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| Holderness |
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| Habitat: Reedbeds (of national significance) |
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Wetlands dominated by areas of common reed, where the water table is at, or above, ground level for most of the year.
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Despite their restricted nature, fens and reedswamps remain an important habitat in
Holderness. The main concentrations of these habitats are along the River Hull between Driffield and Wansford and at Pulfin Bog; along the Leven Canal; and around the fringes of Hornsea Mere. Other important examples are found at Kellythorpe and the Keld near Driffield and at Bryan Mills.
Hornsea Mere is now the largest natural lake in Yorkshire, some 120 hectares in size. Associated with the open water are marginal habitats of reedswamp, species-rich fen and carr woodland. With the loss of the once extensive wetlands of Holderness, the importance of the mere as a refuge for wildlife has increased accordingly. It now regularly supports populations of wintering wildfowl such as gadwall, goldeneye, pochard, shoveler and tufted duck, which
make it of both national and international significance. In recognition of this the Mere has
been designated an SSSI, and a Special Protection Area (SPA) under the EC Birds Directive.
The fringing habitats add to the diversity of birdlife and the reedbeds, for instance, provide breeding sites for hundreds of pairs of reed warblers, as well as roosting areas for large numbers of starlings and swallows. It is also a very important site for little gulls which congregate in large numbers in the autumn.
Reedswamps are also of entomological interest with a number of scarce craneflies, dance-flies, snail-killing flies and wainscot moths recorded here. The fringing reedswamp at Hornsea Mere has noticeable affinities with the East Anglian fens with such characteristic plants as milk parsley, greater water parsnip and lesser reedmace. A rare money spider recorded here, Entelecara omissa, is also a predominantly East Anglian species.
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