Wildlife and Conservation Review of 2001
Wakering - Little Egrets remain rather unusual inland in Essex. Among the waders, there were
good counts of 500 Avocets at Fingringhoe, up to 25 Little Stints at Vange, 24 Curlew Sandpipers
at East Tilbury, and Temminck's Stints at Rainham and William Girling Reservoir. Other reservoir
birds included Black-necked Grebes at King George V (maximum of 11) and Abberton; Red-
necked Grebes at King George V and Hanningfield (2); and Red-crested Pochard at Abberton.
Such an array of birds was almost enough to wipe the memory clean of the horrors of FMD.
But elsewhere, FMD was still raging, especially in Northumberland, and the total number of cases
reached 2000 during September. Even we in Essex were warned not to be complacent, as there were
fears of a possible resurgence as winter approached: the virus is at its least active during warm
weather. But in the event, the last new case of the outbreak came from Cumbria on 30th.
Much of the wildlife survey work upon which we rely to guide conservation priorities and actions
had been badly disrupted by earlier FMD restrictions, but in some cases it was possible to make up
for lost time during the autumn. One such was the Essex Dormouse nest box survey. In total 658
boxes were monitored at 21 sites, revealing an occupancy rate of 14%, a similar figure to previous
years. Since 1994, the Danbury complex and Captain's Wood have shown stability or a slight
increase, whereas other more isolated sites appear to have declined following a peak around 1996.
To gather national information on Dormouse distribution, abundance and trends, the second Great
Nut Hunt was launched, recording feeding signs instead of looking for the animals themselves.
The mild, damp conditions had one positive effect: a good crop of autumn fungi. The CNHS
foray to Chalkney Wood, for example, produced 50 species, including several Russula and Lactarius.
and impressively large amounts of Horn-of-Plenty Craterellus cornucopioides. Tony Boniface
started his survey of Hylands Park, and came up with a good list of 76 macrofungi and 12
microfungi, including a number of bracket fungi associated with the large, old trees. It looks as
though it should prove to be a fruitful site. Our earlier confident prediction of its entomological
importance certainly came true on 21st September when Mark Hanson found a female Golden
Hoverfly Callicera spinolae, followed by a male three days later, both attracted to Ivy blossom.
This is one of Britain's rarest insects (RDB1) and the subject of a Species Recovery Plan, previously
known from only 4 sites in the UK, all in East Anglia but never before in Essex. Its larvae are
believed to feed in the rot-holes of various deciduous trees, not an infrequent habitat where there
are old trees, but the adults are so distinctive that it is perhaps unlikely to have been overlooked at
better-recorded sites such as Epping Forest.
Nationally, enforcement against wildlife crime once more came into the news, as at last the full
force of the new CRoW Act was unleashed. A serial egger Barry Sheavils, previously convicted
and fined on several occasions, was jailed in Northumberland for 4 months. We must hope that
cases such as this will reduce the temptation to illegally pillage the UK's wildlife resources, as the
seriousness of the crime can now be matched with equally serious penalties.
In October the weather changed very much for the better, and remained so for most of the month.
There was a touch of frost in sheltered localities on one or two nights, but in my coastal garden the
minimum temperature did not fall below I0°C until 31s' October, the first time since 9th June.
Temperatures generally were high, with an almost identical average to September, some 3°C higher
than the long-term average of 10.6°C. Daytime highs exceeded 20°C on several days, peaking at
25°C in mid-month. The dry weather broke on the 21st, with the wettest day for a century, depositing
90mm of rain in some places in one day. The floods returned yet again, but it proved to be only a
temporary reversion to the conditions which were so frequent last winter.
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 19 (2002)