Snettisham RSPB reserve

Snettisham RSPB reserve sits on the Norfolk coast near King’s Lynn, facing The Wash, a wide estuary where high tides push hundreds of thousands of wading birds onto the shore. The reserve’s lagoons give these birds a safe place to feed and rest during autumn and winter. Its shingle beach faces west, a rare direction for Norfolk beaches, and the shifting tides expose extra feeding grounds. The site draws migratory birds in huge numbers because of its geology and position. Regular visitors include little ringed plovers, oystercatchers, golden plovers, knots, bar-tailed godwits, sanderlings, curlews, spotted redshanks, pink-footed geese and peregrine falcons. The reserve’s pits, dug in the Second World War for shingle to build concrete runways, now form part of the landscape. Concrete roads once used to move the shingle still serve nearby properties, and fragments of them line the pits. A 2-kilometre path leads from the car park into the reserve, which has a circular walk and three hides. The Rotary Hide was gifted by Rotary Clubs of East Anglia and opened in 1997. The whole area covers about fifty-eight hectares of common land, and local people still hold the rights to collect shingle.