Poodri

Poodri protects about eighty square kilometres of the Odra floodplain upstream of Ostrava, and the point of it is that the river was never straightened here: it still meanders across its own floodplain, cutting and abandoning bends, with oxbows in every stage from open water to filled marsh, alongside a system of fishponds dug from the fifteenth century and wet hay meadows that still flood each spring. That combination makes it one of the most important wetland bird areas in the country and a Ramsar site - corncrake, garganey, black stork, ferruginous duck, and large heron and cormorant colonies on the ponds. There is a rescue station for injured wildlife at Bartosovice with an exhibition. The contrast is part of the interest: this is fifteen kilometres from the Ostrava steelworks, and the landscape could hardly be less like it.

What you actually see

• An unstraightened river - the Odra still cutting and abandoning meanders.
• Oxbows in every stage - open water through to filled marsh.
• Medieval fishponds - dug from the fifteenth century, with bird colonies.
• Flooded hay meadows - still inundated each spring.

When to go

April to June. A day.

Honest expectations

Spring flooding closes paths - this is a floodplain and behaves like one. Mosquitoes are severe. Ponds are working fisheries with restricted access. The industrial skyline of Ostrava is visible from parts of it.

Nearby

Ostrava and its Lower Vitkovice ironworks are north-east.