A dozen Redwings settled on a holly bush in our front garden on 6"' February and gorged
themselves on the berries, leaving the bush bare after about 5 minutes. I have never
seen them so close before, though I know they are not uncommon as winter visitors.
A walk in Hornchurch Country Park, along the Ingrebourne Valley, on the same day
showed a lot of wildlife in evidence. My husband saw a Stoat running along by the path;
one of the staff commented that stoats and weasels are doing well in this Park. Later a
cock Pheasant was seen, and the usual winter group of Teal, about 20 or so, in the
shallow lakes of the water-meadows. Some Gorse bushes were in flower, but then it is
possible to find Gorse in flower all round the year. Lots of plants of the little
Whitlowgrasses were apparent among mossy patches on gravel, and they will soon be in
flower.
Now it is just into March, and a few days ago we went for a walk in Bedfords Park, in
the north of Havering. We have had so little rain for the past couple of weeks that we
thought we could manage in walking shoes rather than needing wellies. But what
impressed us most was the amount of water lying on areas not usually submerged. The
large lower lake had footpath marker signs standing just above the surface of at least
half a metre of water, and the dead vegetation sticking out was of land plants.
The depth of water in many places round here is quite astonishing. At Stubbers Outdoor
Pursuits Centre, south-east of Upminster, they have lakes still rising, and they are already
higher than the staff have ever seen them. Some buildings are at risk of flood damage.
In North Ockendon the high water table is causing problems in the basements and
foundations of some of the buildings. In the Hornchurch Country Park along the
Ingrebourne valley the main cycle track has had patches underwater for months, and
some fields have what look like permanent ponds where a few years ago there was no
water to be seen. And we have had no appreciable rain for about two weeks or more.
The water table is certainly behaving very strangely, and we wonder if the landscape
will ever dry out. The warm dry years of the nineties seem to be very much a past
phenomenon.
Through this winter I have been getting to know the local bryophytes. In the winter
months when the flowering plants are not doing much, and the fungi have given up, the
mosses and liverworts are the main green living things. I am much enjoying getting to
know them (see cover and plate 4), and if anyone is minded to do so too, then the book
for beginners by E.V. Watson is an excellent book to use. Nearly all the things I have
found so far are very common, but I am surprised at how many differences there are, and
how attractive many of them look, especially with a lens and even more with a microscope.
This last paragraph is being written at the end of March, that must have been one of the
driest March months for some years. Here there has been no measurable rain for well
over three weeks, and so are we going to have a drought year, albeit after a very wet
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 41, May 2003
5