well into March, with up to 6 inches in Kent, but only flurries here. The weather remained
very cold, only just above freezing, and the promise of an early spring was swiftly
abandoned.
Early in March 1 had a guided tour of the new RSPB reserve on Rainham Marshes. Nick
Bruce-White kindly offered a guided tour preceding a meeting of the Havering Wildlife
Partnership, so, knowing nothing about birds, I took him up on the offer, hoping to learn
something. My first amazement was at the amount of earth-heaving going on at the
eastern end (the entrance area), mostly to dig out ditches or create new ones, so as to
secure the open access visitor eastern end and keep assorted unwanted persons out of the
rest They have lost equipment by theft, and something to reduce this is essential. A
visitor centre is next on the list, completing the arc of the closed part. I was quite interested
to see the variety of habitats, both natural (mainly open grassy marsh) and human origin
(eg old arsenal from first world war, now a banked and enclosed space being landscaped).
The part that had been scraped was full of assorted ducks, waders and gulls, which we
were able to see from a hide made from a steel freight container. I had never been in a
hide before, but I am not too good with binoculars on moving targets (1 use them mainly
for stationary targets such as plants on inaccessible islands), so I could not see at least
half of them, but it was cheering to see how much is laid out for the benefit of general
wildlife, not just the birds. Some parts had mature trees, and these were mostly to be
preserved because of the assorted invertebrates in them, and dead wood for beetles, fungi
etc. Other bits eg reed beds, were important for the plants, as well as for the birds.
Grazing was in place already, with beef cattle to give some disturbance and keep the
sward reasonably controlled to favour ground-nesting birds such as Sky Larks and
Lapwings. On the way back we saw some Linnets taking off from a patch of scrub, but I
cannot honestly say I would recognise them again! I was grateful to Nick for opening my
eyes in new directions.
March 16th was suddenly spring, with a temperature of 20°C in my garden, and a lovely
day to give the lawn its first cut of the year. The warm weather continued to Easter. They
say March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. That certainly fitted this year.
A meteorite impact structure in Essex?
Gerald Lucy Saffron Walden, Essex
The first universally recognised example of a meteorite crater on Earth was Meteor
Crater, Arizona which was not fully accepted as such by the scientific community until
the 1930s. Since then, over 150 impact structures have been identified around the world
which range from small craters formed in the last 100 years to billion year old ancient
craters which are only revealed by geophysical surveys and other indirect evidence. A
good 'tourist guide' to many of these sites is the book 'Meteorite Craters and Impact
Structures of the Earth 'by Paul Hodge (Cambridge University Press 1994). Since the
10 Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 47, May 2005