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Roswell Pits, Ely Common, the Great Ouse flood meadows, and Ely Beet Pits together
support a fantastic array of wildlife: |
- the reedbeds are home to breeding marsh harriers – majestic emblems of the Fens
that narrowly avoided extinction last century. At least five
birds now regularly use this area.
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- the area is the most consistent site in Cambridgeshire for the bittern - nearly driven
extinct just ten years ago, and still one of Britain’s rarest birds. Between them, the Beet Pits and Roswell support two territorial males.
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- even otters now regularly visit the biggest pit at Roswell, as well as the Beet
Pits. Their return has been associated with the disappearance of American mink,
and the resurgence of water voles in the area.
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- rare snipe breed on the meadows, while barn owls patrol at dusk, hunting for voles.
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- more common but no less spectacular, Roswell is among the best places in England
for seeing kingfishers.
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Most remarkably, all of this wildlife flourishes only a mile or so from the cathedral,
and right alongside hundreds of people who visit the area every week - to walk,
sail, fish, and simply to relax and enjoy being in nature.
But now a new, much more
intrusive activity
looks set to destroy this extraordinary example of sustainable coexistence.
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