Sadly, this precious landscape is threatened by the climate crisis. Rising seas are already swallowing tidal islands and mudbanks; shrinking the places where birds like Lapwing, Avocet, and Grey Plover can roost and raise chicks.
Yet while its coastline suffers from too much saltwater, Essex is also one of the driest counties in the country. Prolonged periods of drought, like the one we witnessed this spring, are forecast to become more common. This makes the ground too dry for young birds to probe for food, while waterless ditches expose the burrows of Britain’s most endangered mammal, the Water Vole.
Water vole Arvicola amphibius, adult feeding in small pond(Image: )
It is in this context that the RSPB is working to create landscapes which are resistant to rising sea levels and extreme weather, and which work for wildlife and people.
Funded by the Species Survival Fund, a partnership between Defra and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, 21 new islands are being created at RSPB Wallasea, itself a tidal island! From Black-headed Gulls to threatened Lapwing and increasingly rare Avocet, coastal islands are vital safe havens for a whole host of birds. Even tiny islands, which resemble little more than a muddy heap, help protect nesting or sleeping birds from predators and reduce the risk of human disturbance.
Every year, millions of birds migrate along England’s East Coast Wetlands. As such, Essex’s islands are of international significance. Seen from above by a bird, these are 21 new places to land, roost, and feed – and that’s exactly what they’ve been doing.
Avocet using lagoon edge at Wallasea CREDIT: Jeff Delve(Image: )
Despite only being completed late last year, the new islands at Wallasea are already hosting flocks of Lapwing, Black-headed Gull and Avocet.
These are not the first islands created at Wallasea, but their location in the reserve is important. Past projects have created islands beyond the sea wall. Predicted to last for many years, the rate at which the sea is rising means they now submerge at full tide. This means that when the tide is in, there are increasingly few island havens for birds. Coupled with the extensive development which has taken place along the Essex coast, this decline in habitat is bad news for the millions of birds which traverse the county’s coastline each year.
To offset this, the new islands at Wallasea have been built in a saltwater lagoon behind the sea wall. The team at the reserve are able to control the amount of water in the lagoon using a clever system of valves and sluices, so that the tops of the islands are always out of the water, while their banks remain soft and muddy.
Aerial image of RSPB Wallasea Island Nature Reserve at high tide(Image: )
These conditions are perfect for wading birds, which use their long beaks to rootle around in the mud, looking for the small insets which make up their diet.
Rachel Fancy, the Site Manager at Wallasea, adds ‘At high tide, when the mud and saltmarsh are covered, the birds need safe roosting spots. This is crucial because not much of the coast has safe places left. Behind the seawall is either heavily disturbed or given over to development and industry. Meanwhile, any fringes of saltmarsh left in front of the seawall will soon go under due to sea level rise. That’s why creating habitat which will last is so important here.’
On an island reserve created with the spoil from Cross Rail, nothing goes to waste. Even the edge of the saline lagoon is being restored, with 830 square metres of vegetated habitat – home to plants like sea purslane – now added to the reserve. This creates areas in which chicks can remain hidden while they feed.
Vange Wick(Image: )
The saltiness of the lagoon is also an important point. With freshwater becoming an increasingly scarce resource for large parts of the year, but saltwater available by bucketload, the new islands will be able to support nesting birds far into the future.
Water management is also central to the work taking place at Vange Wick, part of the South Essex Marshes. Again, funded by the Species Survival Fund, the site has undergone a transformation. The marsh already supported large populations of wading birds, various ducks and an intrepid community of water voles. The work has not only improved this habitat, but made it more resilient in the face of extreme weather.
Marc Outten, Site Manager at the reserve, explains ‘we’re seeing drier, hotter summers that dry these wetlands out very quickly, making them unfavourable for some of the species that need wet habitat.’ This includes iconic wetland birds like Lapwing and Black-tailed Godwits, but also insects like the scarce Emerald Damselfly.
Black-headed gulls using Wallasea Islands (Image: Jeff Delve)
‘By adapting our grazing marshes, so that we can hold more of that winter water on site, it allows them to stay wetter for longer,’ Marc continues. But the work isn’t just about preparing for drought. It’s also about being ready for incredibly wet winters, as well. ‘If we can improve the “hydrological management”, so how we move water around, it will mean that if there’s not a lot of water one year we can keep it in one area, and if there’s an abundance of water another year, we can wet up further bits of the marsh.’
The work itself entails the creation of ‘bunds’ or earth walls – both around and across the grazing marsh. These banks will hold water on the site, while new sluices have given the site team greater control over the flow of water.
Freshly created islands at Wallasea(Image: )
With rising sea levels consuming the mud banks and islands in the nearby Holehaven Creek, the South Essex Marshes are becoming increasingly important for the wading birds like Black-tailed Godwits, Dunlin, and Grey Plover, which would once have roosted in the creek. As such, this new and improved habitat could not have come at a better time, and may prove to be a vital lifeline.
While at first glance its management may not seem like the most exciting part of conservation, water is the basis of life. To zoom out for a moment, 40 percent of all species on earth depend on wetlands, and it is therefore vital that we maintain and enhance them in the face of the climate crisis. Having lost 90 percent of our wetlands in the UK, this work in Essex is an important effort to ensure that we do not lose any more.