A murmuration of 20,000 starlings, brown hares boxing, more than 100 snipe by the side of a lake, a cormorant stretching to dry its wings and a bee orchid attracting insects next to a peat bog.
If I didn’t visit Lancashire Wildlife Trust reserves I doubt if I would have seen any of these wild spectacles.
I certainly wouldn’t have visited a Mere Sands Wood hide and been allowed to share a birder’s scope to look at a rare bittern in the reed bed.
If you spend an hour on a nature reserve you will see something special whether it is a giant heron or a bird of prey or a tiny moth clinging to a flower.
At the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, we have more than 40 nature reserves, each one different – some are just one habitat, others have many varied opportunities for wildlife to make a home.
We have sphagnum moss carpets at our peatland reserves, a secret waterfall in Greater Manchester and ancient woodland dating back hundreds of years, just off the motorway in Lancashire.
I turn 62 this week and I am lucky to be fully mobile so I get to these places, others are not as fortunate. I think it’s great to see my colleagues and our volunteers creating better access to our wild places.
New paths at Brockholes, Mere Sands Wood and Lunt Meadows mean that people in wheelchairs and families taking children out for important walks in fresh air, will have no problems getting to hides and viewing points.
Our new hides will also be more open, defending visitors from the British weather but also ensuring nobody feels vulnerable while watching wildlife.
Getting out appreciating wildlife offers great benefits to our physical and mental health, but we believe that engaging our visitors in nature means they are more likely to take action to help the environment in the future. Mutual benefits for all.
Our new campaign “Places where nature can build a home” supports the work of our nature reserves and the wildlife that lives there. You can find it here: https://www.lancswt.org.uk/our-work/standing-wildlife/places-where-nature-can-build-home
Between Thursday, April 20 and Thursday, April 27, we will be calling on our supporters to raise £10,000 to help us improve access on our reserves. If we reach that target it will be doubled by the Big Give – so every pound you give will mean £2 for the campaign.
Hear our dedicated reserve officers explain more about the project below.
