TO MARK World Wetland Day earlier this month, Neil Hutton, community officer at Portbury Wharf Nature Reserve, provided a guided bird walk for a group of residents from Haven Lodge Care Home.

Three new bird hides have been introduced to the reserve on the outskirts of Portishead. These include a four metre high, seven metre long tower, which overlooks both the foreshore of the Severn Estuary and the reserve itself.

The other two hides overlook the pools on the reserve, where the trust recently levelled a nesting island in the pool to improve the area for wading birds.

Portbury Wharf Nature Reserve is located between Portishead and Royal Portbury Dock and can be accessed on foot from a car park next to the bridge at Sheepway.

It contains diverse habitats including wetland fields, large open pools, scrapes, rhynes, hay meadows, upland pastures and secluded ponds.