have such a poetic turn of phrase in the fens) where the local clay (or gault) was dug for making bricks and perhaps for re-enforcing the floodbanks. It can also be good for birds and Les spotted an overwintering Chiffchaff, which vanished before I could find it, probably because a Marsh Harrier appeared overhead.

We carried on as far as Mepal before turning back.

Another view of the reeds at the Gault Hole. I just can't resist photographing reeds in winter.

A quick roll-call of "poetic" place-names in the vicinity of Sutton Gault: Tubb's Drove, The Gullet, Between Ditches Drove, Foulmire Fen, Cradge Bank, Hundred Foot Drain and Grunty Fen. Only relieved by Jolly Bankers Bridge, the "bankers" in this case being the hard-working labourers who built the floodbank, not the posh boys from the City of London.

Someone asked recently whether I carried the big tripods and telescopes so adored by proper birdwatchers. The answer is no, just binoculars, and the small 'scope and cheap monopod that Les is using above. I think he'd just found a Grey Wagtail.

And here we are, as if by magic, back at The Anchor. No, we didn't go in as it showed no sign of being open and, besides, we still had some of that hot chocolate left in the flask.

Take care.