Walney Island in Cumbria, England - May 2012
www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/south-walney.html
The reserve is open daily from 10.00am - 5.00pm (4.00pm in winter).
Spring
Birds: courting eider duck, spring migrants, wheatear, willow warbler, sandwich tern
Plants: flowering thrift and sea campion,
Butterflies: common blue butterfly
Summer
Birds: gull and eider ducks, nesting oystercatcher and ringed plover.
Butterflies and moths: burnet moths and grayling butterfly.
Plants: Shingle flora including viper’s bugloss, yellow horned poppy and henbane. Flowering sea lavender, heartsease pansy.
Orchids: pyramidal orchid
Autumn
Birds: migratory birds including curlew snapper, spotted redshank, redstart, wheatear, and pink footed geese.
Plants: flowering sea lavender and sea aster.
Winter
Birds: High tide roost of wader and wildfowl including knot, dunlin, grey plover and oystercatcher. Barn owl and short-eared owl, pergrine and merlin twite, feeding on salt marsh.
All year
Birds: oystercatcher, large gull roosts/breeding colony. birds of prey
Mammals: grey seals at high tide
General: Amazing views across three counties and across the sea to the isle of man
Location
Walney Island, Barrow in Furness
Map reference
OS 1:50,000
Sheet No. 96
Grid reference SD 225 620
Size
130 hectares
Status
Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
Special Protection Area (SPA)
Access
Free admission for Wildlife Trust members. A small admission fee is payable by non-members. There are several waymarked trails on the reserve (Red trail 5km/3 miles, blue trail 3km/2 miles) No dogs are allowed on the reserve (except assistance dogs). The reserve has toilets and a number of birdwatching hides.
Directions
By car From Barrow in Furness follow signs for Walney Island. Cross Jubilee Bridge onto the Island and follow brown signs left at traffic lights, follow this road for about 1km/0.6 miles then turn left down Carr Lane. Pass Biggar Village and follow the road to the South End Caravan Site. Follow the road for a further kilometre until the reserve is reached.
By bicycle The reserve is 5km/ 3 miles from National Route 72 Walney to Wear.
By public transport Buses run from Barrow in Furness to Biggar.
Opening Times
Daily 10.0am - 5.00pm (4.00pm winter)
Overview
South Walney forms the southern tip of a shingle island lying at the end of the Furness Peninsula. During the medieval period it was farmed by the monks of Furness Abbey, whilst during the 19th and 20th centuries salt, sand and gravel were extracted leaving large lagoons and some industrial remains.
What to see
Every spring, large numbers of lesser black backed and herring gulls still return and begin to set up nest territories. Other breeding birds include eider duck, greater black backed gull, shelduck, oystercatcher, mallard, moorhen and coot. Of the 250 bird species recorded, most are passage migrants on their way to or from breeding grounds. These include common species such as wheatear, redstart, willow warbler and gold crest, as well as more unusual species, which may have been blown off their normal migration route. In winter, large numbers of waders and wildfowl feed and roost around the nature reserve both on the gravel pools and the intertidal areas. Vegetated shingle being a highly unusual habitat, and yellow horned poppy, sea campion and biting stonecrop grow on the single beaches.
Small areas of dune grassland survive with pyramidal orchid, Portland spurge, restharrow and wild pansy. The old gravel workings have developed their own communities with striking plants such as viper's bugloss, henbane and alkanet. Saltmarsh occurs in Lighthouse Bay with species such as thrift, glasswort and sea purslane.
Recent History
South Walney has been leased from Holker Estates since 1963.
Walney Island in Cumbria, England - May 2012
www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/south-walney.html
The reserve is open daily from 10.00am - 5.00pm (4.00pm in winter).
Spring
Birds: courting eider duck, spring migrants, wheatear, willow warbler, sandwich tern
Plants: flowering thrift and sea campion,
Butterflies: common blue butterfly
Summer
Birds: gull and eider ducks, nesting oystercatcher and ringed plover.
Butterflies and moths: burnet moths and grayling butterfly.
Plants: Shingle flora including viper’s bugloss, yellow horned poppy and henbane. Flowering sea lavender, heartsease pansy.
Orchids: pyramidal orchid
Autumn
Birds: migratory birds including curlew snapper, spotted redshank, redstart, wheatear, and pink footed geese.
Plants: flowering sea lavender and sea aster.
Winter
Birds: High tide roost of wader and wildfowl including knot, dunlin, grey plover and oystercatcher. Barn owl and short-eared owl, pergrine and merlin twite, feeding on salt marsh.
All year
Birds: oystercatcher, large gull roosts/breeding colony. birds of prey
Mammals: grey seals at high tide
General: Amazing views across three counties and across the sea to the isle of man
Location
Walney Island, Barrow in Furness
Map reference
OS 1:50,000
Sheet No. 96
Grid reference SD 225 620
Size
130 hectares
Status
Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
Special Protection Area (SPA)
Access
Free admission for Wildlife Trust members. A small admission fee is payable by non-members. There are several waymarked trails on the reserve (Red trail 5km/3 miles, blue trail 3km/2 miles) No dogs are allowed on the reserve (except assistance dogs). The reserve has toilets and a number of birdwatching hides.
Directions
By car From Barrow in Furness follow signs for Walney Island. Cross Jubilee Bridge onto the Island and follow brown signs left at traffic lights, follow this road for about 1km/0.6 miles then turn left down Carr Lane. Pass Biggar Village and follow the road to the South End Caravan Site. Follow the road for a further kilometre until the reserve is reached.
By bicycle The reserve is 5km/ 3 miles from National Route 72 Walney to Wear.
By public transport Buses run from Barrow in Furness to Biggar.
Opening Times
Daily 10.0am - 5.00pm (4.00pm winter)
Overview
South Walney forms the southern tip of a shingle island lying at the end of the Furness Peninsula. During the medieval period it was farmed by the monks of Furness Abbey, whilst during the 19th and 20th centuries salt, sand and gravel were extracted leaving large lagoons and some industrial remains.
What to see
Every spring, large numbers of lesser black backed and herring gulls still return and begin to set up nest territories. Other breeding birds include eider duck, greater black backed gull, shelduck, oystercatcher, mallard, moorhen and coot. Of the 250 bird species recorded, most are passage migrants on their way to or from breeding grounds. These include common species such as wheatear, redstart, willow warbler and gold crest, as well as more unusual species, which may have been blown off their normal migration route. In winter, large numbers of waders and wildfowl feed and roost around the nature reserve both on the gravel pools and the intertidal areas. Vegetated shingle being a highly unusual habitat, and yellow horned poppy, sea campion and biting stonecrop grow on the single beaches.
Small areas of dune grassland survive with pyramidal orchid, Portland spurge, restharrow and wild pansy. The old gravel workings have developed their own communities with striking plants such as viper's bugloss, henbane and alkanet. Saltmarsh occurs in Lighthouse Bay with species such as thrift, glasswort and sea purslane.
Recent History
South Walney has been leased from Holker Estates since 1963.