Surfbirds News

Titchwell Marsh on the north Norfolk coast faces inundation by the North Sea, which is slowly but surely eroding the 30-year-old sea walls that protect it.

To stave off catastrophe the RSPB has decided it must allow the sea to reclaim part of the reserve in order to save the rest.

Pectoral Sandpiper © Steve Morgan, a near annual rarity at Titchwell,
from the surfbirds galleries

If the waters were to break through then the entire reserve, a mix of brackish and fresh water marshes and scarce reedbed, will be lost along with rare breeding birds like the bittern and marsh harrier.

The loss of the reserve would also hit the local economy, with Titchwell Marsh employing local people and attracting tens of thousands of visitors to the area every year.

Under the scheme, the sea wall will be moved back behind the present brackish marsh, which will be allowed to return to tidal saltmarsh.

This will allow new and improved sea defences to protect the fresh water marsh and the reedbeds with their precious breeding bitterns from the rising tides. At the same time visitor facilities will be enhanced and it is hoped the newly created saltmarsh will become an attraction in its own right.

While Titchwell’s iconic avocets nest on islands in the brackish marsh, some have already moved to the adjacent fresh water marsh. In addition, the RSPB plans to create new sites nesting sites at its Freiston Shore and Frampton Marsh reserves, some 19 miles away as the avocet flies, on the Lincolnshire side of The Wash.

The work carried out at Titchwell Marsh should secure the much-loved site’s future for at least 50 years, by which time the danger of further erosion may have passed.

Rob Coleman, the reserve’s manager, said: “I know this is a huge change for Titchwell and for the very many people who share our deep love for the reserve, but the need to go ahead with this scheme was clear.

“We faced a stark choice between sacrificing the brackish marsh or losing the whole site to the sea.

“In drawing up these changes we have listened hard to local people and to visitors. As a result, the new-look site will keep and improve on all the things that make Titchwell special for them.”