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A Wildlife Survey of Bennett's Fam
Bennett's Farm is part of a well wooded estate owned
by Colonel Lawrie. It lies on the side of a hill just
west of the village of South Weald, Near Brentwood.
Several small woods surrounded by lush green meadows
provide a wonderful habitat for wildlife.
Pat Clarke, Ian Bethel and I decided to study
the estate and its wildlife in order to broaden our
understanding of woodland ecology. One of our first
tasks was to survey the vegetation of "The Oaks", the
largest wood on the estate, preparatory to calling a
tree map. Three species of tree have been planted in
some numbers - Ash, Oak and Larch. These have been
planted in well defined blocks, some containing one
species, some a mixture.
Ash, Oak and the indigenous Birch are the dominant
trees in the wood. All the species, planted and natural
with the exception of Larch and Norway Spruce, have
regenerated naturally. However, there is a distinct
absence of saplings at the moment. This nay be due to
the high numbers of Fallow Deer (Dama Dana) resident in
the wood, feeding on then.
We chose two of the more varied blocks of woodland
in The Oaks to carry out a breeding bird census this
Spring. Several visits were made during dusk and dawn
choruses, plotting the song posts of the birds on large
scale maps. At the end of the survey, we gathered the
naps together, and on one map plotted all the song posts,
drawing a line between those belonging to the sane bird.
The outcome should have been a map showing the positions
of all the species nesting in the wood, and their
territorial boundaries. We found that the Wrens were
the most common. This is probably due to an abundance
of nesting sites in the form of bramble bushes. We also
had Chiff-Chaffs and Willow Warblers, the latter stick-
ing to more scrubby parts than the Chiff-Chaff. In the
Larch plantation we had a pair of Goldcrests,
We desperately need help to carry out these projects,.