and other park ponds (all deliberately constructed as ornamental ponds) and the Eagle Pond are the
earliest of the larger bodies of water. All these are well over 200 years old. Various gravel pit ponds,
for example the Hollow Ponds, came into being in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Finally, the huge
(425 acre) King George V reservoir was completed in 1913 in the Lea Valley. Other ponds have
disappeared. The Wanstead Lake House estate is build on the bed of what was once a lake and the
nearby Reservoir Wood is apparently on the site of another former body of water.
Wildfowl in the numbers and variety seen on the ponds today as breeding species and winter visitors
is probably unparalleled in the Forest's history, much of it due to the influence of the huge numbers
of water bodies available to wildfowl all over southern England. I single out Great Crested Grebe and
Tufted Duck, both breeding species in the Forest, as birds that have particularly benefited from the
influence of reservoir construction and gravel pit excavation.
Breeding of introduced species such as the Canada Goose and Mandarin Duck is very obviously
due to the expansion of successful feral populations from other areas. Mandarin Ducks, a type of wood
duck, nesting in holes in trees, are particularly interesting. In autumn birds will apparently feed on
acorns and beech mast (Lever, 1977) which may go some way to explain its successful establishment
as a breeding species in the Forest. In the Far East it is apparently a rare species in the wild, susceptible
to the destruction of its forest habitat.
Another group of water birds that has increased as visitors to the Forest are the gulls. In the 19th
century reports of gulls inland were uncommon except after storms. Now, huge numbers can be seen
over the Forest flying to their roosting sites on the Lea Valley reservoirs in the autumn and winter.
Many can be seen on the southern parts of the Forest in winter. Five species are regularly seen:
Black-headed (most frequently), Common, Herring, Lesser Black-backed and Greater Black-backed.
Buxton (1911) reported only the Kittiwake from Epping Forest as a storm driven bird; no other gull
species are mentioned.
Like the Kittiwake, a number of birds are only known from Epping Forest as scarce vagrants or
uncommon (but sometimes of regular occurrence) passage birds. Chance vagrants must include the
Red-rumped Swallow seen in Wanstead Park in 1975, the Red-necked Grebe seen on the Eagle Pond
in March 1979 and the Short-toed Treecreeper seen at High Beach in 1975. Occasionally scarce
vagrants may stop to breed; the Golden Orioles found near Forest School, Snaresbrook in the 1970s
may have bred. Pallas' Sand Grouse was reported from Wanstead Flats in 1864, a year after a major
influx of this species into Britain. Rare winter visitors which usually only occur in 'irruption' years
include the Crossbill and Waxwing. A regular, non-breeding, passage bird is the Wheatear and, rather
more sporadically the Pied Flycatcher. An extremely rare vagrant is the Corncrake: one was noted on
Almshouse Plain in 1968. It has greatly declined nationally, but formerly bred in Essex and there are
records local to Epping Forest from the early part of this century.
The bird life of the Forest is constantly changing: breeding species are lost; others are gained. The
numbers of individuals of a species present in the Forest can vary from year to year and from one
decade to another. Who could have imagined a Forest a hundred years ago with virtually no Magpies
(and being specially protected!) and yet numerous Redstarts. A host of very variable factors internal
to the Forest and external are in operation from local habitat change to climatic extremes in a far
distant country.
Bird Trapping
Fred Speakman, in his book 'A Keeper's Tale' recounts vividly the depredations of the bird-catchers
in Epping Forest and the trials and tribulations of keeper Sidney Butt in his attempts, often successful,
to keep a check on the perpetrators of this cruel trade.
Bird catching was of common occurrence in the Forest, certainly in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries and probably earlier. Most commonly it was birds such as Chaffinches and
Goldfinches that were sought after for the London trade, huge numbers of finches being caught, caged
and sold, but often not surviving long in captivity and being replaced by yet more wild caught birds.
A favourite method of capture was to use a caged or blinded call bird and a dummy bird. The call bird
would attract the notice of passing birds, and the dummy would be attacked. The birds thus attracted
would then be caught on limed sticks placed nearby. Keeper Butt recounted a struggle with such a
bird trapper near Connaught Water. Other trappers used nets to catch birds sometimes stretched along
hedgerows, others used clap-nets. Buxton (1911) mentions bird-catchers using clap-nets on Wanstead
Flats for catching Linnets. Redpolls and Greenfinches were also caught, the latter in prodigious
numbers. Greenfinches were not kept for live sale; they were killed and tied by the neck in bunches
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