Seaforth Nature Reserve

A common tern with a sand eel clasped in its bill

David Tipling

A teal walking into water as the sunrise casts an orange glow

Luke Massey

A yellow wagtail standing on the ground

Jim Higham

Life never moves in the slow lane at Seaforth, a coastal nature reserve home to hundreds of thousands of waders and seabirds.

Location

Seaforth Nature Reserve,
Royal Seaforth Docks
Liverpool
Lancashire
L21 1JD

OS Map Reference

SD 318 971
A static map of Seaforth Nature Reserve

Know before you go

Size
33 hectares

Walking trails

Basic footpaths around the site.

Access

Seaforth Nature Reserve sits within the busy Port of Liverpool perimeter. You'll need a day pass to enter, which can be obtained on the day you visit. To obtain a day pass, please complete the form at the bottom of this page with all the required details. Please provide at least one week's notice if possible. Emails are not monitored at evening or on weekends. Your request for a day pass will be forwarded to Port of Liverpool Police and a member of staff should be in touch to confirm this. Please find a map at the bottom of this page to guide you through the port to the reserve.

For group or educational visits please contact the reserve office: 07740 419187. 

Lancashire Wildlife Trust members can apply for an annual port pass (at a cost of £25 per year) by contacting the ISPS office at ISPS@peelports.co.uk.

Dogs

No dogs permitted
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Facilities

Bird hides

When to visit

Opening times

Open at all times.

Best time to visit

Year-round

About the reserve

Nestled in the heart of the Liverpool Docks at the mouth of the Mersey, Seaforth, with its industrial charm, is an important part of the Mersey narrows special protection area and a major roosting site for a spectacular variety of waders, seabirds, ducks and small birds. From spring through to winter, life moves at a frenetic pace, and there is always something to see.

Spring is prime-time for spotting migrating little gulls en-route to their breeding grounds in Finland. Black-headed, common, herring, lesser black-backed and great black-backed gulls fill the air with bickering chatter, and are occasionally joined by something rarer: Ross’s and Bonaparte’s gulls have previously been spotted by eagle-eyed visitors.

Spring and summer bring the stunning spectacle of swifts feeding over the freshwater pool, and most years, osprey pass over on their epic migration. Early summer brings up to 1 per cent of the UK population of common tern, and you may even be lucky enough to see small numbers of sandwich, roseate and little terns.

Winter at Seaforth is a bird lover's dream; the lagoons and reedbeed host good numbers of teal, pochard, tufted duck, goldeneye and the incredibly rare scaup. Waders also abound– redshank, oystercatcher, ringed plover, dunlin and curlew are just a few of the 38 wader species recorded at this incredibly special nature reserve, living alongside white wagtails, yellow wagtails, meadow pipits and whinchats.

Contact us

Andrew Hampson
Contact number: 07740 419187

Environmental designation

Candidate SAC
Ramsar
Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)

Seaforth Nature Reserve map

A map of Seaforth port, showing how to get through the port to the nature reserve

Request a Seaforth day pass

If you'd like to visit the reserve, please fill in the form below to request a day pass and a member of our team will get back to you.

Emails aren't monitored in the evening or on weekends. If possible, please provide one week's notice for your pass.