Wildlife

What you can see at our locations

• Birds - over 100 species. Wildfowl – for which our reserves are of world importance - include wigeon, teal, pintail, mallard, greylag goose, brent goose. Our waders include the beautiful avocet, the evocative oystercatcher and redshank, black-tailed and bar-tailed godwits, grey and golden plover, knot and the haunting calls of the curlew. The area is rich in birds of prey such as kestrel, marsh harrier, hen harrier, peregrine falcon, hobby, sparrowhawk, barn owl and merlin.
• Mammals – ranging from badgers, rabbits, hares and water voles, to harvest mice, bats and seals.
• Marsh frogs, newts and grass snakes are among the amphibians and reptiles that populate the area.
• Fish such as wild carp, pike hunting rudd, three- and ten-spined stickleback, the grey mullet, and common eel.
• Insects such as dragonflies, damsel flies butterflies, moths, beetles, spiders, grasshoppers and crickets.
• Flowers and plants are in their hundreds, and include rare fresh marsh, saltmarsh and upland communities.

Wildlife photos: Byron Taylor

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