The Manx Wildlife Trust currently manages 24 nature reserves across the Isle of Man, of which nine are open to the general public.

These help us to preserve and to protect the fabulous and varied wildlife found in our island.

The reserves total almost 300 acres of land to help conserve some of the best habitats for birds and animal life, and to protect our vulnerable species.

We encourage locals and visitors alike to visit them and to enjoy their tranquility, and to cherish the sights and sounds found on them.

This is the perfect walk to blow away the winter cobwebs!

Park up in the plantation car park on the way to the Ayres Visitor Centre at Ballaghennie. Take the left turn at the roundabout in Bride coming from Ramsey, pass Glen Truan and take the next turning on your right.

Please do keep to the footpaths to avoid causing damage to the area.

This area has ASSI designated areas and is a National Nature reserve. It has been given this status due to the lichen heath land and is the only place to see this on the island.

It is also a rare habitat in the UK. At first glance it might look like any heath land, but look closely and you will see the ground is almost white in areas with lichen.

Please do not tread on the lichen or pick any as it grows very slowly, less than 2mm a year.

But look closely at the lichen and you will see they are different. Some that look very straggly are called ’usnea articulata’ and, if you look closely at the strings, they look like a string of sausages.

The other lichen is branched like a reindeers antlers, this is Cladonia imprexa. The oddity of the unsea lichen is that usually it would be found up in trees, but here they are ground dwellers.

It’s a beautiful walk in the summer when the flowers are out, but a winter stroll along here reveals lots of fungus.

Look out for the white globes of the puff ball fungus, the brown almost purple coloured large and shiny-looking wood blewits and you can’t miss the mosaic puff ball fungus, which are large brown interior coloured fungus that is about the size of a breakfast bowl.

Do give yourself time to climb up the bird observation platform.

There is now a set of binoculars at the top, but take some tissue to clean the lenses as they quickly become covered in salt spray up here. It’s a wonderful panoramic view of the beach, sea and back across the heath land to the mountainous backbone of the island.

The Ayres is famous for its fantastic birdlife and in winter we see the migrating species like the red-throated and black-throated divers.

These birds rarely come ashore, as they eat fish, but they have a distinctive little jump before diving under the waves.

Look on the shore line for the scurrying back and forth movements of the ringed plover with its orange legs and black and white stripes around its head.

Also look for the mottled brown backed turnstone with its white underside as they flutter and probe around the rocks on the beach and along the seaweed line.

It’s well worth standing and taking in the scene around you. On a family day out, why not trying our downloadable spotting sheets from our website, manxwt.org.uk? They are great for using as a nature hunt with children.

by Dawn Dickens

www.manxwt.org.uk