Freiston Shore

Address: RSPB Freiston Shore, Freiston, Boston PE22 0LY

Grid ref: TF398425

Explore the wilderness of The Wash, the UK’s most important estuary for wildlife, where you can get excellent views of large groups of waders on the salt water lagoon at high tide. Tree sparrows, yellowhammers and skylarks are common around the reserve throughout the year, with mad march hares in spring, ringed plovers in summer and brent geese and hunting harriers in winter.

Plan your visit

Open at all times.

Free entrance to RSPB members: Yes

Adults: Free

Children: Free

Car park cost: £1 per car for non-members. RSPB members continue to park for free

Facilities

No visitor centre
Car park
Toilets off-site
Accessible toilets off-site
No Refreshments
Picnic area
Guided walks
Viewing point
Nature trails
Shop off-site

Accessibility

How to get here

By train

The nearest station is Boston, 4 miles (6.5km) from the reserve.

By bike

National Cycle Route 1 passes through Boston - about four miles (6.5km) from the reserve.

By road

From Boston, take the A52 road towards Skegness. Upon reaching Haltoft End (2 miles/3 km), turn right and follow the brown tourism signs from here to the reserve.

Sat nav POI file: If you have a satellite navigation system that can accept POI files, please see our POI page for a download link and instructions.

Get directions from Google Maps

RSPB reserves on Google Earth

Group bookings are accepted.

14 degrees, Sunny day

Downloads

This map shows the reserve boundary, hides and other facilities. PDF 37kb

Freiston Shore reserve map

Contact Freiston Shore

RSPB Freiston Shore, Freiston, Boston PE22 0LY
lincolnshirewashreserves@rspb.org.uk
01205 724678
@RSPBNorfolkLinc
Find us on facebook

What will you see?

Our star species

Black-tailed godwit

Up to 5,000 black-tailed godwits spend the winter in this part of The Wash.

Brent goose

Up to 3,000 brent geese can use the wet grassland in winter.

Hen harrier

A winter visitor to the reserve, hen harriers can be seen hunting low over the wetland fields and saltmarsh.

Knot

The first flocks of knots arrive in late June, and by late summer there can be up to 16,000 birds present.

Oystercatcher

Oystercatchers often gather in large numbers at the reserve for high tide.

During spring, look out for avocets and oystercatchers nesting on lagoon, skylarks and corn buntings singing, migrants such as wheatears, yellow wagtails and common sandpipers.

In summer, you can see avocets on the lagoon, and brown hares on grassland areas. In the hedgerows you can spot nesting house and tree sparrows.

In autumn, thousands of waders such as knots, dunlins and oystercatchers roost on the lagoon at high tide.

Winter sees large flocks of golden plovers, lapwings and other waders on the saltmarsh and mudflats and thousands of dark-bellied brent geese and wigeons feed on the wet grasslands. Spot birds of prey such as short-eared owls, hen harriers and merlins hunting over the saltmarsh.

About Freiston Shore

Habitat

Freiston Shore is a tidal saltmarsh which also encompasses the habitats of saline lagoons and wet grassland.

Conservation

Freiston Shore has one of the the UK's largest 'managed realignment' projects, in which the RSPB has worked with the Environment Agency to convert 66 hectares of coastal farmland into tidal saltmarsh.

This project will benefit many birds, including nesting redshanks. It will also help to compensate for the loss of such tidal habitats elsewhere in England, and to ensure that The Wash remains the most important estuary for waterbirds in the UK.

Now the area is tidal again, the saltmarsh has naturally regenerated, creating valuable wildlife habitat and increasing the level of flood protection for the surrounding area.
Freiston Shore protects 683 hectares of saltmarsh and mudflats, which form part of the Wash Special Protection Area. We manage and improve this habitat for the benefit of wintering, passage and nesting birds.
A 15 ha saline lagoon has been created at Freiston Shore. We manage this rare habitat for the benefit of breeding waterbirds, especially avocets and ringed plovers.
We've converted 72 ha of sheep fields and arable land into a wet grassland for the benefit of breeding waders and waterfowl. We've constructed a reservoir and installed sluices to contain and control water levels on the fields.

Site information

At Freiston Shore you can get excellent views of waterbirds on the saline lagoon, especially at high tide when wading birds roost, sometimes in their thousands. The saltmarsh is good for watching hunting birds of prey, while eiders and red-breasted mergansers and other diving ducks can be seen offshore during winter and thousands of dark-bellied brent geese and wigeons can be seen on the wet grasslands.