NATURE
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are in: Southampton > Nature > Walks > Netley Shoreline > Stage
9 | | 
Hamble Common | Stage
9
Hamble Common
At
this point you can choose to extend your walk and explore more of the coastline
by taking the path back down towards the shore, turning left and walking to Hamble
Common, passing the oil pipeline. | | | It'll
take you about 45 minutes to walk to Hamble Common along the beach or the path.
There is also parking at Hamble Common and at Hamble Point.
When you're walking
along the beach look out for the mudflats and saltmarsh. You can also see the
small exposed gravel cliffs, these are composed of flint, eroded from the chalk
and you may be lucky enough to find a fossil.
Bell heather and purple
moor-grass cover much of the common, with occasional patches of gorse providing
nest sites for birds like stonechats and linnets. This type of coastal heathland
is now very rare in Hampshire.
On the pond, the tall reeds provide cover
for nesting moorhens and mallard ducks. At low tide you may see wading birds such
as ringed plovers, oystercatchers, turnstones and feeding on shellfish and worms
from the mud. Brent geese spend the winter here before returning to the Arctic
to breed.
The Common is the site of some of the earliest evidence of settlement in
Hampshire. The ditch and bank running right across the site probably protected
an Iron Age settlement, from around 500BC.
Walk back towards Netley
either along the beach or small path on the shore.
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are in: Southampton > Nature > Walks > Netley Shoreline > Stage
8 | |
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Return to start of walk |  | 
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