Rodley Nature Reserve

Last updated October 03, 2019

The Rodley Nature Reserve is a wetland reserve created in 1999 on the site of a former sewage works on the outskirts of Rodley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. It is situated just north of Town Street on the north bank of the River Aire.

Rodley is a suburb in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England. The village is situated within the Bramley and Stanningley ward of Leeds Metropolitan Council, just inside the Leeds Outer Ring Road, 5 miles (8.0 km) north-west from Leeds city centre and 4 miles (6.4 km) north-east from Bradford. The hamlet of Bagley borders Rodley.

The River Aire is a major river in Yorkshire, England, 148 kilometres (92 mi) in length. The Handbook for Leeds and Airedale (1890) notes that the distance from Malham to Howden is 58 miles (93 km) direct, but the river's meanderings extend that to 90 miles (140 km). Between Malham Tarn and Airmyn, the river drops 400 metres (1,300 ft). Part of the river below Leeds is canalised, and is known as the Aire and Calder Navigation.

History

In 1992 Yorkshire Water proposed that the site of a former sewage works be used as a nature reserve. Discussion with local wildlife groups followed and the idea was approved. After several years of planning and fund-raising, the reserve was created in 1999 and opened by Michael Meacher, Minister of State for the Environment, the following year.^[1] Between 2004 and 2006, five ponds were established to provide habitat for dragonflies, each one planted with different native species of plant. A further developmental stage from 2007 to 2009 added four more ponds, a long ditch, a marsh and several areas of open water.^[2]

Yorkshire Water water supply and treatment utility company in England, United Kingdom

Yorkshire Water is a water supply and treatment utility company servicing West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, part of North Lincolnshire, most of North Yorkshire and part of Derbyshire, in England. The company has its origins in the Yorkshire Water Authority, one of ten regional water authorities created by the Water Act 1973, and privatised under the terms of the Water Act 1989, when Yorkshire Water plc, the parent company of the Yorkshire Water business, was floated on the London Stock Exchange. The parent company was Kelda Group in 1999. In February 2008, Kelda Group was bought by a consortium of infrastructure funds.

Michael Hugh Meacher was a British academic and Labour Party politician. Before entering politics, he was a lecturer in social administration at the University of Essex and the University of York. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 until his death, for Oldham West and Oldham West and Royton.

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions was a United Kingdom Cabinet position created in 1997, with responsibility for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). The position and department were created for John Prescott by merging the positions and responsibilities of the Secretary of State for Environment, the Secretary of State for Transport and some other functions.

Habitat

The reserve is on a migratory route used by waders and waterfowl. The site floods in the winter and provides good habitat for these birds, augmenting that provided by the River Aire and by the nearby Leeds and Liverpool Canal, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Apart from the water features, woodland, grassland and scrub are present in the reserve.^[3]

Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by humans, and is driven primarily by availability of food. It occurs mainly in the northern hemisphere, where birds are funneled on to specific routes by natural barriers such as the Mediterranean Sea or the Caribbean Sea.

Waders are birds commonly found along shorelines and mudflats that wade in order to forage for food in the mud or sand. They are called shorebirds in North America, where the term "wader" is used to refer to long-legged wading birds such as storks and herons. Waders are members of the order Charadriiformes, which includes gulls, auks and their allies.

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool.

Fauna

Frogs, toads and newts breed in the reserve, and fifteen species of dragonfly have been recorded, many of which breed there.^[2] Birds that can be seen at any time of year include little grebe, tufted duck, gadwall, shoveler, kingfisher, dipper, oystercatcher, lapwing and common tern. Winter visitors include snipe, water rail, pochard, wigeon, teal and common merganser. Smaller species seen in the summer or all year round include linnet, reed bunting, greenfinch, bullfinch, chiffchaff, willow warbler, garden warbler, grey wagtail, blackcap, common whitethroat and song thrush.^[4]

The common frog, also known as the European common frog, European common brown frog, or European grass frog, is a semi-aquatic amphibian of the family Ranidae, found throughout much of Europe as far north as Scandinavia and as far east as the Urals, except for most of Iberia, southern Italy, and the southern Balkans. The farthest west it can be found is Ireland, where it has long been thought, erroneously, to be an entirely introduced species. It is also found in Asia, and eastward to Japan.

The common toad, European toad, or in Anglophone parts of Europe, simply the toad, is an amphibian found throughout most of Europe, in the western part of North Asia, and in a small portion of Northwest Africa. It is one of a group of closely related animals that are descended from a common ancestral line of toads and which form a species complex. The toad is an inconspicuous animal as it usually lies hidden during the day. It becomes active at dusk and spends the night hunting for the invertebrates on which it feeds. It moves with a slow, ungainly walk or short jumps, and has greyish-brown skin covered with wart-like lumps.

A newt is a salamander in the subfamily Pleurodelinae. The terrestrial juvenile phase is called an eft. Unlike other members of the family Salamandridae, newts are semiaquatic, alternating between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Not all aquatic salamanders are considered newts, however. More than 100 known species of newts are found in North America, Europe, North Africa and Asia. Newts metamorphose through three distinct developmental life stages: aquatic larva, terrestrial juvenile (eft), and adult. Adult newts have lizard-like bodies and return to the water every year to breed, otherwise living in humid, cover-rich land habitats.

Facilities

There is a carpark by the gate and a visitor centre in the centre, with disabled parking and toilets adjacent.^[4]

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References

↑ "In the beginning". Rodley Nature Reserve. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
1 2 Dr Peter Mill. "Rodley Nature Reserve, West Yorkshire". Conservation. British Dragonfly Society. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
↑ "Rodley Nature Reserve". Wildlife Extra. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
1 2 "Rodley Nature Reserve: Habitats and Species" . Retrieved 28 February 2015.

Coordinates: 53°49′19″N1°38′46″W / 53.822°N 1.6461°W / 53.822; -1.6461

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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[1] "In the beginning". Rodley Nature Reserve. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 28 February 2015.

[BDS-2] 1 2 Dr Peter Mill. "Rodley Nature Reserve, West Yorkshire". Conservation. British Dragonfly Society. Retrieved 28 February 2015.

[3] "Rodley Nature Reserve". Wildlife Extra. Retrieved 28 February 2015.

[RNR-4] 1 2 "Rodley Nature Reserve: Habitats and Species" . Retrieved 28 February 2015.