Somerville - Collins where to see wildlife in Britain and Ireland: over 800 best wildlife sites in the British Isles

For Matilda and Arthur Somerville looking forward to sharing these wonderful wildlife treasures with them

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First published for Readers Digest in 2012 as Wild Britain

This edition published in 2013

Text Christopher Somerville, 2012, 2013
Photographs individual copyright holders, 2012, 2013
Maps HarperCollins Publishers, 2012, 2013

Jacket photographs Adam Burton Photography (New Forest heathland); Shutterstock (bird).

ISBN 978-0-00-744237-9

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Id like to thank Helen Brocklehurst and Vivien Green for helping me get this idea off the ground, and Julia Koppitz, Julian Browne and Ben Mason for carrying it forward; also Chloe Slattery and Helen Griffin for their help; and Tom Cabot at Ketchup for stitching it all together. Thanks to Mark McCulloch and Yolanda Copes-Stepney at Visit Britain, and Ciara Scully and Deirdre Byrne at Failte Ireland, for their support and hospitality; Tanya Perkidou at The Wildlife Trusts for her fabulous enthusiasm and efficiency; Martin Brown for help with the mapping; and Mark E. Turner, Pam Bowen and Len Cassidy, the Fat Birder, the Fleetwood Birder, and all the other bloggers and website contributors who share their knowledge across the virtual ether.

Please note: Many of the sites featured in this book are in remote locations. Please be prepared before embarking on any walks. The publishers and author have done their best to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this guide, however, they cannot accept any responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result of information or advice featured in this book.

COLLINS

WHERE TO SEE

WILDLIFE IN BRITAIN

AND IRELAND

OVER 800 BEST WILDLIFE SITES IN THE BRITISH ISLES

Christopher Somerville

CONTENTS

T he marsh harrier swept across the reedbed on black-tipped wings, a big dark shape against the evening sky. A sudden plummet in among the reeds, and it emerged to fly off straight and low, a frog dangling helplessly in its clutches. I lowered my binoculars, let out my breath, and turned back the way Id come.

That was 20 years ago. Id found my way to the reedbed after a lot of local enquiry and several false trails. Id had to scramble over barbed wire, trespass across fields and dodge a bull to get there. I was soaked in ditch-water, well scratched by brambles and plastered in good Norfolk mud. If Id only known it, though, I could have gone straight to that reedbed, dry-shod along a boardwalk, and seen that amazing sight even closer-to from the comfort and shelter of a bird hide. In a whole network of locations within five miles of where Id stood there were fen raft spiders, marsh orchids, otters, nesting bitterns and rare swallowtail butterflies, all waiting to be discovered. I just didnt know they were there.

All my life Ive been walking and exploring the countryside of Britain and Ireland, becoming more and more fascinated by our fabulous treasury of wildlife. Ever since that Norfolk mud bath Ive longed to find a book that told me, clearly and simply, where to go to find the best of the butterflies and birds, the wildflowers and water creatures. When I couldnt find exactly what I wanted, I thought I had better write it myself.

Here are 826 of the best wildlife sites in the British Isles. They vary from enormous tracts of country such as the vast National Nature Reserve of the Berwyn uplands in central north Wales shared between three counties and covering some 30 square miles (80 square km) to the little slip of butterfly-haunted grass and woodland that is Gwithian Green local nature reserve in far southwest Cornwall. They offer you not only the thrill of discovering rarities such as the delicate flowers of orange birdsfoot or water lobelia, the reed-skulking bittern and the amorously grunting natterjack toad, but also the delight of close encounters with familiar Nature huge swirling skies full of starlings, hillsides carpeted with cowslips, wildflower meadows hazy with butterflies and bees, grey seals hauled out on the rocks.

Wildlife in Britain and Ireland is under a whole cloud of threats at present, from polluted rivers to rapacious development, chemical farming to over-fishing of our warming seas. But its also guarded, cared for and encouraged as never before by the wonderful work of conservationists, both professionals and volunteers, in hundreds of wildlife reserves around these islands. And its appreciated more than ever, too, thanks to the TV programmes and internet wildlife blogs that entice us out to where the wild things are.

Its all out there just tuck this book under your arm, and go and see for yourself.

Christopher Somerville, December 2011