Читать книгу Suffolk Coast and Heath Walks. 3 long-distance routes in the AONB: the Suffolk Coast Path, the Stour and Orwell Walk and the Sandlings Walk онлайн

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Wildlife and Flowers

Both the coastal strip and the inland Sandlings provide specialised habitat for a range of plants, birds, butterflies and insects – the coast has saltmarsh, shingle ridges, cliffs, reedbeds and grazing marsh; the Sandlings offers heaths, commercial forest and ancient woodland, as well as arable fields and hedgerows.

Eroded cliffs along the River Stour at Sutton Ness (S&OW)

The Suffolk coast is well known for its bird-watching potential, and the RSPB reserve at Minsmere, with its scrapes, reedbeds, pools and woodland, has long been considered one of the best birding locations in the country. Breeding specialities here include avocets, bitterns and bearded tits, and each year a number of rarities turn up on migration, along with vast numbers of waders and wildfowl. Marsh harriers are relatively easy to spot as they quarter the reedbeds for prey. Lapwings breed on the wet grazing marshes, sand martins nest in holes in seaside cliffs, and little terns and ringed plovers lay their eggs in the open on stretches of shingle. Elsewhere, stonechats and rare Dartford warblers find a refuge in extensive gorse-covered areas such as Dunwich Heath.