Places to see birds

Wigan Flashes, Wigan, Lancashire

This site is managed by Lancashire Wildlife Trust for Wigan Council. The site has been progressively, and most successfully, reclaimed from a huge area of industrial dereliction, to provide an excellent public facility close to Wigan Town Centre. The site is a credit to the foresight of Wigan Council and the hard work of both Council staff and the LWT managers and volunteers who have not been afraid to get their hands dirty tackling the work of clearing scrub, planting reeds and establishing footpaths. Hundreds of trees have also been planted on the higher ground to give the whole site a natural feel.

The RSPB supported the establishment of the reserve as part of a network of reed-bed sites designed to encourage the winter dispersal of bitterns from Leighton Moss. This policy is obviously working because bittern are often seen on the site particularly just before dusk on winter afternoons. Local wardens are hopeful of a breeding pair one day soon.

The site also has an important population of willow tits which are in decline on many sites. The wet woodland present on this site favours this pretty little tit.

There are good numbers of ducks and geese in the winter and a wide range of passerines in the maturing trees.

To do justice to all of this site would take a whole day but it divides into easy "chunks" and there is a map at the gate. Don't miss the feeding station that lies on the left of the path that starts on the right just inside the gate.

The site is best approached from Carr Lane, Wigan which runs south from Poolstock Lane (B5238) between Wigan Town Centre and the A49. There is parking space in the road at the side of Worsley Mesnes High School.

Further details and a plan of the site can be found at http://www.lancswt.org.uk