Ribble Coast and Wetlands

The Ribble Coast and Wetlands is one of the most important places for wildlife in Europe, so important that it has been recognised as a potential regional park. Many people are working together to allow visitors to enjoy the area better.

This wonderful undiscovered secret lies to the west of Preston where the River Ribble meets the Irish Sea, and between the coastal resorts of Southport, and the Fylde to the north.

The Ribble Coast and Wetlands certainly has a contrasting coastline that each day has something different to offer. It includes vast sun-baked sands, windswept sand dunes on both sides of the estuary that are rich in butterflies, moths and other insects, cattle grazed marshes and flocks of wading birds scurrying along the strandline as the waves ebb and flow. The extensive saltmarsh and mudflats revealed at low tide, give the impression of a desolate wasteland when in reality the mud supports multitudes of small burrowing creatures, which in turn provide food for tens of thousands of birds.

Further inland in the area that previously formed part of the historic martin mere, and which before the 17th century drainage work was the largest lake in England, there are pockets of woodland, wet meadows, heaths, and smaller lakes that provide wildlife havens, nationally important for wildfowl, dragonflies and geology.

If you want to see the birds close-up there are several places where this is possible. Natural England who manages the Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve run guided walks into the reserve.

A CCTV camera in the RSPB Ribble Discovery Centre at Granny's Bay provides a "window on the estuary" allowing visitors to see the wonderful wildlife spectacle as the birds feed on the mud exposed at low tide. Visitors can walk along the coastal paths and visiting the hides at Marshside an important winter refuge for pink-footed geese, wigeons, godwits and plovers and in spring provides nesting places for lapwings and redshanks.

At the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Martin Mere Wetland Centre you can come into close contact with wetlands and their wildlife. In the 50 acre landscaped Waterfowl gardens you can feed the world's largest and endangered species straight from your hand. In winter thousands of ducks, geese and swans visit, which you can watch and witness the very noisy, daily feeding sessions.

Close by there is Mere Sands Wood, a wildlife rich haven in the heart of agricultural West Lancashire made up of lakes, mature broadleaved and conifer woodland, sandy, wet meadows and heaths. Closer to Preston there is also Longton Brickcroft a managed wildlife reserve on the site of a former brickworks.

• For more information visit ribblecoastandwetlands.com