Species recording at Abbotts Hall Farm, Great Wigborough
Mammals (19 species)
Species records were achieved during this project by a variety of means, but few were detected
using smell. However, this was how the presence of Yellow-necked Mouse Apodemus flavicollis
was ascertained when the distinctive odour of a decomposing animal was tracked down under the
floorboards of the house.
Badgers Meles meles are active around the farm and Harvest Mouse Micromys minutus was still
present in reasonable quantity under the intensive fanning that preceded the EWT's occupation of
the site. Most of the other common mammals of the Essex countryside have been proved to be
present, but a few - such as Short-tailed Field Vole Microtus agrestis - have yet to be confirmed.
Common Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Soprano Pipistrelles P. pygmaeus have both been detected
around the house and garden, as has a Serotine Eptesicus serotinus, as it fed over the back lawn
during a staff social event!
Several other important groups have been omitted from this summary, simply because we know
embarrassingly little about them! As mentioned above, we had to wait until April 2003 to clear the
1000 mark, but the 200 odd BUZZ records were added to the database after then and we are still
waiting for a few 2002 records to be determined and other records to be sent in. The grand total at
the time of writing is 1269 showing that we have added little this year (2003), largely due to a lack
of time.
Conclusions
It is perhaps risky to draw too many conclusions from an exercise that lias been a matter of ad hoc
natural history observations rather than based on rigorous scientific survey techniques, but a few
key points can be made with some confidence. One of the unavoidable conclusions must be that
gardens are extremely important for wildlife and that it is surprisingly easy to build up a large
species list on a decent sized site with a variety of habitats, such as ponds, shrubberies, lawns,
herbaceous borders and mature specimen trees. The gardens here at Abbotts Hall Farm include
plants that flower very early in the spring, with the flowering season extending well into autumn -
an important factor in encouraging invertebrate populations.
Another lesson to be learnt from this exercise must be "seek and ye shall find". One might not have
thought of farmland seawalls as typical habitat for Bombardier Beetle (it is said to favour "chalky
districts" in southern Britain), but such records may be unearthed if there is sufficient recorder
effort. The preceding account has reported a number of species seen for the first time in Essex for
many years, if at all. It is hard to believe that Abbotts Hall Farm is the only locality in Essex for
some of these species, its just that it has come under the spot-light and been the focus of some
patchy but occasionally intensive searching.
The survey work has also highlighted the potential wildlife value of all farmland, particularly in
coastal areas, under sympathetic management. Such management is still in its early days at Abbotts
Hall Farm and we look fonvard to recording an ever-increasing range of flora and fauna during our
lunchtime sorties. As October now rolls on, the prospect of trying to separate Glasswort plants by
their flowers and re-learning the lichens on brick walls and tree bark sends a shiver through one's
spine that the seemingly endless mild weather has thus far failed to achieve!
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)