Background
London Gateway, a nationally significant infrastructure project, is the UK’s most advanced logistics hub and deep-sea container shipping port at Stanford-le-Hope in Essex, on the northern bank of the River Thames. The port consists of quay cranes, three berths, 1250 m of quayside, 60 automated stacking cranes, 180 transaction bays, a container park and a rail terminal. Since 2020, Southern Ecological Solutions (SES), on behalf of DP World London Gateway Port, has been providing various ecological services, including wintering bird surveys.
Wintering bird surveys
London Gateway’s ecological mitigation and management plan (EMMP) establishes survey requirements for monitoring wintering birds on Stanford Wharf Nature Reserve and Salt Fleet Flats. The monitoring includes a requirement to undertake bird counts at grazing marsh areas and to undertake wetland bird survey (WeBS) counts at Salt Fleet Flats to determine the use of remaining areas of grazing marsh habitat by wintering birds.
The mitigation, compensation and management agreement commits London Gateway to monitor birds at Mucking Flats and Marshes site of special scientific interest (SSSI) during the winter. The same agreement commits the company to monitor wintering birds at Stanford Wharf and Salt Fleet Flats. Further monitoring requirements include monitoring grazing marsh at Old Hall Farm (Great Garlands Farm) (Western Grazing Marsh) and the Northern Triangle for species that potentially form part of the Thames Estuary and Marshes special protection area (SPA) assemblage.
Specialist team of ornithologists
SES used its specialist team of ornithologists to deliver the suite of bespoke wintering bird surveys across the four-year work programme. The ornithological team were a key component in measuring the long- and short-term success of the mitigation package at the gateway. We contributed to its long-term management, thereby ensuring conservation status of species listed in nearby areas.
A key aspect involved assessing roosting and foraging behaviour of the 28 key species of the Thames Estuary and Marshes SPA, Ramsar site, Mucking Flats and Marshes SSSI and South Thames Estuary and Marshes SSSI. This enabled assessing peak numbers of key survey species recorded in Stanford Wharf and Mucking Flats and Marshes SSSI during 2023/24 wintering bird surveys. We collated the data to inform a comparison to Thames Estuary and Marshes SPA published population and five year mean peak Thames Estuary WeBS counts.