The Stour Estuary Nature Reserve

 

The Stour Estuary is the focus of a children's novel by Arthur Ransome, Secret Water (1939).

It is a long and straight estuary, formed at the eastern end of the border between Suffolk and Essex. The estuary's mouth converges with that of the Orwell as the two rivers enter the North Sea.

The reserve, managed by the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), is unusual in that it consists of two divergent habitat types: intertidal mudflats (fringed by saltmarsh and estuarine reeds), and 130 acres (0.5 km²) of deciduous woodland, mainly oak and coppiced sweet chestnut. It is one of the most important estuaries in Britain as a breeding, roosting and wintering site for many waterfowl and other birds. They include among others woodpeckers, Nightingale, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, European Wigeon, Shelduck, Pintail, Teal, Dark-bellied Brent Goose, Grey Plover, Redshank, Curlew, Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwit, with internationally important numbers of grey plovers, knots, redshanks and dunlin, but most significantly for the numbers of Black Tailed Godwit. Mammals to be seen include Red Fox Vulpes vulpes, badger Meles meles, Grey Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis, and Hazel Dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius. Butterflies and rare moths include White Admiral Limenitis camilla, Chocolate-tip Moth Clostera curtula and Peach Blossom Moth Thyatira batis.

At the Stour Estuary reserve you can enjoy both strolling through the coppiced wood and watching wading birds, ducks and geese. In the spring, nightingales and other birds fill the woods with their songs. The flowers of spring are also particularly beautiful. To see estuary birds, the best time to visit is during the autumn and winter.

Please click on the image above to download a trail along the estuary.