some security from the prowling catfish. Reed Warblers arrived and the numbers of
Reed Buntings increased. Odonata colonised the ponds en masse. Seventeen species
were soon breeding including, inevitably, Small Red-eyed Damselfly : Common Emerald
Damselfly being the most recent addition, a sure sign of increasing marginal vegetation.
The flowery banks of the ponds attract common butterflies in numbers that are but a
distant memory on neighbouring arable land. Day flying moths too - Latticed Heath,
Mother Shipton, Cinnabar, Six-spot Burnet, Silver Y and Burnet Companion. Grass
Snakes slithering through the shallows in search of an unwary frog, toad or Great Crested
Newt have become an increasingly frequent sight; Water Voles have found a sanctuary
from predatory Mink; and on summer evenings Daubenton's Bats are often to me seen
skimming across the surface of the lake.
Elsewhere on the farm the land is given over to pasturage for horses, including winter
pasturage. This has an echo in history : many of the smaller parish farms made a nice
little living from pasturing horses during the stagecoach era. Tire larger fields are full of
Skylark song and Meadow Pipits too have bred there while the tussocks of Festuca
arundinacea support large numbers of small mammals and the predators that feed on
them, Foxes, Stoats and Weasels. Three pairs of Kestrel and four pairs of Little Owl
breed on or close to the farm and Barn Owls have recently put in an appearance, raising
hopes that they may return to the area. Buzzards are often to be seen soaring above the
nearby Writtle Park ridge - a sight beyond my wildest dreams as a boy - and the Hobbys
that breed in the park train their young to catch dragonflies above the lakes. Dormice
hang on in the farm's two ancient coppices - Box and Well Woods - and Broad-leaved
Helleborines occasionally survive the attentions of the numerous deer to flower and set
seed. Its rarer cousin, the Violet Helleborine, survives in Bushy (formerly Gust Lease)
Wood, which was planted in the 18th century, part of a rich floral mosaic that includes
Bluebells, Primroses, Common & Early Dog Violets, Goldilocks Buttercup, Wood
Speedwell, Dog's Mercury and Enchanter's Nightshade. The farm is a joy.
It might, of course, be considered an anachronism in the context of the modern landscape.
At under two hundred acres, including woodland, it could never hope to survive as a viable
unit. And yet, unlike other small farms along the Fryerning-Mill Green ridge, it at least
remains a working environment. The wildlife that thrives there does so not because it is
conserved but because that working environment contains sufficient leeway for it to do so.
That was always the case throughout the history of farming. The arable farmland of today
offers little or no such scope - the power that modern technology gives us ensures that.
Subsidy driven agri-environment schemes are unlikely to be a long term answer, farmers
themselves have long warned of the likely outcome. Subsidies can come and go, grain
prices rise and fall; today's subsidised set-aside can be ploughed asunder by tomorrow's
hike in wheat prices, as has already happened in the past couple of years. When it comes to
woodland, if fuel prices continue to rise then it is possible to visualise ancient coppice
once more becoming part of a working landscape, with resulting improvements for wildlife,
but it is harder to be optimistic about farmland. Whether or a way can be found for wildlife
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Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 59, May 2009