Somerset ‘super nature reserve’ will benefit UK’s rarest wildlife

Environmental organisations partner to create 15,000-acre protected wetland from Glastonbury to Bridgwater Bay

At this time of year the booming call of the bitterns resonates across the Avalon Marshes in Somerset while hawks skim over the reed beds and great white egrets nest in the shallows. The pools and ditches are alive with rare reptiles, mammals, insects and spiders.

Plans to improve the habitat for flora and fauna that live in one of the UK's most extraordinary landscapes by creating a super nature reserve" stretching from these marshes around Glastonbury to the edge of Bridgwater Bay were announced on Thursday.