Grazing marsh and saltwater lagoons behind the sea wall between Keyhaven and Lymington, busy with brent geese in winter and nesting terns in summer
Between Keyhaven and Lymington, a sea wall holds the Solent back from a strip of grazing marsh and shallow saltwater lagoons, with saltmarsh and mudflats on the seaward side. Hampshire County Council looks after the marshes behind the wall as a local nature reserve, and the Solent Way follows the wall itself, so you can watch birds on both sides without going near the nests. Winter brings big flocks of brent geese and wigeon, with dunlin, grey plover and black-tailed godwit on the mud, and marsh harriers and peregrines hunting over them. In summer, avocets, terns and black-headed gulls nest on the marsh and its islands. These marshes were lined with salt works from the Middle Ages until 1865, when the local trade lost out to cheap Cheshire salt brought in by rail. Across the water sit Hurst Castle on its shingle spit and the Isle of Wight. Lymington Pier station is about 5km northeast.
