Alde Mudflats
Alde Mudflats when impressive numbers of black-tailed godwit and striking black and white avocet can be seen strutting and probing the gloopy 'ooze' for succulent titbits. Make sure you time your visit when the tide is out so the vast expanses of mudflat, harbouring lavish feasts of invertebrates, are fully exposed.
Arger Fen & Spouse's Vale
This woodland nature reserve is one of contrasts from dry wooded slopes to wet valley floors. It holds interest throughout the year but the best time to visit is in the spring for carpets of bluebells, cherry blossom and if your lucky the beautiful song of a nightingale.
Blaxhall Common
The calming, insular feel of this heathland is hard to describe. It holds an attraction for wildlife too and birds like woodlark, nightjar, goldcrest, nightingale and stonechat can be found alongside common lizard, adder and plants like heath milkwort, speedwell, heath bedstraw and sheep’s sorrel.
Bonny wood
Bonny Wood is an ancient coppice woodland and part of the Barking Tye woods which are a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for the quality of coppice wood habitats and in particular the ground flora.
Bradfield Woods
Bradfield Woods National Nature Reserve is a working wood that is unique as it has been under continuous traditional management since 1252, fulfilling local needs for firewood and hazel products. It is one of Britain’s finest ancient woodlands and is a glorious haven for wildlife.
Bromeswell Green
Bromeswell Green is noted for its wet meadows, saltmarsh and woodland. Wetland plants such as southern marsh orchid, lesser spearwort and fen bedstraw make a wonderful display in the damper areas, while climbing corydalis is more typical of the drier parts. Common lizard can be seen basking on warm sunny days.
Brooke House
The administrative base of Suffolk Wildlife Trust
Bull's Wood
This tranquil ancient woodland is the last fragment of the many woods of Cockfield, referred to in the Hundred Rolls of 1279.
Captain's Wood
Captain’s Wood is a most extraordinary wood quite different to any other wood owned by Suffolk Wildlife Trust. Unlike the dense thicket of the coppices of Bradfield or Combs Woods, Captain’s Wood has an open airy feel withspace between the trees where fallow deer roam through one of the greatest expanses of bluebells in the county.
Carlton Marshes
Carlton Marshes lies in the Waveney Valley at the southern tip of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads and comprises over 100 acres of grazing marsh, fens and peat pools. It is the Broads in miniature. Flower studded marshes drained by a system of dykes and grazed by cattle in summer, create a paradise for wintering wading birds and birds of prey including the hobby. Water vole may be seen in and around the dykes along with special plants including the rare and protected water soldier.
Castle Marshes
Castle Marshes is a Broadland site with grazing marsh, fen and freshwater dykes. In winter the marshes are flooded to create expanses of open water for wintering wildfowl that swell the resident populations of wigeon, teal, shoveler and gadwall. Birds of prey like marsh harrier and hobby can often be seen quartering the marshes.
Church Farm
Church Farm was left to Suffolk Wildlife Trust as a nature reserve by Philip Elsey who farmed here for over 40 years. Thanks to his stewardship, the farm is a wildlife haven with flower-rich marshes that were left un-drained, grassland areas that support an abundance of insects and copses of wet and dry woodland.
Comb's Wood
Combs Wood is an ancient hornbeam coppice woodland with a history stretching back to the Doomsday Book. It is still managed in a traditional way with a mosaic of coppice plots and wide open rides.
Cornard Mere
"Sometimes it feels like you’re miles from civilisation. Although small, the Mere can throw up some surprises in terms of visiting wildlife."
Darsham Marshes
Carpets of rich pinks and yellows are likely to greet visitors, as the spectacular flowering plants burst into life during spring and early summer. Ragged-robin, yellow flag, marsh marigold and southern marsh orchid are all easy to spot.
Dingle Marshes
Dingle Marshes is one of the few places in Suffolk, accessible by road, where you can have a near wilderness experience. There’s something exciting to see every day, but May is wonderful with bittern booming and marsh harrier displaying.
Dunwich Forest
Dunwich Forest is Suffolk Wildlife Trust's newest Living Landscape.
Fox Fritillary Meadow
The largest of only four remaining snake’s head fritillary sites in Suffolk, this reserve is an ancient floodplain meadow. Fritillaries thrive in land that periodically floods. In spring the emergence of the grass like foliage is soon followed by displays of up to 300,000 nodding purple-chequered and white flower heads in mid April to early May
Foxburrow Farm
Foxburrow Farm is a 130 acre mosaic of farmland and wildlife habitats. The farmed land is a mixture of arable and grazing land managed using wildlife friendly farming practices. The farm has a fantastic mix of wildlife habitats including mature woodland, community woodland, meadows, orchards and many ponds – making it an ideal place to study farming and wildlife.
Framlingham Mere
With its surrounding wet meadows and ancient castle backdrop, the Mere at Framlingham is considered by many to be the best view in inland Suffolk.
Groton Wood
This ancient woodland is most noted for its small-leaved lime coppice and is wealth of wild cherry tres. The wood’s 22 mostly seasonal ponds are good places to spot frog, toad and newt including the protected great-crested newt.
Grove Farm
There’s always something special to see here at Grove Farm where conservation and commercial farming can be seen working side by side.
Hazelwood Marshes
Hazelwood Marshes are one of the last undrained grazing marshes on the Suffolk coast and among the most important for breeding wading birds including redshank, snipe and lapwing and wintering wildfowl such as white-fronted geese.
Hen Reedbeds
Hen Reedbeds is a blend of reedbeds, fens, dykes and pools created in 1999 to provide new breeding habitat for bittern and other wildlife.
Hopton Fen
This is a gem of a site for the fen enthusiast.
Hutchison's Meadow
Hutchison's Meadow is an inspiring example of flower-rich grassland
Lackford Lakes
Lackford Lakes lie beside the River Lark and have been created from former gravel pits. The Reserve is an important site for wildfowl in the winter and is home to 18 species of dragonfly and damselfy.
Lakenheath Poors Fen
This fen meadow is rich in wildflowers with an unusual mix of Breckland and fen plants including meadow rue, bugle, sneezewort and twayblade. Playful hare abound and the lovely song of birds like blackcap and whitethroat can be heard in spring
Levington Lagoon
This brackish lagoon by the River Orwell was formed as a result of a breach in the sea wall during the notorious 1953 floods, which affected much of the east coast of England. This sensitive site is a magnet for breeding, wintering and passage estuarine birds of which there are exceptional numbers and variety.
Market Weston Fen
With over 250 flowering plants, 20 species of butterfly including white admiral and grayling, and 200 types of moth such as the oak eggar and dotted fan-foot Market Weston Fen is a wildlife paradise.
Martin's Meadows
These three small meadows are among the few flower-rich hay meadows still left in Suffolk.
Mellis Common
“The largest grazing common in Suffolk and fantastically flower-rich.”
Mickfield Meadow
Mickfield Meadow is a stunning flower-rich hay meadow that has never been sprayed or fertilised.
Micklemere
Micklemere is a small wetland area close to Ixworth near Bury St Edmunds.
Newbourne Springs
This small wooded valley with its spring-fed stream used to be a source of water for Felixstowe.
Norah Hanbury- Kelk Meadows
Norah Hanbury-Kelk Meadows are a network of small, flower-rich wet meadows and dykes.
North Cove
North Cove is a quiet relaxing place with a patchwork of wetland habitats including grazing marsh, wet woodland and pools, all lying in the valley of the River Waveney.
Oulton Marshes
Oulton Marshes is a jigsaw of short fen meadow, tall litter fen, dykes, pools and scrub. Mostly man-made, these habitats have developed over hundreds of years of traditional management and now host specialised wildlife.
Pashford Poors Fen
Lakenheath Poors Fen is a small pocket of species rich grassland and scrub surrounded by arable land, a reminant of what would have been here before this part of the fens was so widley cultivated.
Redgrave & Lopham Fen
Redgrave & Lopham Fen is the largest remaining river valley fen in England and the source of the River Waveney.
Reydon Wood
Reydon Wood is a typical Suffolk ancient woodland with features characteristic of medieval coppice wood. The southern boundary consists of an impressive bank and ditch. In the wood itself there are many large coppice stools, some hundreds of years old.
Simpson's Saltings
For some, the immediate appeal of Simpson’s Saltings is its openness and wide views of the Ore estuary. It is also one of the county’s most important coastal sites for its wealth of uncommon coastal and saltmarsh plants. (For this reason the Saltings can only be viewed from the sea wall.)
Sizewell Belts
Marsh, reedbed and wet woodland with adjacent heathland and beach - Sizewell Belts has just about everything! This diverse site is one of the best wetlands in East Anglia for wildflowers; it is a stronghold for otter, water vole and kingfisher, whilst water rail and barn owl can often be seen. The rare and haunting bittern and flighty bearded tit are also found here.
Snape Marshes
Lying on the north bank of the River Alde, between Snape Maltings and the village of Snape, Snape Marshes is a rich mix of wetland habitat, including grazing marsh, reed bed, scrub and wet woodland. With restoration of the marshland through conversation grazing and improvements to the access, Snape Marshes nature reserve is a wonderful haven for people and wildlife.
Sutton & Hollesley Commons
These heaths represent one of the largest continuous areas of Sandlings heath left and are at their most colourful in August and September.
Thelnetham Fen
These small valley fens have survived the threat of nearby dredging of the Little Ouse River and are havens for water-loving plants.
Trimley Marshes
Trimley Marshes is an exciting wetland reserve created almost entirely from arable land alongside the River Orwell.
Wangford Warren
Wangford Warren is the best surviving example of a once extensive sand dune system. As its name suggests the site was originally used to rear rabbits and their grazing, along with sheep, still plays a crucial part in its conservation today.
Winks Meadow
Winks Meadow is rich in wild flowers rich. It supports a wide range of plants characteristic of ancient unimproved grassland including a number of species that are scarce in Suffolk such as: spiny restharrow, sulphur clover and quaking grass.
Wortham Ling
This large tract of heathland near the River Waveney provides an interesting mix of habitats with an impressive variety of plants. Woodland and scrub, short acid grassland, heathland, ponds and chalky areas combine to provide a delightful selection of wildlife.