Lunt Meadows

Sketch map: Lunt Meadows and Roundley's Wood

Lunt Meadows is a Lancashire Wildlife Trust site roughly halfway between Maghull and Crosby in Merseyside. It's a stretch of flood meadow next to the River Alt and is particularly noted for its waders, waterfowl and owls. This is another of those places that look like a beggar to get to by public transport but turn out to be straightforward once you know how.

Lunt Meadows

The 133 bus runs between Kirkby Station and the bus stop across the road from Waterloo Station once an hour Mondays to Saturdays. It goes round the houses a bit and takes about forty minutes from Kirkby and twenty-five minutes from Waterloo. The bus stops at Lunt Village are across the road from each other. From Waterloo the bus eventually turns onto the A565 for a short stretch then goes down a long straight road (Long Lane) before taking a right turn onto Lunt Road and past the sign for the car park then into Lunt Village (which is tiny). From Kirkby the bus eventually goes through Sefton Village, then along a long straight road then takes a sharp right then a sharp left into Lunt.

Lunt Meadows, Roughley's Wood to the right

Don't walk down to the car park entrance. Take the little lane on the North side of the road. This takes you past Roughley's Wood (a small Forestry Commission woodland and worth a look round) and then onto Lunt Meadows.

Greylag goose

The paths around the reserve are pretty good. There are a few screen hides with seats dotted about and enough cover to let you see what's on the pools and in the reedbeds without spooking all the birds.

Wren

In Summer black-headed gulls and avocets breed, though large gulls tend to take most of the young avocets. The reedbeds, scrub and woodland attract a good variety of warblers, including Cetti's warblers in the brambles by the reeds. Buzzards, sparrowhawks and kestrels can be seen and marsh harriers seem to be fairly regular visitors. The large numbers of dragonflies and damselflies around the pools give you a chance of striking lucky with a hobby. Ducks include shovelers, gadwall and teal.

Outside the breeding season there are nearly always a few black-tailed godwits, ruff and snipe. Passage migrants include garganeys and wood sandpipers and sometimes something special may turn up.

Fairly poor, heavily-cropped record shot of the stilt sandpiper that visited in July 2019

Garganey

 In Winter Lunt Meadows is famous for the short-eared owls that hunt over the area in daylight.

Lunt Meadows