Canvey Wick

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Canvey Wick was once grazing marsh, then filled with river dredgings as the basis for an oil refinery that was never completed. Now it is Britain's first nature reserve specifically for insects. It supports more than 1,400 species, including national rarities such as the brown-banded carder bee.

Brownfield sites like this often have disturbed areas low in nutrients that are colonised by wild flowers and become ideal nesting and feeding areas for insects. Here, the combination of the original marshland, a variety of different materials from the dredging, plus the oil refinery infrastructure, has created a great diversity of habitats, from wet reedy patches through well-drained gravels to bare concrete.

As a result it has developed one of the richest populations of insects in the UK. The rarities are difficult to spot but marbled white butterflies are not, and there are lots of those about in July.

It also has spectacular displays of orchids as well as many other wild flowers. These include introduced plants like goat's rue, rosebay willowherb and everlasting sweet pea, alongside natives like birdsfoot trefoil and common centaury.