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OLD RAILWAY TRACK. EASTON LODGE HALT - GREAT DUNMOW
20th JUNE,1982
Twenty members met on a fine Sunday, after two days
of very heavy showers, at Easton Lodge Halt, on the
former Bishops' Stortford - Braintree railway line,
and walked to the outskirts of Great Dunmow, where
the track becomes the by-pass.
A full account of this walk was published in the
Essex Field Club Bulletin, Autumn 1981. The track
way supports a great number of species, as in its 11/2
miles it has a variety of habitat from very dry to
very wet. We were pleased that the Fyfield Pea
(Lathyrus tuberosus) had produced its first flowers
for us. The Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza
fuchsii) was very fine and abundant and we found 3
spikes of Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) as well as
some splended Twayblade (Listera ovata). The bird-
listeners heard a number of warblers.
After lunch the party went through adjoining woodland,
Oak Spring, Ash Grove and Olives Wood. The Great
Horsetail (Equisetum telemateia) was very plentiful,
but otherwise nothing of note was found, as like most
woods the canopy reduced the undergrowth.
Pam Jermyn
EAST TILBURY, 4th JULY, 1982
This was a new venue for the Bird Group and showed that
it is deserving of a future visit at a more suitable
time of the year. Seventeen members gathered at the
Coalhouse Fort car park near the Victorian Fort, built
in 1869 hy General Gordon of Khartoum. It was dull,
dry but very little sunshine. It was almost high
tide.