I was recently looking at the Manx Wildlife Trust website and noticed that they have a reserve in the centre of Onchan. I thought I'd take a look on my way home from Douglas and was amazed to find a mini wetland reserve tucked between the Onchan streets. I took a few photos while I was there and thought I'd share them in this week's blog post.
I parked on Church Road in Onchan, just opposite St Peter's Church. This church was built in 1833 to replace an earlier building and several Celtic and Norse carved stone slabs are preserved on site (to learn more see isleofman.com). I didn't investigate these but will likely return to have a good look around the church grounds as they're beautiful!
Just across the road from the church, is the Onchan Village Green and it's this that gives you access to the wetland from Church Road.
The green is small, but picturesque, and it's a short walk through it to get to the wetland.
I crossed the village green area and came to a fence with a gate and several signs, announcing the start of the wetland.
On entering the gate, I immediately came to one of the deep pools. Luckily there are boardwalks to follow around the site, although some of these are a little spongy, so care still has to be taken when walking around this area.
There were a plethora of umbellifers to greet me as I started to walk around the nature reserve. I find it hard to identify these as they are often very similar, but it looks like I've photographed some hemlock water-dropwort (Oenanthe crocata) Manx name 'Daaue bane'. A search on Google confirms this is probably the case as I found a good description of some of the species in this wildlife haven on the Onchan Commissioners website.
I also noticed these water mint (Mentha aquatica / Mynthey yiarg) flowers, along with some buddleja and ivy that was just starting to bloom.
There were loads of very impressive ivy plants growing up the trees, with their intricately entwined root systems.
The trunks and branches of the trees were brimming with life. Coverings of moss, lichen and fungi created interest wherever I looked. Can you spot the small mushrooms on branch in the picture to the left?
I also found some vascular plants growing on some of the trees. The ivy in the photo above was a very young plant that had taken root in the hollow of a tree and the plant below had taken root in a shallow crack in the bark, at a point where the branch was growing horizontally. These epiphytes (plants which grow on other plants) have probably found their way onto the tree as a seed by accident and been forced by circumstance to set root there.
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