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Dyfi Estuary

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The Dyfi estuary is one of only 11 sites in Britain which has been registered as an international Biosphere Reserve and is a vital feeding ground for large numbers of wildfowl.

Dyfi Estuary by Jules

Last updated: 07 April 2011

The Dyfi estuary marks the boundary between Mid and North Wales with the Cambrian Mountains as a backdrop and Snowdonia in the distance.

The reserve is managed by the and is located midway between Aberystwyth and Machynlleth on the seaward side of the A487.

It includes part of the Dyfi Estuary, Ynyslas dunes and Cors Fochno (Borth bog) - one of the largest and finest examples of a raised peat bog in Britain.

This landscape was sculpted during the last Ice Age, when ice-sheets from the glaciers on Pumlumon advanced westwards until they met the southward moving Irish sea ice.

By 5500 BC, forest covered the estuary floodplain. As the sea level rose further the forest was replaced by reedswamp and the great raised peat bog of Cors Fochno.

Shorebirds such as dunlin, oystercatcher and sanderling as well as different types of tern and manx shearwater can also be seen over the sea here.

Saltmarshes have formed where the River Leri runs into the Dyfi but if you want to explore here, you need to be very careful.

The marshes and its quicksands can be extremely hazardous so contact the warden first at the nearby Ynyslas Reserve Visitor Centre.

There is a public hide overlooking the River Leri and the Leri Fields where you can watch curlew, snipe, redshank, black-tailed godwit and whimbrel.

The hide is set back from the estuary itself towards the village of Borth and you have to use the public footpath across the golf course to get to it.


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