Canvey Wick Nightingales and bees thrive at abandoned oil refinery site

A brownfield site beside the Thames in Essex has become one of the most nature-rich places in Britain, home to 3,200 species including endangered shrill carder bees, pantaloon bees, water voles, cuckoos and long-eared owls.

- Patrick Barkham

Naturalist Marc Outten, RSPB site manager for Canvey Wick nature reserve, is keen to show off the profusion of plant life - carpets of bird's-foot trefoil, tangles of blackthorn and glades filled with wildflowers - round a barren circle of asphalt, 70 metres across - the ruins of an uncompleted oil refinery.

This "ruined" landscape - where disused streetlamps pop up above rampant scrub - resembles post-apocalyptic London. But Outten pointed out: "You'll find rare bees and reptiles around the edge and you've got these lovely stonecrops and lichens."

Canvey Wick is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) as conservationists warn that many similarly wildlife-rich brownfield sites are threatened by development, particularly in the Thames Gateway.