Blog by Kieren Alexander, RSPB Site Manager for Old Hall Marshes

It was a fantastic year on the newly created beach at Horsey Island. For those not familiar with this project, this was the creation of a new beach for little terns and other beach nesting birds to breed on, using 50,000 cubic metres of sand and shingle from the major channel deepening project carried out by Harwich Haven Authority.

Along with providing breeding habitat for little terns and other beach nesting birds, the aim of the recharge scheme was also to help reduce erosion of the saltmarsh at Hamford water. This protected habitat, is vital for carbon storage, aiding in the fight against climate change. The project also assists in providing a natural wave break for the wider Hamford Water area, absorbing the energy before the waves reach the mainland and reducing pressure on the surrounding seawalls.

Nesting on beaches, Little Terns are highly vulnerable to disturbance and erosion exacerbated by rising sea-levels throughout their breeding grounds. The project at Horsey Island, raises the height of a shingle beach out of the reach of the highest tides and hopefully secures this nesting location for the next 60 years.

Below is a little video on how we created this new beach:

Now in its 3rd year and approaching its 3rd breeding season, it is time report back on the results from 2023’s breeding season; in total 28 pairs of Little Terns successfully raised 42 chicks during this year’s breeding season at Horsey Island in Essex. Figures indicate that this year has seen the highest number of chicks taking to the skies since 2006.  
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The site has also provided valuable habitat for other species including a Common Gull which fledged one chick this year from Horsey and is a rare occurrence in Essex and is possibly the first to have bred in Essex.

This is an incredible result and a real success for all the organisations involved in the management of the beach from Tendring District Council, who warden the site and the wider Hamford water embayment, the landowners and HHA and the Environment Agency who helped fund the work.

We will continue to monitor the beach both ecologically and geo-morphologically, with one final drone survey this Spring before we move to an annual monitoring drone flight to see how it is evolving over time and continued annual monitoring of the little tern population led by Tendring District Council and with the assistance of the landowners.


In case you missed it, here is the link to first part of Horsey Island Recharge Project blog, the second part, the third part and the fourth part.

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Video credits: Jim Pullen/RSPB

Blog by Kieren Alexander, Site Manager for RSPB Old Hall Marshes

After the successful recharge operation of Autumn/Winter 2021, attention has now turned to monitoring both the breeding colony present on the island and of course how the sand and shingle is moving and responding to the water.

Thankfully its good news on both fronts!
Starting with the little tern colony and other beach nesting bird that nest at Horsey. Little terns had a great year, with 22 nests fledging 19 young.

There were 14 AON’s on the new recharge and a further 8 on the old recharge, this is an increase of 5 nests and 11 fledged juveniles from 2021 and a welcome return to form for this colony that decreased during 2020 and the impact of recreational disturbance. 

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Ringed plovers did well, with all four pairs of young fledging at least one chick each. Oystercatchers stayed stable at 10 pairs and there were the normal low levels of black headed gulls. We are thankful to the environmental team at Tendring District council, in particularly Leon Woodrow for erecting signage and closely monitoring the species and any potential disturbance over the summer months.

What has been impressive is the way the little terns immediately colonised the new area of beach, with many nests found on this new area, this shows the importance not just of safeguarding existing colonies from the impacts of climate change (which was one of the aims of the project) but also the vital need to create new habitats for our species. 

​As well as the beach nesting colony we have also been monitoring the sand and shingle and how it is moving in response to tide and wind after being recharged. 

We are lucky at Horsey in that we have real life model that was created in the 1990’s in the form of the existing beach (to the west in the photo). So, we have a strong idea of how the material will respond. However, it is always nice to see the theory become reality.

The GIF below shows the results of our monitoring since the material was deposited, so far, we have undertaken three monitoring flights and it shows the material initially being smoothed out and then gradually being pushed landwards towards the existing beach and then following a classic longshore drift movement to the west, making it a near mirror image of the existing beach.

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Movement has been slow so far, but it is assumed that the material does a lot of its moving in the winter season, so the next results of the next two flights will be interesting to see and how it continues to respond. 

In case you missed it, here is the link to first part of Horsey Island Recharge Project blog, the second part and the third part.