ESSEX WILDLIFE TRUST FOCUS:
VIEWS FROM THE NATURE RESERVES OF ESSEX
This year we are delighted that the "Essex Wildlife Trust Focus" of the Conservation & Management
section seems now to be firmly established, with three interesting papers from Essex Wildlife Trust
officers about the Trust's conservation achievements and monitoring work. Essex Wildlife Trust
manages some 8.000 acres in Essex with nature reserves spread right across the county representing
all important elements of the county's biodiversity. This year the focus is on grassland monitoring
and the wildlife at the Trust's new farmland Headquarters at Abbott's Hall on the Blackwater
Estuary.
Species recording at Abbotts Hall Farm, Great Wigborough
NEIL HARVEY & ADRIAN KNOWLES
EECOS, Abbotts Hall Farm, Great Wigborough, Essex COS 7RZ
Abstract
This paper details some of the species that have been recorded so far at the new Essex Wildlife
Trust headquarters at Abbotts Hall Farm. It includes a brief description of the farm itself and describes
the extent and direction of recording since the site was acquired.
Introduction
When EECOS (Essex Ecology Services - the Essex Wildlife Trust's ecological consultancy
company) moved into the new Essex Wildlife Trust headquarters at Abbotts Hall Farm in September
2001 we inevitably looked forward to the summer, to get out at lunchtime and catch up a few
specimens to identify, both to aid recording on this new nature reserve but also to sharpen our skills
on a few, more challenging taxa. Early in 2002 we decided to focus our efforts by resolving to
identify 1000 species by the end of the year. A rough calculation suggested that it might be possible,
but not without some outside expertise.
Summary Description of Abbotts Hall Farm
The farm covers 700 acres on the northern side of Salcott Creek at Great Wigborough, to the south
of Colchester (Ordnance Survey grid reference TL964145). To the east of the farm is Copt Hall,
owned by The National Trust and on the south side of Salcott Creek is the RSPB's Old Hall Marshes
reserve, with the Trust's Tollesbury Wick nature reserve to the south of that. The farm was largely
under arable cultivation when Sir Leonard Crossland owned it, other than a few bells of planted
broadleaved trees and a small attempt at Saltmarsh creation just inside the seawall. Since then
management by the Essex Wildlife Trust has tried to combine wildlife-friendly projects with
commercial fanning.
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)