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
Wheatears, stonechats, oystercatchers, hobbies, curlews, swifts, sand martins, house martins, warblers, marsh harriers, reed buntings, water and short-tailed voles, damselflies, marsh frogs, grass snakes, water shrews.
Summer
Black-tailed godwits, whimbrels, greenshanks, snipe, little egrets, dunlins, lapwings, teals, swifts, common sandpipers, ruffs, starlings, avocets, yellow wagtails, oystercatchers, yellow-legged gulls, bank and water voles, water shrews, marsh frogs, wasp spiders, red foxes.
Autumn
Marsh harriers, arctic terns, bearded tits, thrushes, finches, skylarks, meadow pipits, jackdaws, stonechats, hen harriers, goshawks, merlins, peregrines, short-eared owls, barn owls, avocets, black-tailed godwits, white fronted geese, pintails, wigeons, crickets, butterflies, dragonflies, damselflies, stoats, weasels, red foxes.
Winter
Bullfinches, ringed plovers, oystercatchers, golden plovers, water and rock pipits, little egrets, snipe, chiffchaffs, curlews, lapwings, dunlins, redshanks, shelducks, peregrines, kingfishers, short-eared owls, red foxes, stoats, weasels.