Promising signs on the Pevensey Levels
Charlie Peverett
Digital Communications Lead
Breeding Lapwings are among the wildlife taking to the newest blue spaces on our Pevensey Levels nature reserve.
Just a few months ago, much of the site was a giant swirl of bare mud and tyre tracks.
A huge programme of earthworks, funded by £600,000 from the Network for Nature project, had just been completed during one of the wettest autumns on record in Sussex. The plan was to create extensive new wetland habitats in an area that has become progressively drier and poorer for wildlife in recent years.
Wintering birds such as Teal and Wigeon began to use this area soon after work was complete. The question remained: would this new landscape hold water into the summer?
After an exceptionally dry spring, the results are promising.
The new scrapes and wiggly ditches are wet, and lush green growth has surged around them. At the water’s edges, big patches of soft mud have endured despite the lack of rain.
That mud, and the cover afforded by the grass and rushes, is key to the success of Lapwings, which have successfully raised young.
Small Lapwing chicks were photographed early in May. Then during a visit with local farmers at the end of May, two well-grown young birds were seen beside one of the pools.
On the same day, the group counted at least 10 adult birds in the area too, with the potential for more to have been hidden out of sight.
To put this in context, in 2022, only 23 pairs of nesting Lapwings were recorded across the entire Pevensey Levels. This is an area of 3,500 hectares, of which the Sussex Wildlife Trust reserve comprises just 140 hectares, around 4%.
The new wetland areas are also being used by summering Little Egrets, Shelduck and Teal, while a pair of migratory Little Ringed Plovers visited earlier in the spring.
“It was a game of ‘wait and see’ when the diggers left before Christmas,” said Charlotte Pestell, Nature Recovery Officer at Sussex Wildlife Trust.
“It’s very exciting to see all this water still here, but now so much greenery too, and lots of species making use of it already.”
The project is part of a wider collaboration with local farmers, creating new habitats across other landholdings on the Levels. Work has also been carried out to extend a reedbed near Wartling, as well as to create new wetland near Hankham.
Comments
This is wonderful news and so early on in the project. I think this will become an even more important habitat than anyone ever imagined. As Chris Packham would say, ‘great stuff’!!
12 Jun 2025 10:38:00
It’s looking like a brilliant result so far. £600,00 well spent, so well done to all involved.
Tony Vass, Eastbourne & District Local RSPB Group
12 Jun 2025 10:39:00
Oh I’m so pleased to read this. Many years ago I lived at the margin of the Levels at Downash and lapwings were frequent visitors. I had fears then that the then projected sewage works would badly effect the local ecology. Now inspired to visit.
12 Jun 2025 10:40:00
Thanks for the update Charlie. Great news. All the hard work is paying off.
12 Jun 2025 10:52:00
Excellent news all round!
12 Jun 2025 10:58:00
This is wonderful news and hopefully we shall see an increase in birdlife over the years. Thank you to all those involved in the project
12 Jun 2025 11:10:00
Really pleased to read about this. Excellent news!
12 Jun 2025 11:16:00
You must feel that this is such a promising start; thank you for sharing this with us as part of what I hope will be programme of reasonably regular updates in the future among us who feel strongly that the wetland environment has so much to say to us ….good to see the farmers too being able to assess things for themselves.
12 Jun 2025 11:20:00
It’s so wonderful to hear good news for a change! Money well spent. Congratulations to everyone involved in this project!
12 Jun 2025 11:27:00
This is really heartwarming to read. I live in Oxfordshire and I have no
prospect of getting to the Levels again but for years my late wife and I were regular visitors to Sussex and Pett and the district around for the birding opportunities. I am 87 now but I like to keep an interest via the Sussex Wildlife site and I am thrilled with this success. At least I can imagine.
12 Jun 2025 11:42:00
Sussex Wildlife Trust:
Thank you for your kind comment, we will keep posting updates as this project develops.
Thankyou for more space for wildlife, I can only imagine what it would look like if all 3500 hectares were returned to nature…
Will definately be visiting! 🙂
12 Jun 2025 12:26:00
What an absolute delight. I was born and bred in Eastbourne and can remember going to Pevensey Marshes with my dad when I was growing up ……mushrooming , picking sloes, blackberries, wild damsons, apples So many wild flowers and birds for company as well.I am 83 this year and would love to be hands on helping all you wonderful ,caring souls fighting the good fight as it were. Thank you so very very much. Val Harden , Brighton.
12 Jun 2025 13:02:00
Fantastic work.
12 Jun 2025 13:46:00
Looks and sounds fab! the ‘wait and see’ after the diggers left really remind me of what Lee Schofield said about restoring the meanders to Swindale Beck – the weekend after their diggers left, there was a weekend of torrential rain and they had no idea how it would work out (it worked perfectly, supercharged the rewilding). Thanks to all the supportive landowners, I know change is hard but this is so valuable.
12 Jun 2025 15:34:00
Such hopeful news lovely to hear when there is so much doom and gloom about. I will watch with interest.
12 Jun 2025 15:43:00
Delighted to read Lapwing breedings at at Pevensey Level, well done, a good start, congratulations to all who are involved in this project.
12 Jun 2025 17:15:00
I am so happy to know that there are people like you are working to save our wildlife.
12 Jun 2025 17:59:00
I would love to see more wildlife on my marsh fields, but have been told that I cannot interfere with what is there!!
12 Jun 2025 18:21:00
Thrilled at the sitings at Pevensey Levels and cant wait for the opportunity to visit them or view by arrangement with a local farmer – I do realise the birds need time to become established!
12 Jun 2025 19:00:00
Such good news, when we all could do with it! It’s great to see habitat being created to encourage wildlife, instead of being taken away. I’m proud to be z member of Sussex Wildlife Trust.🙂
12 Jun 2025 21:12:00
This looks to have been a very successful project.
13 Jun 2025 11:14:00
A very promising and exciting start. Please keep us posted. I am going to forward on to a friend.
15 Jun 2025 12:31:00
Wonderful so many birds, particularly Lapwing, coming to find their new wetland habitat, so very needed.Congratulations to all involved in the wetlands restoration project! Great to watch your webinar about it all, Charlie; and also to hear farmer Martin Hole talking passionately about the wilding of his farmland, along with the other farmers in the cluster, on a beautiful and sunny day in May during a group walk across the levels – stunning field of orchids!
17 Jun 2025 22:58:00
What fantastic news!! Well done to everyone who has worked on this incredible project!! Thankyou.
18 Jun 2025 10:32:00
This looks great! When is it open to the public! When can we come and look please? Thank you.
02 Aug 2025 08:45:00
Fascinating stuff. I moved down here 5 years ago from Cheltenham where I volunteered for a few years with Severn Hams Group. A major achievement for us was attracting both Avocets and Little Ringed Plovers to breed on an island on one of our scrapes, and where they both raised chicks. However, the entire Severn floodplain was drying out rapidly through May and the water levels in the scrape dropped lower and lower so unsure if breeding succeeded. Rare Little Ringed Plovers are far more abundant here than Cheltenham so every chance breeding COULD succeed. Under lessons learned the key is to maybe go a metre or so deeper surrounding the islands in the scrapes to best secure a defensive moat throughout the breeding season!
20 Jan 2026 14:07:00