Mid-Yare NNR is a National Nature Reserve

National Nature Reserve

For details of National nature reserves in the United Kingdom see:*National Nature Reserves in England*National Nature Reserves in Northern Ireland*National Nature Reserves in Scotland*National Nature Reserves in Wales...

 in Norfolk, east of Norwich, established by English Nature

English Nature

English Nature was the United Kingdom government agency that promoted the conservation of wildlife, geology and wild places throughout England between 1990 and 2006...

 and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Bird Notes and News was first published in April 1903.The title changed to 'Bird Notes' in 1947. In the 1950s, there were four copies per year . Each volume covered two years, spread over three calendar years...

 (RSPB). In RSPB publications, this reserve is known as Strumpshaw Fen

Strumpshaw Fen

Strumpshaw Fen is a fen on the River Yare in Norfolk, England, between Brundall and Cantley.Much of the area is RSPB Strumpshaw Fen, a nature reserve in the care of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds....

.

The reserve consists of floodplains along the River Yare

River Yare

The River Yare is a river in the English county of Norfolk. In its lower reaches the river connects with the navigable waterways of The Broads....

, and the total area is 7.8 km². It centres around the Strumpshaw

Strumpshaw

Strumpshaw is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, on the River Yare in Norfolk, England, within The Broads National Park.It covers an area of and had a population of 602 in 245 households as of the 2001 census....

 area.

The alder

Alder

Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...

 carr and willow

Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...

 carr support the Swallowtail Butterfly

Old World Swallowtail

The Old World Swallowtail is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. The butterfly is also known as the Common Yellow Swallowtail or simply the Swallowtail...

 and the Norfolk hawker

Norfolk Hawker

Aeshna isoceles is a small hawker dragonfly that is found in Europe, mostly around the Mediterranean, and the lowlands of North Africa. Its common name in English is Green-eyed Hawker. In Britain it is a rare and local species and is known as the Norfolk Hawker...

 dragonfly

Dragonfly

A dragonfly is a winged insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera . It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body...

 Aeshna isosceles, as well as Marsh Harrier

Marsh harrier

The marsh harriers are birds of prey of the harrier subfamily. They are medium-sized raptors and the largest and broadest-winged harriers. Most of them are associated with marshland and dense reedbeds...

s, Bearded Tit

Bearded Tit

The Bearded Reedling is a peculiar small passerine bird. It is also frequently known as the Bearded Tit due to some similarities to Long-tailed Tits, or Bearded Parrotbill since it was later placed with these after it was removed from the true tits in the family Paridae...

s and most of the country's Cetti's Warbler

Cetti's Warbler

Cetti's Warbler , Cettia cetti, is an Old World warbler which breeds in Europe, northwest Africa and east southern temperate Asia as far as Afghanistan and NW Pakistan. It is the only bush warbler to occur outside Asia...

s.

The wet grasslands hold internationally important numbers of wigeon

Wigeon

The Eurasian Wigeon, also known as Widgeon or Eurasian Widgeon is one of three species of wigeon in the dabbling duck genus Anas. It is common and widespread within its range...

, nationally important numbers of European White-fronted Goose

White-fronted Goose

The Greater White-fronted Goose is a species of goose. The Greater White-fronted Goose is more closely related to the smaller Lesser White-fronted Goose...

, and Britain's largest flock of Bean Goose

Bean Goose

The Bean Goose is a medium to large goose breeding in northern Europe and Asia. It was split into two species by the American Ornithologists' Union in 2007, however it is still regarded as a single species by the British Ornithologists' Union – see below...

, as well as Northern Lapwing

Northern Lapwing

The Northern Lapwing , also known as the Peewit, Green Plover or just Lapwing, is a bird in the plover family. It is common through temperate Eurasia....

, Common Redshank

Common Redshank

The Common Redshank or simply Redshank is an Eurasian wader in the large family Scolopacidae.- Description and systematics :...

 and Common Snipe

Common Snipe

The Common Snipe is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World. The breeding habitat is marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout northern Europe and northern Asia...

.

The RSPB controls the water levels, maintains the dykes, cuts the reed bed

Reed bed

Reed beds are natural habitats found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions andestuaries. Reed beds are part of a succession from young reed colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground...

s and keeps disturbance of the wildlife to a minimum.