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Stanground wash

The tip of Cambridgeshire’s second major flood defence the Nene washes, home to many rare insects and birds.

Cut off from the rest of the washes by a busy railway line and enclosed by parallel floodbanks this reserve has its own distinctive habitat. The network of deep and shallow ditches host many locally and nationally rare beetles. The sandy railway embankment even has a few species you would normally only find on the brecks, possibly introduced with imported sand when the railway was built.

Along the southern margin of the reserve the Back River contains nationally scarce plants such as fringed water-lily and grass-wrack pondweed. The site is very good for birds, so sit awhile with your binoculars and you might be lucky enough to hear snipe, redshank and sandpipers, and catch a glimpse of a peregrine as it stirs the alarmed waders into a pulsating airborne flock.

Birds: Waders

Birds: Waders

Plants: Fringed water-lily, grass-wrack pondweed Insects: Dragonflies

Birds: Redshank, snipe, sandpipers