Marine Weeks (August 2-17)

What are you doing for Marine Weeks? You might think that a celebration of the wonders of our seas would be difficult for people in landlocked Oxfordshire. But, in fact, there are intriguing opportunities to explore our connection to the sea.

You could travel by boat down the River Thames, through London and the Thames Estuary to the North Sea. Or you could take a trip to the seaside and have a traditional day out at the beach, poking around rock pools, picking up shells and swimming with seaweed.

Local sea at Dry Sandford Pit

Closer to home, you could visit BBOWT’s Dry Sandford Pit Nature Reserve, Oxfordshire’s very own piece of the sea. Today, Dry Sandford is a delightful naturereserve where you can wander along streams on woodland paths, explore a fen swarming with dragonflies or enjoy the flowers and butterflies of short grassland.

But during the time of the dinosaurs, Dry Sandford — and all of Oxfordshire — was under water. What makes Dry Sandford special is that the remains of the long-gone marine wildlife are still visible in the tiny fossils that can be seen there.

At the heart of the reserve is a large hollow left over from an old sand quarry. A long line of low cliffs around the edge of the sand pit reveals different layers of sand and limestone (pictured right), a remnant of different stages of rising and falling sea levels.

The cliff walls are full of small delicate fossils, visible remains of the time when dinosaurs ruled the earth. You can spot the shapes of all kinds of shells. A colourful sign in front of the cliff shows you what these creatures looked like when they were alive and swimming in the local seas.

Today’s wildlife

At the bottom of the cliff is a sandy bank, looking just like the beach you would find next to the sea. Animal tracks can be followed through the sand to see the holes where rabbits, mice and other small mammals have dug into the cliff. Higher up, hundreds and hundreds of tiny holes can be seen where solitary bees and wasps have burrowed into the soft, sandy layers. There are over 100 species living here, making it one of Britain’s best bee sites.

A wonderful range of low vegetation, such as tiny-flowered fairy flax, grows around the pit on the quarry floor. The rabbits make sure that the plants don’t grow too high! The bare rock and sandy soil supports a host of mosses and delicate grey lichens.

Dry Sandford Pit Nature Reserve is located just three miles from Abingdon and seven miles from Oxford.

For information about this and other BBOWT reserves, visit www.bbowt.org.uk