Lion Creek

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This former creek on the southern shore of the Crouch estuary was acquired by Essex Wildlife Trust in 1986. It was cut off from the estuary by a new seawall, and is bounded on three sides by the old one. The creek contains brackish water and in late summer has an attractive border of saltmarsh plants such as sea lavender, golden samphire and sea spurrey.

Above the zone affected by salt water, sea couch and false oat are the dominant grasses, with a mixture of tall herbs. Where the grass is shorter, smaller plants can be found, including the localised slender birdsfoot trefoil and, on the seawall, sea clover.

Among its insects are essex skipper and brown argus butterflies, and roesel's and short-winged conehead bush-crickets.

The water margins attract a variety of wading birds, and in winter birds of prey such as hen harrier and short-eared owl hunt over the grassland and seawalls.

The meadow alongside the creek was added to the reserve later, and supports a range of plants and insects including the shrill carder bee, a national priority species.

Lower Raypits can be reached via the seawall path. It consists of saltmarsh, permanent pasture and seawalls. Most of it lies within the Crouch and Roach Estuaries SSSI, an important complex of saltmarsh, intertidal and grazing habitats that serves as a notable feeding and roosting area for wildfowl and waders, including brent geese.

The seawall was damaged in 2007 and a section has been rebuilt, and at the same time a scrape, featuring special water vole islands, and a small saline lagoon were created.

Dykes and seawalls support nationally scarce plants, including beaked tasselweed, sea barley, curved hard-grass and grass vetchling, plus a wealth of invertebrates.