Breydon Water Breydon Water is a large tidal estuary at Great Yarmouth , Norfolk , England , within The Broads National Park , the UK 's largest protected wetland . It is 5 km long and more than 1.5 km wide in places . It is the confluence of the Rivers Bure , Yare and Waveney . At Breydon Bridge on the east side of Breydon Water , a channel leads to the North Sea at Gorleston , south of Great Yarmouth . Centuries ago , Breydon Water would have been one large estuary facing the sea . At low tide , one can see vast areas of mudflats and saltings , all teeming with birds . Since the mid-80s , Breydon Water has been a nature reserve in the care of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ( RSPB ) . It had been a popular shooting area for centuries , and the shooting continues , but on a very much reduced scale . In terms of nature conservation , Breydon Water is the most important estuary on the east coast of England between The Wash and the Thames estuary . It has specially protected status by virtue of being a European Union Special Protection Area ( SPA ) . In the winter , large numbers of wading birds and wildfowl use it to overwinter , including 12 , 000 Golden Plovers , 12 , 000 Wigeons , 32 , 000 Lapwings and tens of thousands of Bewick 's Swans . Other species that have been noted there include Dunlin , Sanderling , Whimbrel , and on one occasion a Glossy Ibis . There is a bird observation hide at the east end of Breydon Water .   This Norfolk location article is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . Categories : Estuaries in England | Ramsar sites in England | Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reserves in England | Norfolk Broads | Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Norfolk | Norfolk geography stubs 