Suffolk Coast National Nature Reserve

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Overview

The Suffolk Coast NNR is made up of three nature reserves: Walberswick, Hen Reedbed and Dingle Marshes, and is perhaps best-known for its flocks of over-wintering wildfowl. Some of the most impressive wildlife sights of the winter on the Blythe estuary are the flocks of teal, wigeon and pintail, returning to feed on the intertidal mud and grazing marshes. They are joined by greylags, pink-footed and barnacle geese, and occasionally, mute swans will be joined by small groups of yellow-beaked whooper and Bewick’s swans. Waders include avocet and golden plover, and grey plover from the Arctic tundra. Dunlin and knot rise in clouds alongside oystercatchers, lapwing, redshank and curlew. Over 280 bird species have been recorded. The reserve has a rich beach flora, while the wetlands are home to marsh sower-thistle, bog pimpernel, sneezewort, lousewort, bogbean, frog-bit and greater bladderwort. The heaths are rich in acid-loving species, which include fenugreek, subterranean and suffocated clovers and mossy stonecrop. Resident mammals include otters, water voles and five species of deer, and natterjack toads have been re-introduced to the area.

Location

Dunwich

About the area

Suffolk is Constable country, where the county’s crumbling, time-ravaged coastline spreads itself under wide skies to convey a wonderful sense of remoteness and solitude. Highly evocative and atmospheric, this is where rivers wind lazily to the sea and notorious 18th-century smugglers hid from the excise men.