Grazing • Access and amenity • Pollution • Coastal defence maintenance • Alternative uses

Access and amenity (cont)

Bird-watching and walking • Wildfowling • Other activities

Bird-watching and walking

Although the danger from tidal flooding and the often difficult terrain makes direct access onto many marshes both difficult and unattractive, walking at the edge of the open estuary landscape often takes place. Normally this has little impact either on the saltmarsh itself or the other interests, such as breeding or roosting waders. However, birds feeding in the intertidal zone need secure roosting areas at high tide; these may be particularly important to the survival of individual species during periods of bad weather. Disturbance of these high tide roosts could, therefore, have an impact on some wildfowl and waders if they were continuously disturbed. The energy expended in moving from a roost because of disturbance may also put significant stress on the bird's ability to survive (particularly in hard weather conditions).