WILDLIFE REVIEW OF THE YEAR
CHRIS GIBSON
1 Dove House Collage, Oakley Road, Dovercourt C012 5DR
Introduction
As we emerged staggering into the light of a new Millennium on New Year's Day, the first tentative
steps at recording our wildlife had already been taken - at least one moth had been spotted (presumably
a Winter Moth, notwithstanding the observer's failure to take his identification responsibilities
seriously!) in car headlights only an hour and a half into 2000. It was a momentous time, which
despite the equally momentous hangovers, was filled with reflection of the past and optimism for the
future. Surely, come the 21st Century, humankind had grown up sufficiently to take its environmental
responsibilities seriously? Well, yes and no, as the following account will demonstrate - the year
2000 was filled with positive conservation news, but tempered by significant failures to win the
hearts and minds of certain key stakeholders in the future of life on earth.
Indeed, thoughts of the worst aspects of the 20th Century were uppermost in the mind of many even
as the celebrations died down. A major oil slick was beaching itself on the French Atlantic coast, the
fallout from the stricken tanker Erika. With oil comes casualties: at least 60,000 seabirds were
killed, including one with a demonstrable Essex connection - a Cormorant ringed as a nestling at
Abberton Reservoir in 1990. We may presume that such disasters will be a thing of the past long
before the close of the 21st Century, whether by design (advances in energy technology) or default
(fossil fuels will eventually run out). But environmental disasters will always be out there waiting to
happen.
As always, I am grateful to the many observers whose records form the bulk of this report, and to the
regular publications from which items have been culled. It should again be stressed that any bird
records given here arc not a definitive record - that role falls very properly to the Essex Bird Report.
Winter
The year dawned mild and sunny, in keeping with what we have corne to expect as a feature of our
greenhouse-gas-affected climate. January had above average temperatures, despite a cold snap in
mid-month, and only a third of the long-term average rainfall amounts. Given the pleasant weather,
it is perhaps not surprising that most of the rare bird interest was left over from 2000. The Forster's
Tern completed its year-long residence in the county, being seen in the Mersea and Tollesbury are
although proving increasingly unpredictable; the drake Canvasback continued to appear out of the
Pochard flocks at Abberton; and at least three Ring-billed Gulls were reliably present - at
Creekmouth on the inner Thames, the University of Essex lake near Colchester, and at Shoebury.
The Americans were truly 'over here'.
The more traditional fare, however, was rather sparse. There was only a handful of Smew, mostly in
the Lee Valley, and both Short-eared Owls and Hen Harriers were in very low numbers on the
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 18 (2001)