RSPB - giving nature a home
Search
Close
Skip to content
Shop | Community
Log in | Sign up
  • About the RSPB
      About us
    • Our history
    • Our mission
    • How the RSPB is run
    • RSPB Media Centre
    • RSPB job vacancies
    • At home & abroad
    • International
    • England
    • Northern Ireland
    • Scotland
    • Wales
    • Get in touch
    • Contact us
    • RSPB offices
    • Connect with us your way
      Our activities
    • Gardening for wildlife

      Gardening for wildlife

      See our ideas to keep you connected to nature during coronavirus

    • Connect with us your way

      Connect with us your way

      From our regular emails to your favourite social media, there’s more than one way to keep in touch with nature

    • Martin Harper Blog

      Martin Harper Blog

  • Our work
      Nature conservation
    • Conservation and sustainability
    • Projects
    • Landscape scale conservation
    • Centre for Conservation Science
    • Satellite tracking birds
    • RSPB News
    • RSPB News
    • 'Our work' blog
    • Our positions and casework
    • Our positions
    • Casework
    • State of Nature report
      Featured news
    • Mindful mornings

      Mindful mornings

      If you can’t get outside, why not bring the outside in by downloading our bird song radio app?

    • How nature can help protect our homes

      How nature can help protect our homes

      Following the floods this winter, watch how one area is using nature as a natural protector.

    • Casework

      Casework

      Catch up with the RSPB’s own nature detectives on the case as they look to save some very special places.

  • Birds & wildlife
      Wildlife guides
    • Identify a bird
    • Bird A-Z
    • Other garden wildlife
    • Guide to birdwatching
    • UK conservation status explained
    • Nature's Calendar: January
    • Nature's Home magazine
    • About Nature's Home magazine
    • Birds and wildlife articles
    • RSPB Podcasts
    • Nature's Home blog
    • Advice
    • How you can help birds
    • Gardening for wildlife
    • Ask an expert
    • Wildlife and the law
    • How to report crimes against wild birds
    • Bird songs
    • Which bird song is that?
    • Most popular bird guides this month
    • Which bird song is that?

      Which bird song is that?

      Find out how to identify a bird just from the sound of its singing with our bird song identifier playlist.

    • Who to contact if you spot an injured or baby bird

      Who to contact if you spot an injured or baby bird

      Read more advice about what to do if you find a bird that needs help

    • In for a duck

      In for a duck

      It’s nesting season for our waterfowl too but what are the rules you need to follow for ducks, geese or swans?

  • Get involved
      Activities
    • Big Garden Birdwatch
    • Help nature at home
    • RSPB Competitions
    • Dolphinwatch
    • Community & advice
    • Join our local groups
    • How green are you?
    • RSPB Community
    • Get involved blog
    • Volunteering & fundraising
    • Volunteer
    • Fundraise
    • Help nature thrive as a corporate partner
    • Our grant funders
    • Campaigning
    • Climate change effects on nature and wildlife
    • Protecting wildlife sites
    • Campaign with us
    • Five actions to Revive Our World
    • Let nature sing
    • OxCam Arc
    • Top activities to do
    • Help nature at home

      Help nature at home

      Great ideas on how your garden, or even a small backyard or balcony, can become a mini nature reserve

    • How green are you?

      How green are you?

      See some of the ways you can get into green living.

    • Campaigning

      Campaigning

      See our toolkit for ways to campaign with us to protect nature and save wildlife.

  • Reserves & events
      Reserves A-Z Events, dates & inspiration
    • Events
    • COVID-19 information
    • Dates with nature
    • Places to visit blog
    • #ThanksToYou
    • Find a reserve
      Top reserve this month
    • Marshside

      Marshside

      This fantastic wetland site is located north of Southport town centre and has some of the best wildlife in the region.

    • Lytchett Fields

      Lytchett Fields

      The reserve has seen more than thirty species of wading birds.

    • Arne

      Arne

      Heathland home to more than 2565 species.

  • Fun & Learning
      For teachers
    • Supporting resources
    • Wild Challenge
    • School outreach visits
    • Big Schools Birdwatch
    • Sign up for the newsletter
    • School trip ideas
    • For families
    • Big Wild Sleepout
    • Wild Challenge
    • Nature reserves for families
    • For kids
    • Fun factoids for all the family
    • Games and activities
    • Kids stories
    • RSPB kids competitions
    • Latest kids' activities
    • Wild Challenge

      Wild Challenge

      Nature is an adventure waiting to be had. Get out, get busy and get wild!

    • Fun factoids for all the family

      Fun factoids for all the family

      Find out more about the nature and wildlife outside your window.

    • Youth membership

      Youth membership

      As well as a free gift and magazines, you’ll get loads of ideas for activities to try at home.

  • Join & Donate
      Join us
    • Choose a membership
    • Family membership
    • Youth membership
    • Gift membership
    • RSPB Life Fellow Membership
    • Renew your membership
    • Our 2020 film
    • Donate
    • Our appeals
    • Make a one-off donation
    • Make a regular donation
    • Memorial donations
    • Plant a memorial tree
    • In memoriam booklet download form
    • Thank you
    • Leave a gift in your Will
    • Other people's gifts
    • Legacy donation FAQs
    • Legacy administration
    • Legacy booklet download form
    • Thank you
    • Other ways to help
    • Gift Aid
    • Support us when you shop
    • RSPB Images
    • RSPB second-hand binocular scheme
    • Win with the RSPB
    • Payroll Giving
    • Stamp out albatross deaths
  • Login to your account Sign up for an RSPB account
  • Shop
  • Community
  • Home
  • Reserves & events
  • Reserves A-Z
  • Wallasea Island

Wallasea Island

In line with Government guidance on essential, daily exercise outdoors, our trails are open. We urge you to follow the legislation around non-essential travel and please visit your most local nature reserves and green spaces only. Please observe current guidelines on social distancing, face coverings, group sizes, hygiene and follow all signage on-site. See our Covid-19 updates page for the latest safety information (link below). Thank you for your support and understanding.
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
Address
RSPB Wallasea Island, Creeksea Ferry Rd, Rochford SS4 2HD
Grid ref
TQ945946
See our reserves Covid-19 updates page for which sites are open and other important details.

RSPB Wallasea Island is a magical landscape of marshland, lagoons, ditches and sea. Walk along the seawalls to see the saltmarsh, mudflats and lagoons, where terns dive into the water in summer and huge flocks of waders and wildfowl arrive in winter.

Plan your visit

Opening times

Reserve: open daily, 8am-8pm (or dusk if earlier).

Entrance charges

Free entrance to RSPB members
Yes
Adults
Free
Children
Free

Facilities

  • Car park
  • Picnic area
  • Guided walks
  • Viewing point
  • Nature trails

Accessibility

  • Full accessibility information (external website)

How to get here

By train

The nearest station is Rochford, 6.6 miles (10.5 km) away from the reserve.

By bus

Loftman's Corner, Canewdon, about 2.5 km from reserve entrance - Stephensons Bus Route 60 runs from Southend on Sea. From Loftman's Corner head east away from Canewdon onto Creeksea Ferry Road. Continue along this road onto Island and to reserve entrance.

By road

From Rochford, Essex, take the Ashingdon road until you see the brown tourism signs at Bray's Lane and follow these to RSPB Wallasea Island.

Sat nav POI file: If you have a satellite navigation system that can accept POI files, please see our POI page for a download link and instructions.

Get directions from Google Maps
RSPB reserves on Google Earth

Group booking information

Group bookings are accepted. Guided tours are available for groups of 10 or more.  

What will the weather be like?

14 degrees, Sunny day

Downloads

Helping you find your way around. PDF, 62Kb

Wallasea Island trail guide

Contact Wallasea Island

  • RSPB Wallasea Island, Creeksea Ferry Rd, Rochford SS4 2HD
  • wallasea@rspb.org.uk
  • 01268 498620
  • @RSPBEssex
  • Find us on facebook

What will you see?

Our star species

    Wading Avocet Illustration

    Avocet

    Expect to see good numbers of this elegant bird in the spring and summer.

    Black-tailed godwit in breeding plumage

    Black-tailed godwit

    Watch out for migrant black-tailed godwits in spring and autumn.

    Dark-bellied brent goose

    Brent goose

    They can be seen here from October and linger well into the spring.

    Redshank, summer plumage

    Redshank

    Keep an eye out for the redshanks' towering display flights in spring.

    Adult spoonbill illustration

    Spoonbill

    Given increased numbers of spoonbills being seen in the UK, we hope that the site will attract spoonbills.

Recent sightings

Brent goose Branta bernicla, flock flying low over wetland, Wallasea Island RSPB reserve, Essex, England

Find out about recent wildlife sightings at Wallasea Island.

Read more

Seasonal highlights

  • Spring
  • Summer
  • Autumn
  • Winter

Passage migrants in spring include whimbrels and green sandpiper whilst the islands in the lagoons provide plenty of nesting space for avocets and common terns. Listen to the hundreds of skylarks singing high in the sky, see hundreds of gulls packed into the islands and spot hares playing in the grassland. 

During summer months, watch terns diving for fish to feed their young and watch elegant avocets search for food in the shallow lagoon waters. Marsh harriers will be out hunting in the reserve for small mammals. Mid to late summer is the best time to see butterflies and bees on the seawalls including marbled white, common blue, small heath and skippers.

Stand quietly to spot a water vole in one of the ditches. Look over the river Roach for common seals hauled out on the banks. Autumn brings further passage birds including ringed plovers, dunlins, greenshanks, black-tailed godwits and redshanks. Numbers of wildfowl such as teal and wigeon start to climb and Brent geese make an arrival to spend winter on the Essex coast.

For sheer numbers of birds, visit in winter to see the flocks of waders and wildfowl on the lagoons and mudflats. Look out for their panic when a peregrine passes through. Short-eared owls and hen harriers also hunt the grassland for small mammals. Stand quietly to spot a kingfisher hunting the ditches and channels.

About Wallasea Island

Habitat

Walk along seawalls to see the newly-created saltmarsh, mudflats and lagoons. Take a stroll around the grassland to catch a glimpse of short-eared owls or marsh harriers and watch over the river to see common seals haul themselves out.

To create this magical landscape of marshland, lagoons, ditches and sea, more than three million tonnes of earth was brought by boat from the tunnels and shafts created by the Crossrail scheme in London. This allowed us to raise the land above sea level and place the soil in a way that created a new 115-hectare intertidal area of saltmarsh, islands and mudflats (known as Jubilee Marsh).

In addition, Crossrail helped us create saline lagoons, a creek network and grazing marsh. All of which means Wallasea Island is now a wildlife-rich habitat and a great place to visit.

Conservation

We can manage the saline lagoons using sluices to control water levels and we aim to create a variety of depths of water to suit different species. Our wet grassland is grazed by cattle to manage the grass length for wading birds and raptors. Jubilee Marsh needs minimal management as the tide comes in and out, bringing with it sediment, seeds and other bits of plants plus the invertebrates and fish which the birds then feed on.

To the south of the island we have created a series of shallowly flooded saline lagoons to attract overwintering waders and wildfowl and in the summer nesting birds such as avocets, little ringed plovers and hopefully black-winged stilts.

Wallasea Island sits within a Special Protection Area which covers the Crouch and Roach estuaries, and which is special for overwintering waders and wildfowl including brent geese. Our work here increases the habitat for these birds both whilst roosting and feeding, as well as creating new grassland areas (wet and dry). The intertidal areas have been designed with climate change in mind, with long shallow slopes from the new seawall providing space for the saltmarsh to creep up as sea levels rise.

We have worked together with a number of partners on this project:

  • Crossrail - More than three million tonnes of soil was brought here by sea. By raising the land, we reduced the amount of water that came in when we breached the seawall. We were able to place the soil so that a range of habitats will develop, from lagoons and islands to mudflats and saltmarsh.
  • Environment Agency - The Environment Agency are providing significant funding, helping to ensure the project can proceed. This funding will secure 155 hectares of saltmarsh and mudflat on Wallasea Island as replacement intertidal habitat that will go some way to offsetting this loss.
  • Defra - One of the key aims of the project is to build on the success of the 110-hectare Allfleets Marsh on Wallasea Island. This area of saltmarsh and mudflats was created by Defra in 2006 as part of a managed realignment scheme, with holes made in the old sea wall in order to create intertidal habitat behind a new sea wall.
  • Natural England - Natural England now manages Allfleets Marsh on behalf of Defra, and RSPB are the managing agents for Natural England. Natural England and Defra are key partners in the project.

Site information

The reserve covers more than 740ha, with two thirds of the reserve now transformed from arable farmland to saltmarsh, mudflats, lagoons and grazing marsh.

There are three walking trails – Jubilee Marsh, Allfleets Marsh and Marsh Flat. So far we have added a further 7km of trail to the reserve, and more will be created in the future. At the ends of Allfleets Marsh trail and Jubilee Marsh trail are two shelters providing a comfortable place to sit overlooking the river. There are no facilities on site at the moment but we do hope that in time we will add a reception hide to welcome visitors.

Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project

More details on the making of Wallasea Island can be found here.

Latest forum posts

read our forum

Latest blog posts

  • Jamie's work experience week

    My first day as an Assistant Warden at Wallasea Island started by arriving at the office in the morning. As I have volunteered at Wallasea for three and a half years, I was already familiar with the island and some of the Wardens, Rachel and Simon, s...

    Posted 22/07/2019 by RFancy
  • Habitat works over the summer

    The final phases of habitat creation on Wallasea Island are nearing competition as the contractors have now been on site since late May so we thought we would take this opportunity to let you know what’s going on.  The attached map shows the design o...

    Posted 23/08/2018 by Martin P
  • Why is Marsh Flat trail closed?

    If you have visited Wallasea Island in the past couple of weeks you may have noticed that along with the Marsh Flat Trail being closed, there are now some rather large yellow trucks on site. So the trucks relate to the reason behind the closure of th...

    Posted 01/07/2018 by Martin P
  • Jeffs Notes from Breeding Birds of Wallasea Walk

    It turned out to be a sunny but breezy day. After a quick introduction to the island and the habitat work being done by the RSPB the group stopped briefly to watch Little Grebe and Coot chicks with their parents in the borrowdyke by the car park and ...

    Posted 28/06/2018 by Martin P
read our blog

Activities and events

Leisure activities

  • Jubilee Marsh trail: Jubilee Marsh and the sea embankment are formed of the soil that Crossrail brought in from its tunnel excavations in London. Sea water entered the marsh for the first time in July 2015. The 2.4km (one way) permissive trail leads to the south of the Island and at the end Half Moon viewpoint overlooks the River Roach where you may see seals.
  • Allfleets Marsh trail: Enjoy the large skies and landscape of the Essex coast as you walk along this 3.2km (one way) trail. South of the footpath you will see lagoons, whilst to the north you will see Allfleets Marsh, which was created in 2006. Halfway along the trail you can climb a footbridge over the conveyor belt used to take soil from the Crossrail project from the boats to form Jubilee Marsh. This is a public footpath where dogs are allowed on a lead.
  • Marsh Flat trail: This permissive circular trail takes you past both Grass Farm Lagoon and Acresfleet Lagoons and then on around the grazing marsh and wet grassland. The lagoons were filled with water entering via the sluice in Allfleets Marsh in autumn 2016. The longer circular route is 4.4km. The shorter one is 1.5km.

Share this

  • Facebook Facebook Created with Sketch.
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

You might also be interested in

RSPB Giving Nature a Home Campaign

Join us - legacy

Become an RSPB member by signing up here.
Mudflats of the River Thames. Rainham Marshes RSPB Reserve

Greater Thames

On the doorstep of one of the world’s foremost waterways, rare species and heavy industry intertwine in this landscape.
Male bearded tit feeding on reed head

South Essex Wildlife Garden

The perfect place to enjoy a stroll in peaceful surroundings and find out more about gardening for wildlife.

We spend 90% of net income on conservation, public education and advocacy

Quick links

  • Contact us
  • Online Community
  • Vacancies
  • Media centre

Information for

  • Teachers
  • Policy makers
  • Farmers & landowners
  • Scientists

Our work in

  • England
  • Scotland
  • Wales
  • Northern Ireland
  • International

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

Partnering with

BirdLife_logo

The RSPB is a member of BirdLife International. Find out more about the partnership

Fundraising Regulator logo OSCR logo

© The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no. SC037654

  • Terms & conditions
  • Cookie policy
  • Privacy policy
  • Charter and statutes
  • About our site
  • Modern Slavery Act

Cookie Preferences

Accepting all non-essential cookies helps us to personalise your experience

Edit settings
Accept all

Essential cookies are required

These cookies are required for basic web functions

Enable analytics cookies

Allow us to collect anonymised performance data

Enable marketing cookies

Allow us to personalise your experience

Save settings
Read our cookie policy