A wildlife diary
Mary Smith 33 Gaynes Park Road, Upminster, Essex RM14 2HJ
December started where November left off, wintry cold, bits of snow and sleet at the
start, overnight frosts, bright days and often a chill wind from the north or northwest.
Then we had milder weather for a week, and the last rose bud in my garden started to
swell and open, and looked beautiful on Christmas Day. Then it was back to cold bright
days again and frost at night, but with winds from the north-east, and my last rose flower
shrivelled fast.
In late December we walked in the parkway by the Ingrebourne and saw a Little Egret
wading in the muddy water. We have seen plenty of these by the Thames margins and
marshes on both sides of the Thames, and I know they are now well established else-
where. But in our own little River Ingrebourne, this was a new one for us. He/she did
look very cold (it was shivering inside its feathers!), and presumably hungry (most wild
birds are hungry most of the time, I believe, as the populations expand until available
food becomes scarce, unless the foxes are very successful) and we felt quite sorry for it,
particularly as the river has very little fish in it, in both senses: the fish are only small,
and there are not many of them either. He thrust his large bill into the water many times,
but whether he actually caught anything we could not tell. But he was picking his way
through the ripples, so just avoiding getting his knickers wet. At intervals, he flew up
and landed a bit further on upstream, keeping ahead of us who were clearly a pair of
huge predators after him for our tea. When he got to the weir, he flew up again then
doubled back behind us, and found a safer place, or at least out of sight of us. It is a hard
life being a Little Egret, far from the warmer places that were formerly his family home,
and ending up in a cold place only just above freezing and having only a muddy little
river to look for fish. But then, if he had an easy life, there would be far more of them
(actually, there are!) and we would all be complaining about other native birds, like the
Grey Heron whose patch of river this used to be, beingeron whose patch of river this
used to be crowded out, as we do with the Ring-necked Parakeets!
On New Year's Day we joined the local EWT group for a 2 hour walk to get the circ. and
resp. back into order a bit after the Christmas and New Year's Eve overindulgences. The
first item of interest was the patch of Giant Knotweed Fallopia sachalinensis in the
open northern part. Giant Knotweed is rather like Japanese Knotweed Fallopia japonica,
only bigger (and a few more technical differences), and it is invasive, but not quite as
bad as Japanese K This patch has been there for several years, and increases slowly
each year. This time somebody spotted some small blue marker pins near the edges of
the patch. Clearly someone was monitoring something. Luckily, Tony Gunton (thank
you, Tony) knew about it and said it is a trial of a new herbicide which they hope will kill
it. If it kills this one, then there is a good chance it will deal with Japanese K. as well.
We wait to see the results.
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 59, May 2009
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