According to the RSPB this is the place to witness two of the UK's greatest wildlife spectacles. When big tides occur and the sea begins to cover the vast mudflats of The Wash, tens of thousands of wading birds, including Knot and Oystercatchers, are pushed off their feeding grounds and onto the roost banks and islands in front of the RSPB hides. During the autumn the Knot lose their summer plumage and become a striking monochrome. There are more than 10,000 of these little birds at Snettisham making them a spectacular site to behold. In the winter many migrating birds come here from their breeding grounds in the high Arctic. A dawn or dusk visit can therefore reward visitors with the sight and sounds of thousands of pink footed geese. Other arrivals just stop to rest before flying on to Africa for the winter. Large numbers of common terns and black-headed gulls nest on the reserve in summer, where there is a spectacular display of shingle flowers. The reserve is open throughout the year.