A wildlife diary
Mary Smith 33 Gaynes Park Road, Upminster, Essex RM14 2HJ
December started with records of flowers out that should not be, continuing the trend
seen already through November. Ken Adams told me a Blackthorn shrub near his home
in Loughton, with sloes still hanging, had quite a number of white flowers too. In my
garden, an Iris that usually flowers in March/April was in full bloom, and many people
reported other sightings of spring flowers. And my lawn is still growing, though I thought
I had done the last cut a couple of weeks ago. This is getting ridiculous! And the met
office have announced that, surprise, surprise, this autumn (September, October,
November) has been the warmest nearly for ever.
On Saturday 2nd December we held our annual Club Exhibition and Social meeting. We
had more exhibitors than ever, but lots only needed one table so we had fewer tables
overall which meant there was space for chairs for people to chat or relax near the food
and drink. This allowed the social bit to grow, without compromising on the exhibition
bit. The exhibits also covered a wider range than ever before, including two teachers
representing a primary school who had just been given a woodland, a Cambridge academic
who had made a 2million x scale model of protein production in a cell, and a pile of old
books and odds and ends turned out from a loft, all offered free, but which generated
£115 in the donations box. Plus a fossil mammoth leg bone, a set of sheets from the
herbarium at the Natural History Museum, lichens from Hertfordshire, some live insects
related to bedbugs, beekeepers with honey to sell, coppice wood products such as walking
sticks, loads of beautiful pictures and laptop Powerpoint displays, and so much more!
There was even more food and drink than ever, almost all of which disappeared. If you
missed it this time, make sure you get there next year by putting the date (Saturday, 1st
December) in your 2007 diaries now.
On Thursday, 7th December, in the middle of the morning, we saw a big black cloud, a
flash of lightning, a long roll of thunder, then the heavens opened to release rain and
hail. Then a second bout of the same, then it was all over, bar the shouting. We were
lucky! Later, we heard that in Kensal Rise, NW London, they had suffered considerable
damage, very localised, due to a tornado. Almost two dozen houses lost a roof, or a
wall, or all windows blown in, street trees were blown over, flying debris hit six people,
one of whom was taken to hospital with a head injury. This is the sort of tempestuous
weather we are likely get more of as global heating gets underway. Fairly scary, this
was. Apparently tornadoes are very common in Britain, but are usually so small that
they are rarely any kind of threat.
As an aside, did you realise that calling it 'global warming' sounds nice and friendly; we
all like it warm, and we like to be warm. But if you call it global heating, that sounds a
lot less friendly as 'heating' reminds us of overheating, and does not have the same
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 53, May 2007
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