Somerset

With it's substantial wetlands and largely rural make up, Somerset is the perfect place to visit for people interested in viewing animals in their natural habitats. There are several large nature reserves with excellent facilities and impressive hides to view some of the UK's lesser seen species such as Marsh Harriers, Otters and even Cranes.

Featured Locations

Dead Woman's Ditch

At the centre of the Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding National Beauty, Dead Woman's Ditch is a place of heaths and hillside woods.

  • Hills
  • Woodland
Tom Ward

RSPB Greylake

In the heart of the Somerset Levels, RSPB Greylake is an excellent place to see waterfowl, birds of prey, small mammals, snakes, and even cranes and bitterns if your're lucky.

  • Lake
  • Marsh
  • Wetland
  • River

RSPB Ham Wall

A large wetland reserve in the Somerset levels, home to many birds of prey such as owls and marsh harriers, kingfishers, and even otters. There's a large number of hides, including the impressive Avalon Hide.

  • Lake
  • Marsh
  • River
  • Wetland

RSPB Swell Wood

This hillside woodland is a great place for birdwatching, including a hide specially designed to let you view high in to the tree canopy to see the nesting herons.

  • Meadow
  • Woodland
  • Hills

Shapwick Moor

Shapwick Moor, managed by the Hawk and Owl Trust is former farmland which is being restored to a semi-natural grassland and fen habitat for wild flora and fauna.

  • Grassland
  • Meadow

Westhay Moor

At the center of the Avalon Marshes area, Westhay Moor has been created from the after affects of substantial peat extraction, and is home to thousands of birds year round.

  • Grassland
  • Lake
  • Marsh
  • River
  • Wetland
  • Woodland

Wall Common

Wall Common on the Steart Peninsula is a small grassland area that leads on to the pebble beach and intertidal mudflats of Bridgewater Bay.

  • Beach
  • Coastal
  • Grassland

WWT Steart Marshes

Situated where the River Parrett flows in to the Severn Estuary, Steart Marshes provide an important habitat for coastal birds and invertebrates.

  • Coastal
  • Marsh
  • Wetland
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Other Locations

Brean Down

With views north over the seaside town of Weston-super-mare, west across the Bristol Channel to Wales, south to Bridgewater Bay, and east across the Somerset Levels, Brean Down is a perfect vantage point to survey some of the best that the south west has to offer.

  • Coastal
  • Hills
  • Grassland
  • Beach

Catcott Complex

A mixture of hay meadows, wet woodland, marsh and fen, Catcott in the Somerset Levels is a varied landscape which changes throughout the year as the water levels raise and lower, changing the habitat and the animals that reside in it.

  • Lake
  • Marsh
  • Wetland
  • Grassland

Combe Hill Wood

Combe Hill Wood is a 62 acre managed woodland, containing well maintained paths which are suitable for all abilities, including those in wheelchairs, with viewpoints overlooking the Somerset levels.

  • Woodland
  • Hills

Dommet Wood

An oak and beech tree woodland in Somerset, with pockets of heathland. Once a wood of conifers, it is now being returned to a more wildlife friendly broadleaf wood. Some felled trees have been left on site to create a habitat for important fungi.

  • Heath
  • Woodland

Langford Heathfield

One the Somerset Wildlife Trust's largest reserves, Langford Heathfield is an important site for wildlife being home to butterflies and moths, many bird species, mammals including bats, as well as reptiles such as snakes and lizards.

  • Woodland
  • Grassland
  • Heath

Quants

On the north facing slopes of the Blackdown Hills near the Wellington Monument, Quants is a damp woodland where spring water reaches the surface making it a habitat for alder and birch as well as orchid and lichens.

  • Grassland
  • Woodland

Sutton's Pond

A former clay pit, Sutton's Pond is now a wetland habitat which is home to nesting great crested grebes, kingfisher, and an abundance of dragon flies and damsel flies in the summer. Swallows and house martins also take advantage of the insects as they leave the pond.

  • Wetland