7.
NESTING OF LITTLE RINGED PLOVERS AT CHIGWELL
This following report regarding the arrival and
subsequent nesting of two pairs of Little Ringed
Plovers at a recent gravel digging adjacent to the
River Roding and M11 motorway, at Chigwell, must be
read as a comment on our society. It concerns the
artificial creation of a new and rather distinct
environment which in large part proved unnaturally
temporary due to what we conservationists would
surely consider as lack of regard for wild life, or
shall I say a typically conventional planners view
of what is important - namely a tidy conventional
landscape.
This gravel pit was excavated in 1973/74 to
provide ballast for the M11 motorway. Apart from
the actual pit, the contractors left several acres
of bare clay and gravel surfaces completely denuded
of vegetation and heavily indented with a variety
of wheel tracks, ditches and holes of various sizes
shape and depth.
By Spring 1975 colonisation by vegetation had
begun and thistles were noticeably the dominant
pioneer plant colonising the higher and drier areas.
But there were still large areas of bare and sterile-
looking clay and gravel surfaces partially covered
with shallow pools of water.
I first investigated this area in late May (20)
on a quiet midweek day (the children from the local
council estate who later played there were still at
school) and I was the solitary human being present.
A kingfisher flashed downstream (the river is only
yards from the pit) and two herons stalked along one
of the ditches, no doubt feeding on the swarms of
tadpoles which blackened the small ponds and ditches.
Thousands died when these pools dried out - a rather
massive natural tragedy. A pair of tufted duck were