Suffolk Coast and Heaths

The winter months are excellent month to visit the estuaries and wetlands in the AONB to see wintering wildfowl and wadering birds.

What to look out for between September and November: Early autumn is a time of exciting change in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB. It’s when many birds begin their migration, with our summer visitors departing for warmer climes, and new species arriving from further north to spend the winter along our coast. It’s a great time to go birdwatching because unusual species can turn up almost anywhere! The shorter days and cooler nights are the trigger for deciduous trees like oak and birch to begin to loose their leaves, creating one last spectacular show of rich autumn colours before winter sets in. The damp dewy mornings are also the time to look out for mushrooms, which push their heads through the falling leaves. Many have bright, attractive colours like the fly agaric, which is a common site on the Sandlings Heaths. Some are also really good to eat – but be careful because some species are poisonous, including the fly agaric.

July and August are the months to see the Sandlings Heaths at their finest. The heather is in flower (see below) and there’s plenty of interesting wildlife to see and enjoy. Insects are particularly numerous - butterflies, bees, grasshoppers and dragonflies can all be found – while young birds should also be easy to find. But while summer holds sway in Suffolk, it’s clear from the migrant wading birds to be seen on coastal marshes that, further north, the brief artic summer is over and autumn is fast approaching.

May - June Highlights: With the bird breeding season beginning to wind down, July is an excellent month to view the abundance of colourful insects to be found within the AONB. The high quality landscape of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB means that most of the species of butterfly and dragonfly that occur in Suffolk can be found here.

March and April are months of astonishing change in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB. With the sudden explosion of plant growth, which clothes the countryside in a multitude of fresh green textures and tones, comes a rich collection of migrant birds: cuckoos and nightingales, terns and nightjars, sand martins, swallows and warblers, all adding their voices to the clamour of our resident songsters. On the coastal marshes, the breeding season is already much in evidence while, along the hedgerows, early butterflies such as the orange tip are on the wing. It's an exciting time of year and each day brings new sights and sounds to the AONB.

Winter birds should now be much in evidence throughout the AONB. Flocks of winter thrushes – fieldfares and redwings - can be seen taking advantage of this year’s crop of berries and there’s always a chance of seeing rarer visitors such as waxwings. However, with the days drawing shorter, this issue of nature notes looks at our night sky, and the problem of light pollution (see below).