then. Or at least I hope it has. If you find that it has not, give Mark Dixon a ring at the
Colchester office of the Environment Agency - pronto! In addition to mosses, these
boards were festooned with large numbers of the tiny bracket-like fungus, Resupinatus
applicatus, with dark grey cap and pale edged gills.
During January it was a pleasure to have the chance to walk in the snow again, following
a succession of mild, wet winters, but the cold weather failed to attract many birds. The
large flocks of finches, larks, pipits and buntings that thronged the saltings during the
1970s are but a distant memory. At that time it was not unusual for up to 500 Twite and
a similar number of Tree Sparrows to be present on the Salicornia beds for much of the
winter; nowadays, we seldom record either species while the Linnets and Goldfinches
which often accompanied them are only seen in numbers during spring and autumn
migration. The largest flock of seed-eating birds along the fifteen miles of coastline
between Burnham and Bradwell Waterside is invariably to be found on the feeders outside
the Bird Obs - which does little to encourage long walks along the Dengie! So far,
though, I've resisted the temptation to become a couch potato in middle-age and despite
the lack of small birds the monthly trek to Marshhouse Outfall with Anthony & Pat
Harbott (to complete the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust count) remains enjoyable as the
tens of thousands of waders that crowd the beaches at high tide provide a spectacle that
never palls. If the sprat shoals are feeding inshore good numbers of Red-throated Divers,
Great Crested Grebes, Cormorants and Mergansers often come with them while raptors
- Peregrine, Merlin, Sparrowhawk and Hen Harrier among them - are one of the few
groups of birds that seem to have increased in recent decades and are a regular sight
during the winter.
In early March a big fat anti-cyclone plumped itself across the Country and refused to
budge for several weeks. The result was gloriously sunny days and frosty nights. The
latter seemed to inhibit insect activity but by 17th all six common bumblebees had appeared
on the wing - Bombus terristris, lapidarius, pratorum, lucorum, hortorum and pascuorum
(in that order) - together with a few hoverflies, among them Eristalinus aeneus, a member
of a genus characterized by dark spotted eyes and whose larvae feed on rotting seaweed.
A Wheatear was the first summer migrant to arrive - on 9th - shortly followed by a
Chiffchaff, while despite their almost total absence the previous autumn a few Peacocks
and Small Tortiseshells appeared from mid-month onwards and a Red Admiral was
nectaring on the Cherry Plum outside the Obs on 23rd. The latter date also saw the first
appearance of one of the area's specialities, namely, the Common Oil Beetle Meloe
proscarabaeus. This species which, despite its name, is a nationally scarce and declining
insect, remains plentiful on the Crouch/Dengie coastline between Burnham and Howe
Outfall, while there are also single records from Sandbeach Farm and St Peter's. This
individual, though, was slowly hauling her ponderous, distended abdomen along a grassy
track near Bradwell Power Station - a new site. Alex Ramsey describes the extraordinary
life cycle of this species in a fascinating article in the October 2002 issue of British
Wildlife. On hatching, the larvae climb to the top of the nearest flowering plant where
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 41, May 2003
9