Whitehall Plain and Highams Park (where Highams Park Lake flows into it), eventually to join the
River Lee. In places fish are resident but there is a presumption that some are 'escapes' from the two
still waters along its Forest course.
There has been a change of some kind in the water source in the upper reaches of the Cuckoo Brook.
In the 1940s the flow of the stream was non-existent in summer (but despite this the pools in the
meanders contained small numbers of Three-spined Stickleback). At the present time this stream
flows all year round, even in the exceptional droughts of 1989 and 1990. It still contains Three-spined
Sticklebacks in small numbers in the vicinity of the Cuckoo Pits and downstream.
The Fishes
Because of the artificial nature of all the still waters in Epping Forest there is no biogeographical
interest in their fish faunas. The fishes found in them are simply those that man has introduced. (It
needs emphasising in this context that no evidence has ever been produced to support the widely held
belief that aquatic birds can carry fish eggs on their legs or plumage.)
The only still waters which may contain fishes descended from indigenous populations are Highams
Park Lake and the Wanstead Park Ornamental Water, which may have originally had fishes from the
River Ching and the River Roding respectively. However, both waters were probably stocked with
fish from other sources after their creation and the original fish would have lost any genetic identity
that they possessed. The only riverine habitat in the Forest is the River Ching, from which there are
a number of records of fishes and these could be considered to be the only indigenous fishes.
The following list of fishes is as complete for species as my personal experience allows. It is not
intended to be a total record of the localities in which the species occur because not all the Forest
ponds have been netted or fished in and there is a continual addition of fishes to them by illegal and
unauthorized releases of unwanted pet fish and the introduction of native species.
Eel Anguilla anguilla (L.)
Dr. Jonathan Cox reported this species from the Eagle Pond at Snaresbrook in the early 1970s. Mr.
M. W. Hanson saw a specimen caught by a Cormorant on the shoulder of Mutton Pond on the 4th
January, 1989. Eels have also been noted recently from the Ornamental Water.
Pike Esox lucius L. (Fig. 1)
This predatory fish is present in many of the ponds including the Wake Valley, Baldwins Pond.
Connaught Water, Warren Pond, Highams Park Lake, Eagle Pond (Harris, Ms), Rising Sun Pond.
Fig. 1 Pike - a well known predator found in many of the larger Forest ponds (MH)
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