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Wetland Diaries: Ranger Life and Rewilding on Wicken Fen
'Ajay's passion for conservation and his encyclopaedic knowledge of Wicken Fen ooze out of every single page' - Iolo Williams
Tucked away in the flat lands of rural East Anglia lies Wicken Fen, so loved for its big skies and tiny creatures, boasting over 9,000 recorded species. For 125 years, this wildlife sanctuary has been cared for by the National Trust. A dedicated team look after this precious wetland of international importance, working with herds of free-roaming horses and cattle and weathering the elements to cope creatively with the dramas of a life outdoors at the cutting edge of conservation.
Wetland Diaries is a seasonal account of ranger life on Wicken Fen, saving a once widespread landscape and revealing the spectrum of emotions experienced in the process. Ajay shares the spirit and atmosphere of the Fens, offering an insight into the privileges and pressures of managing semi-wild animals in one of the country's first wetland restoration projects, creating precious breathing space for nature and people alike.
Tucked away in the flat lands of rural East Anglia lies Wicken Fen, so loved for its big skies and tiny creatures, boasting over 9,000 recorded species. For 125 years, this wildlife sanctuary has been cared for by the National Trust. A dedicated team look after this precious wetland of international importance, working with herds of free-roaming horses and cattle and weathering the elements to cope creatively with the dramas of a life outdoors at the cutting edge of conservation.
Wetland Diaries is a seasonal account of ranger life on Wicken Fen, saving a once widespread landscape and revealing the spectrum of emotions experienced in the process. Ajay shares the spirit and atmosphere of the Fens, offering an insight into the privileges and pressures of managing semi-wild animals in one of the country's first wetland restoration projects, creating precious breathing space for nature and people alike.
- GenresNature
366 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 2, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 15, 2024
An account of the life of ranger Ajay Tegala at Wicken Fen.
Now, I might be biased because I live quite close to Wicken Fen, this book has references to the Deeping area where I live and Ajay Tegala grew up in the next street along from my home, just beyond the small primary school, but I absolutely loved Wetland Diaries. It’s written with such honesty and compassion, mixed with humour and knowledge, so that I think I fell a little bit in love with the author and his dog Oakley.
Wetland Diaries is carefully illustrated with photographs, line drawings and an iterative cattle image. Initially I wished some of these aspects had been presented in colour but grew to understand that the black and white nature reflects to perfection the starkness of the landscape, the occasional harshness of life at Wicken Fen and the ethereal quality of fenland countryside. I went from a hesitancy about the images to feeling they were quite wonderful. I also thoroughly appreciated the bibliography and appendices as they add to the sense of authority and authenticity present throughout Wetland Diaries.
The text is smashing. The author’s first person tone is warm, accessible and conversational and Ajay Tegala incorporates everything from facts to the supernatural in a diffident, thoroughly engaging and often simultaneously poetic and pragmatic style. Reading Wetland Diaries feels as if the author is chatting personally with the reader, confiding all manner of things from the pressures of being part of the television Springwatch team to the potentially unsettling effect a phallic shaped Shiva Lingam stone might have on an unruly cockerel. Indeed, when chapter subheadings contain everything from a first day as a ranger through dung sampling to vasectomies there’s a real sense of the eclectic nature of Wetland Diaries.
And it is the natural world that glues this book together. There’s everything here from flora to fauna, climate change to animal husbandry, weather to walking, in a glorious celebration and appreciation of nature. It’s no exaggeration to say that reading Wetland Diaries has changed my life. Prior to this book, when asked where I come from I would usually reply, ‘Nowhere. Just flat, boring fenland.’ Now, I have an enlightened understanding of what a diverse and important area I live in. As Wicken Fen, the setting for the majority of the book, celebrates its 125th birthday, Ajay Tegala has written it a passionate love letter – but a love letter that encompasses and includes us all.
Wetland Diaries is a triumph. It’s engaging. It’s educational. It’s entertaining. It is also the kind of book that makes the reader feel as if the world has not gone to Hell in a handcart after all, but rather is filled with a varied and important natural world and wonderful people – like the author – who care about it. I found Wetland Diaries uplifting, hopeful, witty and warm. I loved it.
Now, I might be biased because I live quite close to Wicken Fen, this book has references to the Deeping area where I live and Ajay Tegala grew up in the next street along from my home, just beyond the small primary school, but I absolutely loved Wetland Diaries. It’s written with such honesty and compassion, mixed with humour and knowledge, so that I think I fell a little bit in love with the author and his dog Oakley.
Wetland Diaries is carefully illustrated with photographs, line drawings and an iterative cattle image. Initially I wished some of these aspects had been presented in colour but grew to understand that the black and white nature reflects to perfection the starkness of the landscape, the occasional harshness of life at Wicken Fen and the ethereal quality of fenland countryside. I went from a hesitancy about the images to feeling they were quite wonderful. I also thoroughly appreciated the bibliography and appendices as they add to the sense of authority and authenticity present throughout Wetland Diaries.
The text is smashing. The author’s first person tone is warm, accessible and conversational and Ajay Tegala incorporates everything from facts to the supernatural in a diffident, thoroughly engaging and often simultaneously poetic and pragmatic style. Reading Wetland Diaries feels as if the author is chatting personally with the reader, confiding all manner of things from the pressures of being part of the television Springwatch team to the potentially unsettling effect a phallic shaped Shiva Lingam stone might have on an unruly cockerel. Indeed, when chapter subheadings contain everything from a first day as a ranger through dung sampling to vasectomies there’s a real sense of the eclectic nature of Wetland Diaries.
And it is the natural world that glues this book together. There’s everything here from flora to fauna, climate change to animal husbandry, weather to walking, in a glorious celebration and appreciation of nature. It’s no exaggeration to say that reading Wetland Diaries has changed my life. Prior to this book, when asked where I come from I would usually reply, ‘Nowhere. Just flat, boring fenland.’ Now, I have an enlightened understanding of what a diverse and important area I live in. As Wicken Fen, the setting for the majority of the book, celebrates its 125th birthday, Ajay Tegala has written it a passionate love letter – but a love letter that encompasses and includes us all.
Wetland Diaries is a triumph. It’s engaging. It’s educational. It’s entertaining. It is also the kind of book that makes the reader feel as if the world has not gone to Hell in a handcart after all, but rather is filled with a varied and important natural world and wonderful people – like the author – who care about it. I found Wetland Diaries uplifting, hopeful, witty and warm. I loved it.
May 15, 2026
I bought this book to gain an insight to wetland/fen wildlife and management (relating to work). Whilst it was not overly technical, I did learn a lot, and Ajay’s stories were very warm and readable in bite-sized segments. You get a great impression of his passion and hard work.
June 6, 2025
This 2024 account of being a ranger on the ‘remote’ (7 miles from Ely and its famous cathedral, 14 miles from Cambridge) National Trust Wicken Fen nature reserve is quite simply awe-inspiring (well certainly for this nature-loving reader). Ajay Tegala (of mixed Indian-British parentage) is a very skilled writer and charts his two decades at the Fen – from a young 12(?) year old visitor, through a teenage volunteer to a paid ranger – with such a passion for nature that I found it irresistible. My specific passion is birds – amongst a general interest in all wildlife – and, at various points, I found Ajay’s detailed accounts of his work with the reserve’s cattle and horses (all of which he knows by name, of course!) to be a little excessive (too much repetition), even if some of the ‘maintenance’ practices are certainly of interest. Interspersed with these sections, however, are accounts of encounters with barn owls, marsh harriers, multifarious LBJs, as well as common cranes and white storks, which are a joy to read.
At various points, Ajay parallels the tale of his young teen experiencing for the first time nature at Wicken with his more ‘work-like’ (frequently back-breaking labour!) full-time job a decade later, providing an intriguing contrast between the two narratives. We also get much history, even mythology, associated with Wicken, which was purchased by the National Trust as far back as 1899(!), as well as being brought up to date with Ajay’s experience (bringing both financial and nature-related woes) of the recent COVID pandemic. Much is crammed into the book’s 240 pages and it is Ajay’s passion for nature which shines through every last page!
At various points, Ajay parallels the tale of his young teen experiencing for the first time nature at Wicken with his more ‘work-like’ (frequently back-breaking labour!) full-time job a decade later, providing an intriguing contrast between the two narratives. We also get much history, even mythology, associated with Wicken, which was purchased by the National Trust as far back as 1899(!), as well as being brought up to date with Ajay’s experience (bringing both financial and nature-related woes) of the recent COVID pandemic. Much is crammed into the book’s 240 pages and it is Ajay’s passion for nature which shines through every last page!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews