The attraction? Savouring the peace while standing in the middle of the largest
freshwater reedbed in Britain with bittern booming and harrier hovering in the air above.”

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.

The reserve is a magnet for breeding and wintering wildfowl and wading birds including the elegant avocet, white-fronted goose, lapwing and redshank. The reedbed holds a significant proportion of the UK’s marsh harrier and bittern – a shy bird of which there are only 13 booming males left in Britain.

The vulnerable otter and water vole also live here and the site is internationally important for starlet sea anemone – the rarest sea anemone in Britain. These live in the soft mud at the edges of the creeks, saltmarshes and brackish pools, are less than two centimetres long and feed on small shrimp-like creatures and snails.

This valuable reserve is looked after by a unique partnership involving Suffolk Wildlife Trust, RSPB and English Nature.

By working together water levels are controlled, marshes grazed by cattle and reedbeds cut commercially for the benefit of wildlife. Dingle Marshes is jointly owned by Suffolk Wildlife Trust and RSPB.

Other Trust reserves nearby: Darsham Marshes

Imagine the bittern’s haunting call carrying
for miles over marshland wilderness

STAR SPECIES
Bittern
Marsh harrier
Avocet