Chessel Bay
Encyclopedia
Chessel Bay is the name given to the bay formed on the eastern side of a large bend in the River Itchen
River Itchen, Hampshire
The River Itchen is a river in Hampshire, England. It flows from mid-Hampshire to join with Southampton Water below the Itchen Bridge in the city of Southampton. The river has a total length of , and is noted as one of England's - if not one of the World's - premier chalk streams for fly fishing,...

 to the east of the district of Northam in the city of Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Chessel Bay Local Nature Reserve (LNR), designated by the City Council in 1989, is located here. It comprises a narrow strip of woodland, a parallel strip of shingle and saltmarsh and a substantial area of mudflats. At low tide the mudflats are exposed attracting wading birds and wildfowl: curlew, oystercatchers and dunlin can be seen throughout the year. In winter, the site is also used as a stop-over for other migrating birds such as brent geese.

At low tide, mudflats are exposed, and these attract feeding estuary birds. The mudflats are also nationally and internationally important; being part of the Lee-on-Solent to Itchen estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and part of the Southampton Water and Solent Marshes Special Protection Area (SPA).

Local volunteers, Friends of Chessel Bay, team up with the City Council twice a year to combat the large amount of litter which accumulates in the bay, and carry out management of the Reserve.
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