Species recording at Abbotts Hall Farm, Great Wigborough
Access Arrangements
Abbotts Hall Farm is a working farm with heavy machinery in almost constant use so it has not yet
been possible to open up the farm to full public access, for health and safety reasons. The Trust is
putting in place a network of paths, bird hides and other facilities, but until these arc completed
access for the general public has to be restricted to specific organised walks on some Wednesdays
and Saturdays. If you are interested in coming on one of these visits, you should contact the Essex
Wildlife Trust on 01621 862960. For county recorders or other people interested in undertaking
more detailed and specialised recording, specific arrangemenls can be made. Please contact the
farm warden Dave Smart on 01206 735301 or via EECOS on 01621 862986.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the following persons for their help in this study and article:
George Catchpole for contributing many of the moth records; Brian Goodey (moths) and John
Skinner (lichens) for coping with species identification via e-mailed digital images; Peter Harvey
for confirming some hymenoptera identifications and providing information on the distribution of
hymenoptera and arachnids in Essex; Nigel Cuming for his beetle records; warden Dave Smart for
providing miscellaneous site records, but especially breeding birds, and many other colleagues at
Abbotts Hall Farm who cheerfully pointed out or collected dead remains from their window sills.
This report has drawn on previous survey work undertaken by John Dobson. Peter and Pam Wilson
and the BUZZ research team from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, whose records were
gratefully received by the Essex Wildlife Trust.
References
EDWARDS, R. & TELFER, M. (2002) Provisional Alias of the Aculeate Hymenoptera of Britain and
Ireland, part 4 NERC, Huntingdon.
FALK, S. (1991) A review of the scarce and threatened flies of Great Britain (Part 1). JNCC
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)
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