Perspectives of the Thames - a bird's eye view

Continuing our series of guest blogs from around the Thames estuary, here Rolf Williams the RSPB's Kent Communications Officer, takes to the skies

Have you ever shopped at Bluewater in Kent, or how about Lakeside in Essex? They cater for tens of millions of shoppers each year. As I flew over them at 1,800ft it truly dawned on me how terrestrially routed we are, our mindset utterly shaped by the need to move across the surface of our home by means of feet, wheels or rails. These two enormous retail developments are only two and half miles apart; they exist in such proximity only because the River Thames divides us.

Even though many of us love birds, and do our best to feed them and provide nesting opportunities, we don’t really ‘think’ like a bird, or appreciate the world in which they move. To gain that perspective I took a flight in a powered hang glider and, by the time we landed, I had a totally new perspective of the Thames and the Medway, what it means to birds, and even more startling, the physical mark that the RSPB and its partner organisations leave on the landscape.

The world becomes very much smaller as soon as you are flying. With the wind in our tail it took only tens of minutes to fly from RSPB Rainham Marshes (beyond the Dartford crossing), to RSPB Seasalter just west of Whitstable.

The ground was a myriad of textures reflecting the multiple land use, arable fields, towns and villages, industry and, of course, the marshes. Along North Kent, the grazing marsh forms a contiguous habitat fringing the south bank of the Thames. The waters of the Medway and Swale Estuaries looked a tropical blue, feeding the salt marshes and creeping over the mud on a tidal flood.

Neighbours and partners, RSPB Motney Hill and Riverside Country Park. Photo RSPB

I realised that were I a wetland bird looking for a place to feed or roost, the hotspots were obvious, and, were I disturbed from one place, I could see where the next opportunity lay, and it wasn’t far. A redshank on the Hoo Peninsula could be feeding on the spectacular new wetland habitat created on the South Essex Marshes in five minutes – it takes me an hour to drive there. The strange worm-like scrapes and rills put into the fields by the RSPB to hold water and attract birds were among the most conspicuous marks on the landscape – engineering projects on a truly landscape scale.

At 1,800ft, great black-backed gulls were passing us, and from there, we could see Dover and the English Channel even though we were over Gravesend. It suddenly made sense to me that birdwatchers on Canvey Island have observed skuas (a truly oceanic bird) blown up the Thames by storms in the North Sea, rising on updrafts and heading in land over the Hoo Peninsula for the sea. The wetland habitats in our care are so clearly stepping-stones to places much further afield to a human, but well in sight to a migrating bird.

From my precarious position suspended under canvas I could also see Stansted, City and Southend Airport, and planes homing in on Gatwick, Luton and London Heathrow. The air is resonating with plans to put an airport in the Thames Estuary, on the Hoo Peninsula even. From my bird’s-eye view, the impact was tangible. 30 years ago, in another feat of avian adventure, the RAF dropped a bomb right in the middle of Port Stanley airfield. Putting an airport here would have the same impact. It would punch a hole right through the middle of the Thames’ green runway, taking out an enormous swathe of internationally protected habitat.

The shock waves of such a development would be felt right across the surrounding landscape, to the detriment of people and wildlife far beyond the localised destruction. From the QE2 bridge looking east, the green ribbon of opportunity for nature on both sides of the river, where 300,000 birds and at least as many people take respite, would be cut to pieces.

Where the Medway meets the Thames - looking west to the Hoo Peninsula. Photo RSPB

I flew over plenty of examples of sustainable development in the Thames Estuary and it was also blatantly clear that people were benefiting from their natural environment not suffering because of it. What has happened this year is that the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs designated the Greater Thames Estuary a Nature Improvement Area, bringing partnerships and funding to restore, enhance and create habitat.

Let’s continue to work together on that, while ensuring that a Thames Estuary Airport doesn’t happen.

Our next guest blog will give a perspective from Essex.

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