A wildlife diary
Mary Smith 33 Gaynes Park Road, Upminster, Essex RM14 2HJ
Would you have thought an old, but active, car could be a habitat for bryophytes? A
friend of mine, with whom I often go botanising, has two species of moss growing on
the outside of her car. The most abundant one is Bryum argenteum, a little chap with a
frosted look on the tips of its tiny stems. One patch grows on the outside of a side
window, against the robber surround, and the bigger patch is just below the windscreen
against the bonnet (see Plate 1). Another species, the very common Ceratodon purpureus,
struggles to grow on the back window, again on the rubber surround. Yes, the car lives
out rather than in a garage, and yes, it is about 20 years old, but it is used almost on a
daily basis for local travelling although rarely goes on a motorway. Has anyone else
seen mosses on a car?
The Exhibition and Social meeting on Saturday 3rd December was better than ever, with
more exhibitors than ever before. So many, in fact, that there was little room to put a
chair or two for people to rest their weary feet, even in this large hall. Many tables were
adorned with display boards full of bright coloured pictures, whether photographs or
paintings or maps, so the hall looked bright and welcoming. Some members seem to
come along every year, and enjoy it veiy much, but there are lots of members and friends
out there who do not get to join in with this tremendous occasion, and they miss out.
Why not put Saturday 2nd December into your 2006 diaries now, and come along?
The biggest industrial fire in peacetime (ie since 1945) in Europe burst upon the
countryside in Hertfordshire at 6am on Sunday 11th December, when the first 3 million
gallon container of 20 at an oil depot exploded. Fortunately no-one was killed, but the
colossal quantity of smelly black smoke that moved across the Thames basin was seen
and smelled for many miles around. We detected a smell like coal soot on Monday
afternoon, and this continued for another few days until all the fires were eventually put
out. A colossal quantity of foam was used, gathered from all over Britain, and also a
huge amount of water (about 12 million litres, now highly polluted ) was abstracted
from the Grand Union Canal. There was not much left of the oil depot, but I wonder
about what happened to the local wildlife. How many air-borne creatures were killed?
How many acres of land is covered with a fine layer of soot, and what will this do to
crops, wild plants, soil animals, and other living things? What happened to all the
aquatic life in the Grand Union Canal? Will the carbon particles, laced with a few
unpleasant, and probably carcinogenic, tarry substances, affect us? And London Essex
got quite a lot of it, so is anyone out there monitoring the local effects?
From the enormous to the microscopic, I found some tiny insects in a jar of ancient rice in
my larder the other day. I have to say that I have found these things in flour, oatmeal, and
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Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 50, May 2006