New land secured for a transformative expansion at RSPB Wallasea Island

We’re thrilled to share that RSPB Wallasea Island in Essex is expanding, thanks to a transformative grant from the Ida Davis Family Foundation. The team are hopeful that the nature reserve’s first freshwater pool will attract Red-listed wading birds, while the additional grassland habitat will support threatened farmland species.  

Wallasea Island will increase by 100 hectares (that’s an area the size of 140 football pitches!) with the purchase of four fields to the west of the existing reserve, allowing us to complete our vision for the land here. 
 
The creation of a freshwater pool will offer feeding opportunities to ducks passing through for a pitstop on migration as well as the species that spend winter on our shores, like Teals, Shovelers and Wigeons. This shallow lagoon will also provide prime habitat for wading birds to raise their chicks.  
 
Meanwhile, the other three fields will be developed into a mosaic of grassland and scrub, with additional wet areas, to provide extra habitat for birds including breeding Corn Buntings. Wallasea Island is already a stronghold for this lowland farmland bird, which has seen dramatic population declines across the UK. 
 
Rachel Fancy, Site Manager at Wallasea Island explained “We are incredibly grateful to the Ida Davis Family Foundation for giving us the money to buy the land adjacent to the reserve. This is an exciting project which will allow us to create some new habitats, adding to the mix of wildlife already present on the reserve.”  

Since Wallasea Island’s transformation began, wildlife has returned in abundance. Spoonbills now sift through the saline lagoons in spring and summer and Black-tailed Godwits use the shallow pools to refuel on their migrations. The grassland on the reserve is managed for hunting birds of prey in winter such as Short-eared Owls and Hen Harriers, while in summer this becomes habitat for Adders and rare invertebrates such as the Shrill Carder Bee and Black Oil Beetle. 
 
Wallasea Island lies where the River Crouch and Roach meet. In winter at high tides, it can host well over half of the estuaries’ water birds. 11 species are found in nationally significant numbers, while a further four species – Grey Plovers, Knots, Shovelers and Bar-tailed Godwits – are hosted in internationally important numbers.  
 
The site also falls within England’s East Coast Wetlands, which is a globally important place for nature, stretching from the River Thames to the Humber estuary. This diverse network of coastal habitats provides a home to millions of migratory birds each year.  
 
In 2023, the reserve broke its own records when a total of 38,000 birds were recorded on Wallasea Island in December’s monthly Wetland Bird Surveys.  

Like much of Essex’s coastline, the land at Wallasea Island would’ve once been a mosaic of grassland, mudflats and marshes. However, it was drained for agricultural use in the 1950s. 

The increasing sea levels over recent years put the future of the farmland at Wallasea Island at risk and so the RSPB acquired the land in the mid-2000s, aiming to transform the landscape into invaluable intertidal habitat.  
 
A total of 3.2 million tonnes of soil, which had been dug out from the creation of the Elizabeth line, were donated by Crossrail. This was used to raise the land above sea level and to create a new area of marsh and mudflats, known as Jubilee Marsh, to provide feeding opportunities for wading birds.    

The newly acquired land for the expansion will be grazed by roaming livestock using ‘fenceless grazing’ technology to create a diverse habitat, attracting an array of species. The use of cattle, rather than intensive human intervention, is part of the vision for Wallasea Island to act as a wild landscape. While some scrub species like Hawthorn and Blackthorn will be planted at the beginning of the transformation, most of the vegetation will establish through natural regeneration.  
 
To learn more about Wallasea Island, visit Wallasea Island Nature Reserve, Essex