TM2635 : Stour and Orwell Walk near Trimley Marshes
taken 9 years ago, near to Trimley st Mary, Suffolk, England
Trimley Marshes is a wetland reserve created almost entirely from arable land alongside the River Orwell. Most of the wildlife here today has colonised the site since it was created in 1990 to mitigate against the loss of Fagbury mudflats as a result of the expansion of the Port of Felixstowe.
The mosaic of habitats, managed primarily for birds, makes this reserve one of the best sites in the county. Many of the wet meadows are managed by the traditional method of grazing with cattle. Others are grazed with sheep and by wigeon and geese during the winter months.
Water levels are controlled by a system of sluices. This means that wet conditions can be maintained for wintering wildfowl including wigeon and brent goose and then for breeding waders such as redshank, avocet and oystercatcher.
The reservoir is the hub of the reserve, acting not only as a refuge for wildfowl and marginal nesting birds, but also as the storage and distribution point for the reserve’s water. Rafts of coot, tufted duck, teal and pochard mingling with cormorant, gadwall and shoveler, are a common sight here.
The lagoon and its islands provide a variety of habitats throughout the year. The islands are ideal nesting sites for avocet, ringed plover and tufted duck. In spring and autumn the muddy margins make excellent feeding grounds for migrating waders such as common sandpiper, curlew sandpiper and greenshank.
The Stour & Orwell Walk is a 42 mile long extension west from Felixstowe to the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Path and follows the coast and heaths along the estuaries of the Orwell and the Stour, going around the Shotley peninsula to Cattawade, providing links with the Essex Way (at Manningtree, across the river) and the Stour Valley Path (at Cattawade).