Posted by Megan Jones, RSPB Old Hall Marshes Residential Volunteer, April 2026 On a breezy but sunny February morning we set out from West Mersea aboard Stacey Belbin’s boat Lady Grace to survey the Mersea Harbour Protection Trust (MHPT) recharge beaches in the Blackwater Estuary. The survey covered all four MHPT recharge sites: Cobmarsh Island, Packing Marsh Island, Old Hall Point and Tollesbury Wick. These shingle beaches were created using sand and gravel dredged from the approaches to Harwich Harbour as part of the Mersea Harbour and Tollesbury Wick Climate Change Adaptation Project completed in 2022, building on earlier recharge work carried out by the Environment Agency in the 1990s. As well as helping to protect the harbour and surrounding coastline from erosion and storm waves, the raised beaches also provide valuable habitat for wildlife, particularly high tide roosting areas for birds. When the tide rises and the mudflats and marshes birds use for feeding become covered, they need somewhere safe to rest above the water until the tide falls again. Historically the Blackwater Estuary has had relatively few suitable high‑tide roost sites, something that is expected to become more of a challenge as sea levels rise. The recharge beaches help address this by creating raised areas where birds can gather and wait out the tide. Bird surveys have been carried out since 2018 to monitor how birds use the recharge sites, and this survey was the final high‑tide roost count within the monitoring programme following the completion of the recharge works. Using the British Trust for Ornithology’s Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) ‘look‑see’ method, we slowly travelled past each recharge area about an hour before high tide, counting birds through binoculars as we went while keeping a careful distance to avoid disturbing them. We recorded a wide range of coastal bird species during the survey, with 940 birds counted in total. The most numerous were oystercatchers, with 358 counted across the sites, and dunlin, with 187 recorded. Many of the dunlin were gathered on the newer Tollesbury Wick recharge where large flocks were roosting on the shingle above the incoming tide. Oystercatchers were also widely spread, particularly on the newer recharge areas at Cobmarsh Island and Tollesbury Wick.  One of the highlights of the morning was a single Purple Sandpiper roosting on the Tollesbury Wick recharge. Blending in amongst the Turnstones and Dunlin, it was easy to miss at first as it rested quietly on the shingle. Purple Sandpipers are hardy coastal wading birds more often associated with rocky shorelines, and they only appear along this stretch of the Essex coast occasionally, so this was a particularly memorable sighting.
These surveys have helped build a clearer picture of how birds are using the recharge habitats and whether projects using the beneficial use of dredged sediment (BUDS) are delivering the intended benefits for wildlife. Monitoring the sites over time will also help inform future work in the estuary – including the new BUDS in the Blackwater Estuary project, which will build on the MHPT recharge work, continuing to use dredged sediment to help protect coastal habitats and communities while also creating valuable habitat for birds and other wildlife.
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 Posted by James Dunn, Senior Project Manager at the RSPB, August 2024The Engineering with Nature (EWN): Atlas Volume 3 was published in May 2024 and includes the sand and gravel recharge delivered by the RSPB on Horsey Island and by Mersea Harbour Protection Trust (MHPT) in the Blackwater Estuary, both in partnership with Harwich Haven Authority. This projects are the first Beneficial Use of Dredged Sediment (BUDS) projects in the UK to be included in the atlas which demonstrates the increased interest in the use of BUDS for habitat creation and an increased understanding of the wide range of benefits such schemes can deliver including Flood and Coastal Risk Management and biodiversity benefit. The Atlas showcases a diverse range of international projects that seek to demonstrate the numerous benefits that nature based solutions can provide and can accessed here:- Engineering With Nature An Atlas, Volume 3 - Engineering With Nature
"The MHPT beach recharge and the recharge at Horsey Island in Hamford Water delivered through the Beneficial Use of Dredged Sediment are exciting schemes that provide multiple benefits not only to nature and wildlife but also to society. Their inclusion in the EWN atlas demonstrates their importance as case studies that provide important lessons for future schemes" Kieren Alexander, Site Manager at RSPB Old Hall Marshes. The BUDS in the Blackwater Estuary project will seek to replicate and build on the the recharge delivered in the Blackwater Estuary described in the EWN. The new project will deliver sand and shingle recharge on the foreshore at Tollesbury Wick, Old Hall Point and Cobmarsh Island with the aim of protecting coastal flood defences and saltmarsh whilst creating important habitat for beach nesting birds such as amber-listed little tern and ringed plover. |
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If you have any questions please contact us at [email protected]. All photography by Jim Pullen Surveys.
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