This notice on the toilet for “Martians with one leg shorter
than the other” welcomed us to Ynys-Hir RSPB reserve on the Dovey estuary. It has
such an attractive location, perched on gentle, wooded slopes above the marsh.
It provides safe haven for incoming migrants like pied flycatcher and common
redstart. How tranquil and inviting those thickets and glades must seem to the
summer visitors that have recently logged up all those air miles just to get
there.
Next door at Cors Dyfi, the ospreys have also returned -
though a female interloper has already taken up residence on the nest and
appears to be getting on very well with the returning male. There could be a
bit of a domestic there in a day or two, when last year’s incumbent finally
arrives.
The Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth railway abuts both these sites
but that has not deterred the birds one bit. The line runs much closer to the
osprey’s nest site than the statutory 200 yards minimum distance that separates
proceedings from the imaginatively designed, raised visitor’s centre and
watchpoint. The rail network has become so firmly embedded within our natural
landscape over the last couple of centuries. It has become very much a part of
the scenery.
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