of owners and gamekeepers on these lands to protect certain bird species (including the Owls, Hawks
(not Sparrowhawk). Magpie, Lapwing, Heron and Kingfisher). The area thus covered extended to
20,000 acres from the initial 6,000 of Epping Forest (EN IX p.49-50).
Corvid Shoots
Jay shoots were a controversial aspect of the management of Epping Forest in the late 19th century.
Professor G. S. Boulger, writing the Essex Naturalist (EN II p.73) on 23rd April, 1888:-
'Is the Jay to be exterminated in Epping Forest? One does not now often hear its characteristic, if
harsh, note, or catch a glimpse of its beautiful plumage in the Forest, as one used to do, and I hear that
no less than three battues have already during this year been devoted to its destruction. On one of
these occasions there were no less than twelve guns, and the birds were driven by a whole army of
beaters. My own impression is that this is altogether contrary to the spirit of the Epping Forest Act,
which, in decreeing the maintenance of the Forest in its natural condition, practically meant free scope
to the principle of natural selection, human interference being alone an eliminated factor. As I some
years ago described it, we were to have the experiment of a game keeper without a gun; and, when I
heard that jays were to be trapped. I was simultaneously consoled by hearing that the jays on Epping
Forest were too cunning to be caught. Though we may for some years see a general increase of
individuals of every species of our avifauna, the struggle for existence must come some day. and I
would leave to the hawks the duty of checking the depredations of the jays upon the game birds. "A
fair field and no favour," say I.'
The letter was written shortly after a Jay shoot on 17th April, 1888 when one hundred and six jays
were killed by seventeen guns (Speakman, 1962). Jay shoots were the prerogative of the Conservators
of Epping Forest and the shoots in April and May would include a number of invited guests with the
keepers acting as beaters. Because of their large numbers and their predilection for robbing the nests
of song birds, Jay numbers were thought best to be held in check. Carrion Crows were (and still are)
kept in check, although not systematically. Keepers were allowed to shoot the crows on their particular
beat. Magpies, once a rare sight in the Forest, were protected; today they abound in the Forest and are
occasionally shot. There was an annual 'Rook Shoot' in the early years of this century in Wanstead
Park, in order to keep down the large numbers in the rookery there and to prevent them encroaching
too far into the heronry. Wood Pigeons (Columbidae) are also controlled in the Forest. Adult birds are
shot and nests and eggs destroyed.
An Annotated List of the Birds of Epping Forest
The following list of birds recorded from the Epping Forest area is essentially a literature list. It includes, as far as I am aware, all the
published records of species from within Epping Forest and a very few from adjacent areas of the Forest It does not include records, for
example, from the nearby Lee Valley reservoirs.
For the purposes of this list. Epping Forest I have taken to mean the area currently under the administration of the Conservators of
Epping Forest, shown on the OS. Map of Epping Forest dated 1983. This also includes the outlying areas of Epping Long Green and other
green lanes to the north-west of the Forest I have, however, also included areas currently not administered by the Conservators such as the
Basin Pond on Wanstead Golf Course, part of the grounds of Wanstead Park, another part of which is administered by the Conservators, and
also Wanstead Sewage Farm, adjacent to Wanstead Park, where much bird-ringing was undertaken in the 1970s and early 1980s and which
may possibly be added to the jurisdiction of the Epping Forest Conservators. I have also included in the list a few odd records from land
adjacent to the Forest, i.e. the Copped Hah Estate, which is not part of the Forest, and other areas, for example Birch Hall, Theydon Bois
which has only relatively recently come under the jurisdiction of the Conservators (as a deer sanctuary), but from which a number of
records were made in the early years of this century. The deer sanctuary at Birch Hail is not a public part of the Forest, The nomenclature
for this list follows that used in The Birds of Essex (Cox, 1984), with the exception of Naumann's Thrush (Turdus naumanni).
Red-throated Diver Gavia stellata
This species, the most frequently recorded of the divers in Essex, has only been rarely recorded in the Epping Forest area. The earliest
record is of one seen on the Basin, Wanstead Park in January 1877 by Arthur Lister (Christy, 1890). Another was shot at this same location
in March, 1890 (EN IV p. 116), An adult female in winter plumage was found dead in a garden at Loughton on 26th November, 1933. This
fine specimen was preserved and is now in the collection of the Passmore Edwards Museum. Another bird, badly oiled and with a broken
neck, was found on Wanstead Flats on 11th February. 1964 (EBR 1964).
Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis
This bird is present in small numbers, favouring the ponds in the southern part of the Forest where it regularly breeds (Wren. 1980). Buxton
(1911) recorded it as a breeding species in the Wanstead area. It bred on the Eagle Pond in the years 1921-24 (LN 1923 and 1924) and on
the Wake Valley Pond in 1923 (LN 1923) and 1933 (McKenzie-Smith pers. comm.). It nested at Knighton in 1934 and was noted at
Highams Park on 14th March, 1936 (McKenzie-Smith. pers. comm.). More recently four pairs bred at Wanstead Park in 1980 (Wren. 1980).
Outside the breeding season, recent records of this bird have come from the Hollow Pond, Eagle Pond, Wake Valley Pond, Connaught
Water and Alexandra Lake.
Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus
A regular winter visitor to the larger bodies of water in the Forest and an occasional breeding species. In the late 19th century this grebe was
a rare species. Buxton (1911) mentions only a single record for Epping Forest on the Basin. Wanstead in 1883. Its next published sighting
was in 1910, where courtship was noted again on the Basin. At this time the Great Crested Grebe was becoming more frequently sighted.
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