Essex Wildlife Trust's BIG Recording Day! at Fingringhoe Wick
Nature Reserve Saturday 13th June 2009
Stefanie Buell Biological Records Officer, Essex Wildlife Trust, Abbotts Hall Farm,
Great Wigborough, C05 7RZ. Email: stefanieb@essexwt.org.uk. Tel: 01621 862999.
Official start from 10am. There
will be a central meeting point at
the visitor centre TM048192,
providing maps etc, but
otherwise people will be free to
record as they wish.
Many of you will be familiar with Fingringhoe Wick, the first nature reserve to be acquired
by what was then known as Essex Naturalists' Trust. The fifty-hectare site is comprised
of a mosaic of habitats, including woodland, scrub, ponds, grassland, gorse heathland
and of course the Saltmarsh and intertidal zone on the estuary frontage. The site is a
haven for wildlife, wherever your interests lie; over 200 species of birds and 350 plant
species have been recorded here and there is a wide variety of invertebrates, of particular
note are the aculeates and the range of dragonflies.
In this, Essex Wildlife Trust's 50th Anniversary year, the BIG Recording Day! aims to
bring together the county's naturalists to create a snapshot of the biodiversity currently
present at Fingringhoe Wick. The data collected will also be fed into management planning
and activities.
Alongside guided walks being held for members of the public, you are invited to come
and record to your heart's content. With the ambitious target of recording 1000 different
species on the day, everyone is welcome to come and make a contribution to the tally.
Maps and aerial photographs of the Reserve will be provided and, for those groups for
which it is necessary, collecting for identification purposes will be permitted for the day
(permission has been granted for this by Natural England).
With the mosaic of habitats and wide range of species present, there is sure to be something
of interest to you, so please come along and support the BIG Recording Day!
All records collected on the day, or at any other time during the 50th Anniversary year
should be passed on to Stefanie Buell, Essex Wildlife Trust's Biological Records Officer,
for inclusion in the write-up. If you would like further information, please contact Stefanie
using the details above.
26
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 59, May 2009