This study was commissioned by Natural England in 2018 to identify the location of wintering water bird high tide roosts and the effects of disturbance arising from recreational activity on wintering water birds in the Taw Torridge Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
To achieve this, the project primarily aimed to provide evidence of the location and nature of wintering water bird high tide roosts, the bird assemblages associated with these roosts and the relative size and importance of the roost sites to feature species of the SSSI; plus detail on the causes of bird disturbance, assessment of the significance and intensity of these disturbances, and the subsequent effects of any disturbance on the birds using the estuary.