Walking the Wetland Trail at Saltings Reach

Thirty years ago, the land that now forms Saltings Reach Nature Reserve was a patchwork of drained grazing marsh, valued by its owners chiefly for the sheep it could support. The decision to let the sea and the rain reclaim part of it was controversial at the time, and several neighbouring farmers predicted that the result would be little more than a mosquito-ridden swamp. Instead, the reserve has become one of the most important sites for wading birds on this stretch of coast, and its wetland trail, a circuit of a little under three kilometres, draws birdwatchers and families throughout the year.

The trail begins at the Visitor Centre, a timber building near the southern edge of the reserve, beside the Car Park. Before setting out, many families pause at the dipping pond, which lies immediately to the west of the centre and is stocked, as far as anything wild can be, with water beetles, dragonfly larvae and newts. Children are lent nets and trays, and volunteers help them to identify their catches before returning them to the water. From here, the trail heads north through rough grassland until it reaches a junction, where walkers must decide which way to go.

Those who turn right soon come to the shallow wader scrape, the most productive habitat on the reserve, which occupies the north-eastern corner of the site. A scrape is an area of bare mud and very shallow water whose level can be raised or lowered by sluices, and the wardens adjust it through the year to suit the birds: in spring the water is kept low to expose the mud on which redshank and lapwing feed, while in winter it is raised to provide safe roosting for thousands of ducks. The scrape is best viewed from Curlew Hide, which stands on its southern side, facing north so that the sun is never in observers' eyes. On a calm autumn morning, visitors may count more than twenty species from its windows.

Turning left at the junction, by contrast, takes walkers along the southern shore of the Main Lagoon, a large expanse of brackish water created when an old sea defence was deliberately breached. Halfway along the shore is Avocet Hide, named after the elegant black-and-white wader whose return to the reserve, after an absence of more than a century, was celebrated in the local press. At the point where the trail bends north, just beyond the south-western corner of the lagoon, rises the observation tower, a steel and timber structure ten metres high from which the whole reserve can be seen. Its upper platform is accessible by lift, which makes it popular with older visitors and wheelchair users.

From the tower, the trail runs north between the Main Lagoon and the reedbed, which covers the western part of the reserve. Reeds were planted here in the first year of the project, and they have since spread so vigorously that the wardens must cut sections of them each winter to prevent the area from drying out and turning into scrub. The reedbed supports a small but growing population of bitterns, secretive herons whose booming call can be heard on spring evenings, although the birds themselves are rarely seen. South of the reedbed, filling the south-western corner of the reserve, is the alder carr, where the trees grow from tussocks surrounded by standing water. It is not crossed by any path, which makes it a valuable refuge for shy mammals such as otters.

The final section of the trail follows the Sea Wall, a grassy embankment that runs along the northern edge of the reserve and separates it from the mudflats of the Haven Estuary. From its crest, walkers can look out over the estuary on one side and the lagoons on the other, a vivid illustration of how thin the line between land and sea has become. The wall itself was strengthened as part of the project, and the engineers responsible for it now regard the reserve as a model of how coastal defences and wildlife habitats can be designed together.

Not every problem has been solved. Rising sea levels mean that the wall will need further reinforcement within a few decades, and the reserve's popularity has brought complaints about traffic on the narrow access road. For now, however, the wardens' main concern is a pleasant one: keeping up with the number of birds.