Print pageSeasonal highlights
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
Breeding shovelers, gadwalls and pochards in diches and open water; oystercatchers, avocets, lapwings and redshanks on grazing marsh and improved pasture; marsh harriers and barn owls hunting over the reed-bed. Migrant waders adjacent to any shallow water and passage whimbrels on the semi-improved grassland.
Summer
Juvenile marsh harriers in reedbed, spotted redshanks, greenshanks and ruffs along muddy margins.
Autumn
Wigeons and teals on shallow open water, flocks of golden plovers and lapwings wherever there is water.
Winter
Brent geese on semi-improved grazing, hen harriers, merlins and short-eared owls hunting the grazing marsh. Divers, grebes, goldeneyes, red-breasted mergansers and other seaducks in the estuarine channels. Twites and snow buntings on the seawall.