Tag Archives: conservation

A Solway smallholding: update 2023

Posted on October 26, 2023 by solwayshorewalker

Six o’clock, and the rooks and jackdaws are wheeling in the darkening sky, shrieking and cawing in a cacophony of sound, their attention focussed on the garden below. The football-rattle clatter of vigilant magpies adds another layer of sound. Like … Continue reading →

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The charisma of Corophium, the mudshrimp

Posted on July 18, 2022 by solwayshorewalker

Snowdrifts! Small semicircles and rippling lines of white on the grass of the saltmarsh: the cast exoskeletons of thousands of mudshrimps. My friend and former colleague Professor Geoff Moore (himself an expert on amphipod crustaceans including Corophium) once told me … Continue reading →

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Snippets 10: stone stoops

Posted on August 19, 2016 by solwayshorewalker

Gateposts don’t normally attract our attention, so it is easy to miss the fact that many of the ‘posts’ supporting field gates on the Solway Plain are not posts at all, but are the traditional red sandstone pillars – known … Continue reading →

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Allonby Bay MCZ: a ‘slimy dangerous place?’

Posted on June 13, 2016 by solwayshorewalker

Allonby Bay, on Cumbria’s Solway coast, recently became a Marine Conservation Zone; there are now 50 MCZs in English and ‘non-devolved’ waters and proposals for more are under consideration. Most people, probably, neither know nor would they care. Here are … Continue reading →

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From ‘killing field’ to wetland and woods: Watchtree Nature Reserve, Cumbria

Posted on February 17, 2016 by solwayshorewalker

From the hill at Watchtree Nature Reserve you can look across to the upper reaches of the Solway Firth, the Borders and, to the East, the Northern Fells. It’s early February and the snow-coated top of Skiddaw is glistening  in … Continue reading →

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Snippets 6: ” ‘Tis the voice of the lobster’ I heard him declare…”

Posted on October 21, 2015 by solwayshorewalker

Cumbria isn’t just about the National Park and Herdwick sheep, but even on the Solway coast, it sometimes helps to have ‘Lake District’ in your title. The Lake District Coast Aquarium at Maryport is a little gem of an aquarium … Continue reading →

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What’s an AONB?

Posted on May 9, 2014 by solwayshorewalker

“Most people don’t know what an AONB is – but it’s exactly what it says, it’s an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.” The important word is ‘beauty’, of the outstanding and natural type. Graeme Proud is the Ranger/Volunteer Co-ordinator for … Continue reading →

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