Tuesday 3 May 2022

Trip away from SS15 – RSPB Canvey Wick, Canvey Island, Essex

On 5th May 2021, I made my first ever visit to RSPB Canvey Wick. This is a wonderful site and this morning I had my second successive spring visit.

Canvey Wick is a former landfill site and the location of a proposed oil refinery on Canvey Island in Essex. The site closed in the 1980s and then lay derelict for years. It became a liability for the former landowner, East of England Development Agency (EEDA), and, along with Natural England, they approached the Land Trust to help find a sustainable exit strategy for the land to provide high quality open space next to land identified for commercial development. 

The Land Trust subsequently established a steering group with key stakeholders, including Natural EnglandCastle Point Borough CouncilRSPB and Buglife and secured funding from the Government to assess and prepare a "vision" for the site. The site was recognised as a priority within the Thames Gateway South Essex Green Grid Strategy and secured endowment funding from the Parklands initiative which allowed acquisition of the site.

The Land Trust helped transfer a landowner’s liability into an asset, provided expertise in sustainable land management benefiting local communities and conservation and securely invested and protected the endowment, thereby removing the risk of continued dereliction. The RSPB is the appointed managing partner with significant involvement from Buglife to advise on enhancing the habitats for the rare and endangered invertebrates.

Canvey Wick is now a well-established 93.2 hectare Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and it was designated as such on 11th February 2005, the first "brownfield" site to be protected specifically for its invertebrates. The RSPB manage 18.5 hectares of the SSSI as a nature reserve in partnership with Buglife and on behalf of the Land Trust.

It is a unique ex-industrial habitat but it also has grassland and scrub habitats plus small wooded areas and it is adjacent to the important estuarine habitats of Holehaven Creek.

It is known to be exceptionally rich in plant, insect and animal species with as many species per square metre as a rain forest and it is one of the most important sites in the UK for endangered invertebrate species (the site is home to over 1300 species of invertebrate including at least 30 on the UK "Red List" of endangered species).

More information .... 

RSPB - Canvey Wick

Buglife - Canvey Wick

Land Trust - Canvey Wick

Wikipedia - Canvey Wick

The Guardian - Canvey Wick: the Essex "rain forest" that is home to Britain’s rarest insects

And so on to my visit to RSPB Canvey Wick .... 

I recorded 28 bird species and a single mammal species (Rabbit). It was evidently still too cold for any butterflies and reptiles .... and I have no idea when it comes to invertebrate ID 😀.

I did not add any species to my UK 2022 year list but I was able to upgrade Cuckoo from “heard only” to “heard and seen”. As I was making my way back to the reserve exit, I heard a calling Cuckoo which then flew in and perched in a nearby tree for several minutes. I managed to photograph this bird although the poor light and tight cropping has meant that this is purely a record shot.















Photo: male Cuckoo

The highlights of my visit, which were primarily summer migrants, were as follows:

Cuckoo: 1 calling male seen and another calling male heard distantly

Nightingale: 2 singing males heard but unseen in dense scrub

Lesser Whitethroat: 3 singing males including a brief sighting of a single individual

Common Whitethroat: 11 singing males seen and at least another 6 singing males heard

Blackcap: 6 singing males heard but none seen 

Chiffchaff: 2 singing males seen and at least another 6 singing males heard. 

Reed Warbler: 1 singing male seen

Cetti's Warbler: 5 singing males heard but none seen

Swallow: 2 single birds seen flying over 

Kestrel: 1 female seen

Green Woodpecker: 3 heard calling

Greenfinch: 1 calling and singing male heard

Shelduck: 4 seen on Holehaven Creek

Oystercatcher: 2 seen on Holehaven Creek

Little Egret: 1 seen flying over towards Holehaven Creek

Unlike my visit last year, I failed to hear or see either Willow Warbler or Sedge Warbler.

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

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