But not before a small influx of convolvulus
hawk-moths graced the traps of a lucky few.
The usual passage migrant birds and returning
winter visitors were seen, although the period
was fairly unremarkable, apart from the first of
(possibly) three lesser yellowlegs in Essex
before the year's end, at Great Wakering.
Deliberations of the House of Commons
Agriculture Committee turned to coastal
defence issues. Their recommendations may
well have effects upon the future management
of the Essex coastline, although they really
only confirmed what we have known, and
acted upon, for some time: the building up of
sea walls is unsustainable, uneconomic, and
ultimately futile. A programme of managed
retreat is desirable in appropriate areas, rather
than continuing our age-old battle with the
sea.
Of course, in some areas continued protection
will always be necessary, because of the risk
to life and limb from flooding, or pollution
resulting from flooding. Major urban areas,
nuclear power stations and chemical works are
just a few examples of tills. But the chemical
industry is not all bad, and that was proved by
exchem organics al Bramble Island in the
Walton Backwaters. They threw their gates
open to the public for a day, allowing
everyone to see not only what goes on in the
'bomb factory', but also the vast area of
undisturbed coastal habitat protected by their
23
security fence. And most also got to see one of
Bramble Island's real specialities, a fine live
specimen of Fisher's estuarine moth.
The last week of October saw the completion
of stage one of a major conservation case on
the Essex/Suffolk border, with the
announcement from the Department of the
Environment, Transport and the Regions that
the Harwich Haven Authority had been
granted permission to deepen the approach
channel to the Haven Ports. This will
involve the dredging of some 18 million cubic
metres of silt, sand, gravel, clay and rock from
the seabed, adjacent to the Stour and Orwell
Estuaries Special Protection Area. After
months of complex and detailed negotiations,
most of the conservation objections were
overcome by the agreement of a package of
mitigation and compensation measures. These
will involve an area of managed retreat in
Suffolk and the recycling of dredged silt back
into the eroding estuaries. It is believed that
the nett effect of these measures will be to
eliminate the likely adverse effects of this
dredge, and indeed go some way towards
alleviating the impacts of past dredges and of
sea-level rise. On top of this, it was proposed
to use much of the dredged sand and gravel to
restore and secure wildlife habitats and natural
sea defences, such as the important little tern
breeding site at Stone Point, Walton-on-the-
Naze. The actual dredge and associate
measures will continue to take place
throughout 1999 and into 2000.
Winter
The weather started to settle down in
November, with much less of a westerly
influence. Perhaps this was responsible for
some significant influxes of late migrant birds.
Around 500 blackbirds, 150 redwings and
small numbers of blackcap, Chiffchaff and
firecrest were noted at the Naze on the 7th,
and a few days later a Pallas's warbler turned
up at Wivenhoe. Bitterns started to return to
their traditional winter haunts in the Lea
Valley, with records also coining from at least
two coastal sites, and a lesser yellowlegs took
up residence at Abberton Reservoir.
The mild, wet conditions of recent months,
coupled with the absence of frost in early
November, led to an extension of the grass
growing season on the coastal marshes. This
in turn resulted in the early exploitation of this
food source by brent geese, with counts of
2500 at Old Hall on grass by mid-month. Once
again, the breeding season appeared to have
been unsuccessful, with only 0.5% young in
the flocks. The coastal marshes held good
numbers of marsh and hen harriers and
short-eared owls, with up to 13 of the latter at
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 16 (1999)