over the beach in front of the Obs while the few lucky observers who saw it relaxed
round the teapot on the lawn! Insect migration was equally poor. Southerly winds at the
end of May resulted in a count of 19 Painted Ladies nectaring at Slender Thistle Carduus
tenuiflorus near the Observatory while a dozen or more Silver Y Autographa gramma
were kicked up from the grass on the seawall. This promising start failed to develop,
though, as the prevailing breeze soon returned to the west and subsequent peak counts
of the former were a modest 23 (at Burnham) on June 13 th and of the latter, 80 between
St Peter's and Marshhouse Outfall on 15*.
There was a report of an Adder Vipera berus sunbathing on the seawall on an
unseasonably warm winters' day in January and by early March sightings were
commonplace throughout the coastal strip. A good tip if you wish to see them is to walk
slowly along the edge of the seawall and scan the patches of dry grass just below the lip
on the landward side. A twenty minute walk at Sales Point on June 1st produced no less
than seven - plus a Grass Snake Natrix natrix - along just a few hundred yards of seawall.
Their abundance in the area is probably due to the high populations of small mammals
- particularly Wood Mice Apodemus sylvaticus, Common Shrews Sorex araneus and
Short-tailed Voles Microtus agrestis - in the coarse, tussocky grassland that clothes the
seawall, a habitat denigrated by many conservationists for its lack of bio-diversity. Other
species continue to survive in the area despite a steady deterioration in the quality of
their habitat. One such is the Ground Lackey Malacosoma castrensis, which breeds on
the saltings. This moth over-winters in the egg stage, the caterpillars hatching in April
and living communally in silken webs until late May, when they opt for the solitary life
until the}' pupate in early July. The}' are nowhere near as common as they were in the
1970s, when hundreds of webs adorned the marsh in front of the hut each spring and
newly arrived Cuckoos Cuculus canorus - which were also more numerous in those
days - gorged themselves on the caterpillars. But they are still there and during a walk
across the saltings in June I counted over 120 full-grown larvae munching away on Sea
Lavender Limonium vulgare, their favourite food plant in this area.
It seems to be the accepted norm in the media nowadays that news needs to be
sensationalised if it is to compete successfully for public attention. This applies as much
to stories about conservation and the environment as to anything else and some
organisations concerned with these issues have been guilty in the past of adopting a
doom laden, Armageddon is just around the corner approach to subjects as diverse as
global warming, rainforest destruction and GM technology. The trouble with preaching
that the end of the world is nigh - even if it is true - is that as soon as people realise that
it is not an immediate threat but rather a long-term likelihood many tend to lose interest
and move on to other distractions. Eventually they take no notice at all, adopting the attitude
that if you can't do anything why upset yourself thinking about it. What really galvinizes
people is the prospect of an immediate threat, especially to their children, and there have
been no shortage of stories in the press over tire years of nature about to run amok, these
stories often concerning some innocent member of the natural world that happens to be
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 42, September 2003
11