Five of the UK's best birdwatching sites

Interested in birdwatching around the UK? As Walthamstow welcomes its new wetlands reserve, we select five other great spots to take flight to for feathery figures

Rachel Dixon

Thursday 19 October 2017 15.26 BSTLast modified on Thursday 19 October 2017 18.04 BST

Puffins on Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland

Rathlin Island, the northernmost point of Northern Ireland, is home to the country’s biggest seabird colony. The star is the puffin, which arrives in April to breed and heads back out to sea in late July. Other birds to see at the West Light Seabird Centre, a refurbished lighthouse, include razorbills, guillemots, kittiwakes and fulmars. The Roonivoolin Reserve in the south of the island attracts choughs, lapwings, corncrakes and snipe, while eider ducks laze around the harbour.
• Admission free, return ferry fare from Ballycastle is £12 adult, £6 child and £32 family, rathlincommunity.org

The Abbotsbury Swannery was founded by Benedictine monks in the mid-11th century and today is the only managed colony of nesting mute swans in the world. The 600 free-flying swans live in a 25-acre sanctuary; fluffy cygnets hatch from mid-May to the end of June, and learn to fly in September and October. Visitors can walk among the swans and help at feeding time (midday and 4pm). There are also lots of geese, ducks and other waterfowl.
• From £10 adult, £7.60 child, abbotsbury-tourism.co.

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