Spotlight on winter wildlife
- Lee Valley
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
With frosts in the air and leaves on the ground winter is a wonderful time to explore - see the park unmasked from it's foliage and the wildlife that make it their home for these months with our spotlight on the winter wildlife.
Winter wildlife and habitats
The wetland habitats of the Lee Valley are hugely important for waterbirds, designated on a local, national and international level. In winter numbers of waterbirds swell as migratory birds leave harsher climates to overwinter in the Lee Valley.
Tufted Duck
The resident population of Tufted Duck swell in winter as birds arrive from Iceland, Scandinavia and the Baltics to spend the winter in the Lee Valley – a journey of up to 1,200 miles. Tufted Ducks can live up to 14 years which means they could travel up to 33,600 miles in their life!
Bittern
The Wildlife Discovery Centre at Fishers Green is one of the best places in the country to see overwintering Bittern. A member of the heron family, Bittern are a buff-brown colour and superbly camouflaged against the winter reeds. Each evening they roost by grasping clumps of reed in their feet and climbing up to the top.
Join our Conservation Team in the Wildlife Discovery Centre for the Bittern Roost Watch event on Sunday 18 January 2026 - find out more > |
Barn Owl
Winter weather can make it more difficult for Barn Owls to catch their prey of small mammals; in particularly harsh winters they can face starvation. You may see them hunting on sites such as Cornmill Meadows or Gunpowder Park during the day as well as at dusk as they up their hunting frequency. We have installed Barn Owl boxes across many sites including Glen Faba, Ryegate Farm, River Lee Country Park and Walthamstow Marshes which are used as roosting and breeding sites.
Water Vole
The Lee Valley is a hotspot for Water Vole, Britain’s most endangered mammal. They live along the valley’s ditches, lakes and rivers, burrowing into banks and feasting on a wide range of wetland plants. Winter is the time that our Rangers work hard to improve the habitat for Water Voles, clearing sections of ditches that have become overgrown or removing trees and scrub that are starting to overshade the ditches. Water voles can be seen at Walthamstow Marshes, Silvermeade and Cornmill Meadows.
Redwing
As the weather turns colder the winter visitors start to arrive including Redwing, the UK’s smallest member of the thrush family. Over 700,000 flock into the country each year from their Scandinavian and Icelandic breeding grounds. They can form large flocks and are often seen alongside Fieldfare, another member of the thrush family. They love to feast on berries on trees and bushes. They have a white stripe over the eye and a red flash on their side and underwing – giving them their name.
Elms in the park
Despite widespread loss of English Elm in the 1970’s across the UK due to an aggressive strain of Dutch Elm disease, there are still Elms to be found in the park. Whilst there are a couple of mature Elms there are many more Elm hedgerows across sites such as Holyfield Hall Farm and Cornmill Meadows Tree Park. Elm trees, foodplant of the White Letter Hairstreak, seem to remain free of the disease until they reach about 10 – 15 years old but then the disease resurfaces and they slowly die off. In winter the dead Elms are cut back to the ground a section at a time to stimulate healthy regrowth.
Surveys
Dedicated volunteers count bird numbers on these wetland habitats as a part of the BTO’s Wetland Bird Survey. These surveys have been undertaken each month in the valley for the past 30 years and provide invaluable information about how key species use the lakes and help guide our management on a local level and understanding of birds on a national level. These counts take place across many sites in the Lee Valley including Glen Faba, Admirals Walk Lake, Middlesex Filter Beds and East India Dock Basin.
Site management
Invasive non-native species can cause many problems if they spread onto wildlife areas. Although invasive plants and animals can be spread by natural means such as on the feet of animals we need to be very careful that we don’t add to the problem so we have strict biosecurity procedures. This can include cleaning vehicles and footwear before entering, moving between and leaving site and careful treatment of cut material to make sure it doesn’t spread across or between sites.
Winter is a busy time for site management, with many species less active it is the perfect time to undertake routine maintenance such as pond management. Ponds offer a fantastic resource for a range of wildlife but left unmanaged natural succession would mean that they vegetate over and eventually dry up. We undertake rotational management on our ponds at sites such as Middlesex Filter Beds, WaterWorks Nature Reserve and Fishers Green, this can include vegetation removal by hand to maintain open water, undertaken by our dedicated volunteers. This year we have restored two ponds one at Fishers Green and one on Holyfield Hall Farm.
With the Common Terns safely back in the winter warmth of Africa after a summer spent in the Lee Valley, our Rangers will clean their nesting rafts on Seventy Acres Lake. The gravels where they lay their eggs in shallow scrapes are washed clean and piled in the middle of the raft, this helps prevent vegetation growing so that in spring they can be raked flat ready for the returning Terns. They have also nested on the island at Ponders End Lake. This year our Rangers will remove saplings that have grown, exposing the bare gravels ready for the Terns return in spring.
Britain’s Hedgehogs are in decline, so much that they are now classed as ‘vulnerable’. There are a number of factors that have contributed to their decline including loss and fragmentation of habitat which can mean that they struggle to find somewhere to hibernate. When our Rangers undertake tree and vegetation management they often use the cut material to create habitat piles, a perfect place for hedgehogs to hibernate. In some areas such as near the Lee Valley Ice Centre the Authority has installed some artificial hibernation homes to help provide more habitat.
