Norfolk - Snettisham

This is one of the best locations in the UK for watching waders. This is especially true when high tides force thousands upon thousands of birds to leave the mudflats where they feed, and settle close to the hides overlooking the lagoons.

HOW TO GET TO SNETTISHAM RESERVE
The reserve is clearly signposted down Beach Road from the A149 Snettisham and Dersingham bypass. Continue down Beach Road for about 1 mile (1.6 km), and the reserve is signposted on your left.

WHAT WILDLIFE CAN YOU SEE AT SNETTISHAM?

Each season brings a different experience at our nature reserves. In spring, the air is filled with birdsong as they compete to establish territories and attract a mate. In summer, look out for young birds making their first venture into the outside world. Autumn brings large movements of migrating birds - some heading south to a warmer climate, others seeking refuge in the UK from the cold Arctic winter. In winter, look out for large flocks of birds gathering to feed, or flying at dusk to form large roosts to keep warm.

Spring
Migrants such as wheatears and sand martins arrive from their winter homes, and are regularly seen along the beach. Common terns look for nest sites on the lagoons, while hundreds of black-headed gulls take up residence on the islands. Wading birds in their colourful breeding plumage pass through on their way to the Arctic, alongside avocets, oystercatchers and ringed plovers which nest on the reserve. Barn owls can been seen at dawn and dusk hunting over the saltmarsh and surrounding fields.


Barn owl Oystercatcher Ringed plover Wheatear

Summer
Avocets parade their newly-hatched chicks around the reserve, while common terns and black-headed gulls busily ferry food to and from their young. Butterflies such as peacocks and painted ladies fly over the grassland. Yellow-horned poppies and viper's bugloss flower on the shingle. Later in the summer, flocks of knots wheel in vast numbers over The Wash at sunset.


Avocet Black-headed gull Common tern Knot

Autumn
Thousands of thrushes and finches migrate overhead, returning from their summer breeding grounds. Wader numbers build up during autumn migration, with tens of thousands regularly present, busily feeding on The Wash, and regularly displaced by the incoming tide. Wigeon and brent geese start to arrive back from breeding grounds, calling noisily to each other.


Bar-tailed godwit Brent goose Fieldfare Redwing

Winter
Huge numbers of waterfowl gather on the lagoons and out in The Wash, while peregrines and hen harriers actively hunt on the saltmarsh. Vast numbers of pink-footed geese roost each night on the mudflats, flying inland at dawn to feast on the remains of the sugar beet harvest. Goldeneyes also gather in large numbers on the lagoon, and begin displaying as spring approaches.

TOP SPECIES AT SNETTISHAM
Watch elegant avocets 'scooping up' microscopic, aquatic life in their amazing, sickle-shaped beaks. They nest in mini colonies on the islands.

Bar-tailed godwit

The Wash holds internationally important numbers of bar-tailed godwits in winter - they are attracted as it provides safe feeding and roosting places. On very high tides, the birds come onto the pits to sleep.

Knot

As the tide comes in, the 'clouds' of hundreds of thousands of knots shimmer over the mudflats as they are pushed further towards the land.

Pink-footed goose

Thousands of pink-footed geese assemble here from late September-March. The birds roost on The Wash but fly inland at dawn to feed on sugar beet remnants.

Shelduck

You can see shelducks - big, black and white ducks - dabbling for food on the mudflats at any time of year.