South Walney Nature Reserve

South Walney Nature Reserve

South Walney Nature Reserve
1 Coast Guard Cottages
Walney
Barrow-In-Furness
Cumbria
LA14 3YQ

Tel: 01229 471 066
E-Mail: southwalney@care4free.net

Web: South Walney Nature Reserve

About South Walney Nature Reserve

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.
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 suc