Colne LNR

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This Local Nature Reserve on the east bank of the River Colne includes Wivenhoe Wood, a fine old coppice woodland with many sweet chestnut trees, alongside grassland and scrub that once belonged to Lower Lodge Farm, a section of tidal foreshore with saltmarsh, and at the southern end an area of former grazing marsh.

Reed warblers and sedge warblers nest in the marshland and whitethroats in the scrub. An area of saltmarsh to the west of the railway line can be reached via a level crossing and is used by wading birds such as redshank.

From the sea wall path there are good views of the inner estuary of the Colne and over the ditches, dykes and ponds of the marsh. Unusual plants like strawberry clover and slender hare's-ear grow here, and it has a rich insect life, with many dragonflies and damselflies on the wing in summer and stag beetles blundering in from Wivenhoe Wood to the north.