Minsmere RSPB Bird Reserve
A fascinating Family-Friendly Wildlife treat on the Suffolk Coast
Enjoy the sights and sounds of thousands of birds at Minsmere. The trails are easy and most hides overlooking the lagoon are accessible to pushchairs and wheelchairs
Minsmere offers plenty of wildlife action close-up for kids and adults alike – you don’t have to be a hardened birdwatcher to enjoy the noisy variety of birdlife here. The RSPB has worked hard to make the reserve not just great for birds, but also for visitors.
In the breeding season the reserve is home to large noisy flocks of avocets (the bird on the RSPB logo). The reed-beds resonate with the low tones of the booming bittern, and overhead you can often see magnificent birds of prey like the resident marsh harriers displaying. In the Autumn and Winter Minsmere is home to many waders, ducks, geese and wildfowl, which inhabit the saline lagoons. Summertime is less busy with bird-life, though Minsmere comes alive with butterflies and iridescent dragonflies in July and August.
Facilities
Minsmere has a large visitor centre with tearoom, shop and toilets with baby changing facilities. Families with children can borrow an Explorer backpack, and you can hire binoculars from the visitor’s centre to see the birds up close. Minsmere opens at 9am and it is worth starting early to get the best from it. Go clockwise around the Scrape – this way you keep the sun behind you when you are in the hides, which gives the best viewing of the birds.
Recommended tour route
Take the path to the left on leaving the visitor centre, marked ‘Scrape Hides’. As you go over a walkway over a pond take a look at the sandy cliff on the left, which is often summer home to a colony of sand-martins which hawk insects from the water’s surface. From here in the Spring you will already start to hear the noise of the avocets and gulls on the Scrape. A short detour to the North Hide will give you your first view over the Scrape, and inside there is a good display with large pictures of the birds you are likely to see from there.
Rejoin the path and carry on in the direction of East Hide. This takes you along a well-surfaced path called North Wall, which has an excellent view over a massive reed-bed. Early in the day you can often hear the delightful ‘ping’ of foraging Bearded Tits. The path rises to meet the sea wall where a couple of benches make a good place to rest and survey the reed-bed or look out over the North Sea.
This point is about a third of the way round the Scrape – if you can manage a longer hike it is well worth walking along the beach by the dunes, stopping by East Hide, where the view in the morning is superb and you can be only a few yards away from the birds. In the dunes in Spring and early Summer, crimson breasted Stonechats perch obligingly on fence posts, making a sound like two stones being tapped against each other.
The beach path is not really wheelchair accessible. Likewise, if you have young children, the walk all the way round the Scrape is probably a bit long, so it is best to retrace your steps towards the visitor centre. You may want to take a break and some refreshment there, then perhaps take the right-hand accessible path towards West Hide, where by now the sun should have moved round in the sky so you are not looking at the birds with the sun in your face.
More information
Minsmere is a marvellous bird reserve on the attractive Suffolk coast. Nearby attractions include the picturesque town of Aldeburgh, Leiston Abbey and the village of Dunwich, much of which has been lost to the sea.
Details of the entrance fee (free to RSPB members), contact information and how to get there are available from the RSPB
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