5
GENERAL MEETING, EPPING FOREST, 13TH APRIL, 1991
A beautiful, sunny, spring morning brought several Field Club members out for the third general
meeting of the year, meeting at the Suntrap Field Centre on Church Road at High Beech. The
intention was to investigate old enclosure boundaries in the Forest and several were looked at
including the boundaries of a former churchyard in the Forest not far from the Field Centre. There
were a number of enclosures in this area. Evidence was forthcoming, not only from the existing
boundary banks, but in places also from the many introduced plants now growing in land restored to
the Forest, including Hazel, Sycamore, Cherry Laurel, Gooseberry, Raspberry, Horse Chestnut,
Norway Maple and Alkanet. Ivy was also found to carpet the ground, a feature typical of secondary
woodland. The group walked on up to High Beech Church, noting small Heather plants in the sward
and a Holly Blue in the churchyard. Beyond the churchyard a rot-hole in a Beech tree was
examined: it produced beetle larvae and the puparium of a hoverfly with its notably elongate apical
syphon (breathing tube in the larva). Despite being early in the year, the warm sunny weather
brought out several insect species, including queen bumble-bees, a queen wasp, a peacock butterfly
and a single specimen of the Cerambycid beetle Rhagium mordax in Paul's Nursery, a single
specimen of the long-tongued bee-fly having been noted earlier. A few fungi were noted during the
course of the day, all common species, among them Daldinia concentrica, Pseudotrametes gibbosa,
Polyporus brumalis and P. squamosus. The curious myxomycete Enteridium lycoperdon was noted
on a cut birch stump near High Beech itself. Of the mammals - a Bank Vole was spotted at High
Beech and several Grey Squirrels were seen. Mole hills were seen on Fairmead and much evidence
of Rabbits noticed on grassland near Paul's Nursery.
Mark Hanson
ORNITHOLOGICAL RECORDS
29.12.90 Bam Owl, Burnthouse Lane, Mountnessing Juliette Leswell
1. 1.91 80 Rooks working on old nests White House Farm,
North Fambridge J. Friedlein
12.1.91 Grey Phalarope, Abberton A. Boniface
13.1.91 10 Waxwings, Clacton P. J. Peak
13-23.2.91 Build up of 20 Shelduck and 300-400 Wigeon and
Teal at White House Farm, North Fambridge J. Friedlein
23. 2.91 1 Pink Foot, 1 White Front and 6 Barnacle Geese,
Abberton A. Boniface
3.3.91 1000 Brent Geese leave, North Fambridgs J. Friedlein
14.3.91 First Chiffchaff arrives, North Fambridge J. Friedlein
29.3.91 Short Eared Owl, Lion Creek, Canewdon A. Boniface
6.4.91 First Sand Martins, Abberton A. Boniface
24.4.91 First Swallows, North Fambridge J. Friedlein
John Bath