Spittal Pond Nature Reserve

Spittal Pond folds most of wild Bermuda into sixty-odd acres: a brackish lagoon where herons, egrets and migrating shorebirds work the margins, a loop trail through buttonwood and cedar replantings, and a stretch of south-shore cliffs where the Atlantic performs below. On those cliffs sits Portuguese Rock - a carving left by shipwrecked sailors around 1543, the oldest human mark on the island, now preserved under a bronze cast. Autumn through spring the pond is the island's best birding as transatlantic migrants drop in, and the chequerboard limestone of the shoreline makes geologists loiter too.

What you actually see

• The lagoon birdlife - herons resident, migrants in passage seasons.
• Portuguese Rock - the 1543 castaway carving above the sea.
• The south-shore cliffs - surf, spray and the chequerboard limestone.
• The loop trail - the easy circuit linking pond, woods and coast.

When to go

September to April brings the migrant birds and cooler walking; the loop is pleasant year round. After storms the pond fills and the birdlife concentrates. Early morning gives the reserve to the birders.

Honest expectations

It is a nature reserve of Bermudian scale - a focused two hours, not a wilderness day. Trails can be muddy after rain and the cliff edges are unfenced; keep children close on the seaward stretch. Bring binoculars or the pond reads as scenery rather than spectacle.

Nearby

The south-shore beaches, Flatts Village's aquarium and Harrington Sound.