UK040
Medway Estuary and Marshes


Site description (2007 baseline):

Site location and context
The Medway estuary forms a single tidal system with the Swale and joins the Thames estuary between the Isle of Grain and Sheerness. It has a complex arrangement of tidal channels, which drain around large islands of saltmarsh and grazing-marsh. The mudflats support extensive beds of algae and eel-grass Zostera. The IBA is important for wintering and passage wildfowl. Terns and gulls breed on saltmarsh islands, and wildfowl breed on the grazing-marshes.


Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Medway Estuary and Marshes (United Kingdom). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/medway-estuary-and-marshes-iba-united-kingdom on 23/12/2024.