Benacre & Covehithe Broads and Blyth Estuary - Suffolk (Day Trip)

Summary

Formerly a small fishing village with a quay, Covehithe is now all but lost to the sea. A sign of its wealth is the shell of St Andrews Church, the starting point for our walk to Benacre Broad to the north, then Covehithe Broad to the south. In autumn both broads hold shallow water and are fringed with reeds that are especially attractive to migrant waders, including Greenshank, Dunlin, 100s of Lapwing and sometimes something rarer. Standing on the beach, with its scattered ‘tree skeletons’, flocks of pipits, buntings and finches head south and offshore a Fulmar is often patrolling. At Blythburgh, best known for its church, Holy Trinity, the ‘Cathedral of the Marshes’, the Blyth Estuary is a large open expanse often covered in shorebirds, especially Black-tailed Godwits, Redshank and Avocet. A walk here in the afternoon, with the sunlight turning everything to gold is truly memorable.