Essex Coastal Challenge Week One: Thames Estuary

We begin our journey just west of the Dartford Crossing at Oliver Road Lagoons. Surrounded by industry, it’s no ‘typical’ nature reserve – but for wildlife, it’s truly an oasis. Not yet open to the public, it’s a pretty special place to start. Thurrock Power Station once stood on this brownfield site and it left a precious gift to nature: the earth now contains Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA), loved by over 1,300 species of invertebrates, birds and reptiles that now live here. Carpeted in wildflowers all summer long, you can spot 50 endangered species here and it’s even possible to catch a glimpse of the distinguished jumping spider - found on only 2 sites in the whole of the UK!

One of Essex Wildlife Trust’s biggest ever restoration projects, the enormous 230-acre Thurrock Thameside Nature Park will cover 845 acres when complete. Now home to some of the UK’s most threatened species, TTNP sits on top of one of western Europe’s largest landfill sites! Fifty years of waste from six London boroughs, up to thirty metres deep, is now under your feet. This astonishing project is proof of nature’s resilience and offers hope to wildlife conservation, not only in Essex but across the globe.

The reserve has become a part of a larger picture, connecting with other habitats and allowing wildlife more freedom of movement in an increasingly fragmented and built-up landscape. In summer, the site is awash with colour as the meadows come to life with wildflowers, dragonflies, butterflies and bees. Since our 2015 Coronation Meadow project to increase wildflower diversity, you can find salsify, yellow rattle and bee orchids here. The hedgerows we have been planting provide valuable habitat for harvest mice, while snakes and lizards bask in the sun along the footpath verges. Soon, hopefully you’ll see more sand martin banks and a tern raft by the Heronry Shaw lake.

Find yourself at internationally important Holehaven Creek and the atmospheric and peaceful Fobbing Marsh. Accompanied by the haunting cry of the curlew, the wind whips across the marshes in the winter months – but today, dramatic and expansive skies provide the perfect photography opportunity. This week, with autumn just around the corner, you may start to see returning waders in the adjacent tidal creeks - and possibly even the rusty red summer plumage of the black-tailed godwit.

While you soak up the peace, picture a beautifully preserved WW2 plane buried 10 metres down in saltmarsh. A crashed Hurricane from the Battle of Britain was excavated here in March last year!

Arrive at Two Tree Island a 259 hectare island nature reserve inside the seawall, supporting coastal saltmarsh (one of the best surviving in the Thames Estuary), inter-tidal mudflats and important seagrass beds. Keep an eye out for pyramidal orchids and the gorgeous colourful fields of golden samphire and sea lavender. Then marvel throughout the year at the many, many species of wildlife that call Two Tree Island home.

The salty lagoon provides a high tide roost for many birds and it is also an important breeding site for avocet and common tern. Much loved by its locals, regular community litter picks keep it beautiful. Help your wildlife by taking your litter home with you so that it doesn`t end up in our seas.

Shoresearch is The Wildlife Trusts' national citizen science survey of the intertidal shore. Volunteers are trained to record the wildlife on shores across the UK, to monitor our fragile sea life and better understand the effects of pollution, invasive alien species and climate change. This will become even more important as we navigate the climate crisis. Last year over 120 volunteers took part in nine surveys in six locations, including in the Thames Estuary.

Keep going to Shoeburyness headland. As you look out to the Thames river now becoming open sea, find yourself at Gunners Park and Shoebury Old Ranges, once military garrison and now a coastal nature reserve. A perfect spot for seabird watching, you will start to see spectacular autumn passage migration about now, as thousands of birds move through the park on their long journey south. Gannets, skuas, terns and even petrels have been recorded here.

There is a network of 91 Marine Conservation Zones surrounding the UK, protecting our precious seas. Essex proudly has three of them. You’re looking in the direction of one: Kentish Knock East an impressive 96 square kilometres of protected marine habitat. In its sand and gravel seabed, hermit crabs scuttle below foraging rays and even catsharks.