FEBRUARY is known as "February Fill Dyke", and this year has proved to be no exception as rivers are running bank high and in many places bursting over.

In times past, however, swollen rivers were allowed to flood, creating huge areas of water meadows.

It was a basic method of land and agricultural management. During the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries areas of open land that lay beside a river or stream often took on the role of a flood plain during the wet winter months.

Indeed the rising water was encouraged to inundate the low lying pastures, taking the pressure off the main watercourse and avoiding flooding further down river, where there might be better quality crop-growing land.

In the past the sight of thousands of acres of land under water would have gladdened the hearts of the people who needed the land to be in good heart during spring and summer to graze stock.

As well as carrying vast quantities of water, the floods also carried silt and plant nutrients that settled onto the fields, revitalising the soil and allowing the growth of fresh new grass and wild plants as fodder for cattle and as the raw material for hay production.

When water meadows were widespread, 90 per cent of day-to-day transport, particularly agricultural transport and machinery, was powered by horses, and hay was the fuel that drove this horse-based economy.

Flood meadows and the regular inundation of low-lying land was a necessity. A dry winter with no flooding would spell economic hardship for many in the countryside.

The plant communities found on wet meadows, particularly buttercups and the specialised meadowland grasses and sedges, are adapted to periodic submergence.

They simply shut up shop until the water level goes down and then begin to grow as fast as possible in the new invigorated nutrient-rich silt.

Mice and voles are often driven from their homes to seek higher ground, and it is a time of plenty for mouse and vole-hunting birds like barn owls and kestrels and the highly nocturnal tawny owl.

Little owls did not feature on the predator list in the British Isles until late in the 19th century when they were introduced from Europe by landowners for ornamental purposes.

On the face of it moles, as tunnelling creatures, would seem to be poorly adapted to thrive on land that is subject to regular flooding. Yet water meadows are among the most popular mole territories, because they are full of worms that live in the soft rich soil, and the moles' wide flat front paws, ideally suited for digging, are also quite useful for swimming.

If the "gentleman in the velvet waistcoat", the country name by which moles were once widely known, was caught out when the sluices were opened to flood a meadow, it was not too difficult for it to dig up and out of the tunnel and swim off to higher ground.

All the British native mammals can swim to a greater or lesser degree of success, including unlikely candidates such as hedgehogs. A hibernating hedgehog caught in a flood has the option of waking and escaping, or drowning, but these canny animals are adept at finding a safe place for their winter nap.

Now, just as in the past, flooded fields provide a safe feeding ground for waterfowl, including the ducks, geese and wild swans that flock to Britain every winter. And the Brent geese and widgeon that make their winter refuge in the Thames estuary and on the East Coast marshes and feed on salt marsh plants also thrive on the harvest of seeds and plants carried down river by flood waters.

Geese and swans are extremely mobile. A prolonged cold snap in Scandinavia, or on the continent in France, Germany and particularly Holland, will result in thousands of water birds appearing all over our region virtually overnight.

Just as suddenly, as the food supply dwindles under the pressure of so many dabbling and diving beaks, they will fly up and move off somewhere else.

Certain places, like the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's reserve at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, or the immense flood relief washes east of Cambridge, managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, have a policy of feeding the wildfowl that visit each year, building up a regular clientele.

I love the sight and sound of wildfowl.

I began birdwatching as a teenager at Barn Elms Reservoirs, now the site of the London Wetland Centre (a WWT reserve), and the excitement of watching and listening for wildfowl has never left me.

These birds need the floods that cause so much human misery and damage.

And an in-depth survey needs to be carried out into how we manage floodplains.

There is a great deal of data from the past that shows, quite clearly, that they are not suitable for building houses on. Why is it so difficult for housing planners to see the obvious?

If you're interested, the following organisations can provide details about where and when to watch wildfowl in Britain: - The Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, Slimbridge, Gloucestershire (01453) 890333.

- The Wetlands Centre at Barn Elms (8409) 4400.

- The RSPB at Sandy, Beds (01767) 680551.