A real gem for wildlife and for visitors, too. Spend time in one of the four hides, looking out at the ducks and swans on the haugh, or take a walk through the woods.
If you're lucky you may even see a kingfisher or an otter on the river. Experience the spectacle of the tens of thousands of wintering ducks, geese and swans that visit the estuary and surrounding grazing marshes. In spring, the marshes are filled with the atmospheric calls of lapwings and redshanks. Bowers Marsh is an ancient landscape alive with the sights and sounds of wildlife.
Now, after careful restoration, it's ready and waiting for you to explore and enjoy. It boasts a range of wildlife habitats from ancient hedgerows, species-rich wildflower meadows and native woodlands, to pond and scrapes, reedbeds and islands.
This is a beautiful place for a quiet woodland walk. You can take a stroll along dappled paths through beech, ash and oak trees. In springtime you can enjoy a carpet of sweet scented bluebells and there is also a flourishing meadow. This is a delightful oak woodland to walk through - especially in spring and early summer when lots of migrating birds come to breed at the reserve.
Stroll down a shell-white beach, marvel at the summer colour as the flowers bloom along the sand dunes, and keep your eyes peeled for the most elusive of birds - the corncrake.
Just five miles from Exeter city centre, Exminster and Powderham Marshes are great places to see birds all year-round. You can enjoy lovely walks here in this fascinating landscape. This complex of lakes and traditional riverside meadows next to the River Great Ouse used to be gravel workings. It is a fantastic place to explore and watch birds with huge numbers of ducks, swans and geese on the lakes in winter.
Portmore Lough is a great day out at any time of year. In summer, the hay meadows attract a bewildering variety of insects, while in the winter greylag geese, whooper swans and thousands of ducks can be seen from the hide. In a quiet corner of Suffolk, we have transformed an overgrown, forgotten garden into our first dedicated wildlife garden. Why not pay a visit and be inspired to garden for wildlife in your own garden! The reedbeds and pools here are fed by natural chalk springs, and a chalk stream runs through the reserve.
Special birds include kingfishers, water rails, and nine species of warblers, including sedge, reed and grasshopper warblers. In cold winters, as many as 18, birds have been seen here, because this most south westerly estuary in the UK never freezes. During spring and autumn, it is an ideal place to see migrant wading birds, gulls and terns. There's always plenty to see at Loch Gruinart.
In autumn, thousands of white-fronted and barnacle geese arrive from Greenland. When they leave in spring, wading birds take centre stage. On the southeast shores of Loch Lomond, the site has a remarkable mix of habitats. Spring here is an especially good time to visit as you can wander along the trails looking for pied flycatchers, redstarts and species of tits around the nestboxes. There are hawfinches and all three British woodpeckers in the woods.
Nigg Bay is an extensive area of mudflat, saltmarsh and wet grassland on the Cromarty Firth. Visit any time between October and March and you're sure to see countless wading birds, such as bar-tailed godwits and knots.
One of the finest areas of floodplain meadows in the UK, with large numbers of breeding wading birds including snipe and black-tailed godwits. There's so much to see and hear at Minsmere: splendid woodland, wetland and coastal scenery, rare birds breeding and calling in on their migrations, shy wildlife like otters, the 'booming' of bitterns in spring, beautiful bugs and flowers. There's something for everyone all year round at this delightful coastal reserve. In the spring you can see brown hares boxing in the fields, while in the early summer you'll spot nesting birds like avocets and lapwings.
In the heart of the Fens, the Ouse Washes forms the largest area of washland grazing pasture that floods in the winter in the UK. The reserve attracts thousands of ducks and swans in winter, and in spring, hundreds of breeding waders.
Set in the heart of beautiful countryside, this reserve is a fantastic day out for people of all ages. Walks lead through hedge-lined paths to viewing areas and hides where volunteers are often on hand to help point out the wildlife. We acquired Rainham Marshes in and set about transforming it into a great place for nature and people.
You can expect to see breeding wading birds in spring and summer, and large flocks of wild ducks in winter. For a great family trip, visit this delightful wetland reserve beside the River Lee. Rye Meads is a favourite with walkers, birdwatchers and photographers too. Walk round the reedbeds, woodlands and orchid-rich meadows and you could chance upon marsh harriers, bitterns and kingfishers. Come in spring and summer when the meadows bloom with flowers, and see an array of dragonflies and butterflies.
The nature reserve here opened in The woodland, heath and acid grassland along the Greensand Ridge are being restored to form the largest stretch of heathland in Bedfordshire. Restoration commonly occurs via fire, grazing, tillage plus herbicide applications for multiple years. Mowing, seeding and planting. What should you consider for planning a grassland restoration?
What data do you need to have? How do you set your goals for restoration? What general monitoring protocol are used for grasslands Links to monitoring guides and procedure documents. We asked George Peterken, renowned ecologist and author of Meadows , the definitive guide, to give us his view of what a meadow is.
To the farmer it seemed to me that meadows were traditionally grasslands that were mown in order to make hay, which was stored dry for use as fodder in winter. As such they contrasted with pastures, which were grasslands that were not mown, but available for grazing at any time of the year. Grass was mown and the hay was taken away in high summer, after which meadows were usually grazed, so that sharp distinction tended to vanish by autumn: meadows could still be distinguished, though, because their sward remained smooth, whereas the true pastures remained slightly tussocky because, for example, cattle avoid grazing round cowpats.
The line between meadows and pasture blurred further over the years, for any field could be mown one year, but not the next, and then mown again in the following year. A meadow was thus not necessarily an enduring land type, like a wood, but a moveable feast, though many grasslands — notably those growing on floodplains — were permanent and customarily treated as meadows every year for centuries.
Technically, these are still meadows, but they are uniform swards with few flowers, quite unlike traditional meadows. To the biologist , in contrast, a meadow is a grassland where the plants are allowed to grow, flower and set seed in spring and summer because it is not grazed then. This broadens the definition, because grasslands that are not mown, but grazed only from high summer onwards are also effectively meadows. Biologically, they are not quite the same as hay-meadows, but one way or another, they all remain free of trees and have many species in common with hay-meadows.
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