Latest News

London in winter

Britain's Wildlife

So, we are doing our first ‘year of monthly short breaks’ in 2024, but just occasionally the opportunity arises for an interim one as well. This last weekend was a case in point: we wanted to attend the Essex Field Club’s Annual Exhibition & Social in the Wat Tyler Country Park, Pitsea, and east London is a good stepping-off point to get there by train. So we decided to revisit one of our favourite spots in ‘old Essex’, Barking Creek, for the night, preceded by a whistlestop tour of London in the run-up to Christmas.

When we arrived in the City, it was a beautifully sunny day, all the better to show off the edifices of glass and steel piercing the blue:

And nestled between them, historic fragments deep in the 21st century gorges, mostly churches and graveyards (including the tomb of one Sir William Rawlins, successful upholsterer, benefactor, Sheriff of London … and fraudster, convicted and jailed for electoral misdemeanours – some things never change!) followed by a lunchtime organ recital in St Margaret Lothbury, tucked behind the Bank of England.

Heading across to Kensington and Knightsbridge we then went to a (somewhat underwhelming) exhibition of Tube Maps at the Map House, though the V&A looked lovely as did many a roofscape in the sinking sun…

… before a potter across Hyde Park as the sun finally set, the trees and grazing geese oblivious to the racket from the Winter Wonderland just behind us!

Resisting the ‘temptations’ therein, and in the designer frivolity of Harrods and Selfridges, it was time for a very good meal in the Lamb & Flag, then out to a place we feel much more comfortable, Barking, full of life, diversity and real people…

The Ibis Budget hotel is not only well-priced, but right by the former mill at the point the River Roding turns into Barking Creek, ideal for a morning stroll along the Roding towpath.

Urban rivers like this are fraught with challenges, and the water quality seems pretty poor, no doubt from discharges both legal and ‘accidental’. But there is at least a veneer of nature, with Grey Wagtails and Moorhens, and it has recently been reported that Otters have finally returned to this area, one of the last watercourses of Essex to be recolonized following extirpation in the 1970s and 80s.

The riverbanks and towpath have fared little better, strewn with litter, the jetsam from the unthinking and uncaring. It could have been so different: in a moment of civic optimism some years ago, it seems attempts were made to create a pleasant riverside walk, but as is so often the case, ongoing maintenance and care has been lacking.

But the power of nature taking over, coating bricks with a patchwork of mosses and lichens, and paths and walls being subsumed into the urban jungle, just like the Amazon rainforest eating up some of its concrete incursions, does give hope that while the river may be ailing, its spirit will never quite be killed.

The EFC event at Wat Tyler Country Park was, as always, a great opportunity to meet up with friends old and new and also, as we headed back to the station, to witness a fly-past of at least 60 Pied Wagtails, on their way to roost.

And so back into London, the walk from Fenchurch Street to Liverpool Street gave us not only a fine pint and friendly company in the Windsor pub, but also the remarkable sight of the glass canyons transformed into works of art, transient masterpieces of colour, light and shadow.

A fitting end to an action-packed day and a half!

POSTSCRIPT

At the Essex Field Club meeting, we picked up this year’s edition of the journal Essex Naturalist, another bumper edition of 248 pages (as good a reason as any for joining the Club), covering a wide range of topics, including a paper from us:

GIBSON, C. & GIBSON, J. (2024) Observations on Saltmarsh Horsefly Atylotus latristriatus in Wivenhoe, North Essex. Essex Naturalist (New Series) 41: 149-151.

 

Winter arrives at the Harcourt Arboretum

Britain's Wildlife

Last week I was pleased to be invited as far afield as Abingdon to give a talk. Travelling so far from home, it provided the ideal opportunity to explore the Oxford area a little. But the weather had other ideas: plans to visit the Botanic Garden had to be abandoned because of overnight snow and heavy sleet that made the journey down there last most of the day.

However, the following morning it was a different prospect, with sunshine and very light winds. Yes, it was very cold but ideal conditions in which to explore the University of Oxford’s Harcourt Arboretum. Just me and the trees, barely a breath of wind, and no sound save for the traffic on the road and the flutter of falling leaves, the gentle crack of abscission followed by a sigh as leaf meets earth once more.

The previous day’s snow cover had all but gone, but penetrating frost left its mark right up to midday:

Walking slowly around the Arboretum was a joy, the autumnal colours shifting from green to gold to red with every vista:

Every species of tree was trying to rise to the challenge of painting the season:

The innerscapes of hanging leaves adorned with the transient interplay of pigment, sunlight and shadow made progress around the garden slow…

… while the groundscapes of fallen leaves added their unique autumnal dimension to the picture.

Add to all of that the extra colour and structure from bark and lichens, seeds and berries ….

… as the temperature rose above freezing in the sun, the frost sublimating to mist in wisps was wreathed in the fragrant billows from the charcoal burner: it really was a feast for all the senses!

And that just leaves the wildlife. Yes, free-range Peacocks are always good fun, especially when pecking around under trees from their natural home. The trees had seeping Redwings, lots of skittish Blackbirds and Song Thrushes, as well as noisy Nuthatches and woodpeckers.  More than enough nature to build up the strength of purpose to do battle with the M25…!

The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: the advent of winter

Beth Chatto Gardens, Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

Two visits  to the Gardens a week apart witnessed the arrival of winter this year. Last week it was still autumn, albeit a relatively subdued one in terms of colour, blanketed under dank anticyclonic gloom…

It was also dead calm, as indeed it had been for several weeks, leaving leaves largely where they were, apart from the groundscapes created by traditionally early droppers…

 

And it was mild, meaning there was still plenty of flowering to feed the bees and flies still busy in the garden.

Most exciting of all though were the bird’s-nests. Fungi, that is, their fruit bodies occupying just one of the peony pots. They are Crucibulum laeve – so-called Common Bird’s-nest, but we’ve never seen it before.

So we now have two species in the garden,  Field Bird’s-nest from 2022 outside in the Reservoir Garden is the other, twice as large and greyer. Both are simply exquisite, and part of the reason we love nature so much!

And so to yesterday, winter: a sudden cold snap had brought several nights of penetrating frost, and even an unexpectedly early dusting of snow:

This was a very different day, with temperatures hovering around freezing and feeling much cooler in the stiff breeze, but with crystalline sunlight beaming down from an azure sky.

Whether the leaf colours had really changed that much, or their intensity was magnified by the quality of the light, it felt that winter was here…

 

Whether en masse or in detail, winter is permeating every corner of the garden…

And the blanket of fallen leaves grows ever more varied:

As for wildlife, as always in the cold, the garden was a refuge for birds: a Red-legged Partridge sitting disconsolately in a snowpatch, untroubled by visitors (there were none!) and safe from the guns, while a Moorhen had recently ventured out of the ponds and left its mark.

The berry bushes were full of Woodpigeons and five species of thrush (Song and Mistle Thrushes, Redwing, Fieldfare and Blackbird) gorging on the ripe fruits, leaving the still-green Ivy berries for late-winter sustenance.

Autumn is still not forgotten: under a Silver Birch there was a fruiting Fly Agaric (as with the Red-legged Partridge, only the second time in the Gardens for me) and a Birch Bracket in the trunk above.

The frosts had disposed of much of the previous week’s blooming, but remarkably there were still insects foraging, despite the cold. As I extolled the virtues of Mahonia, right on cue along came a Buff-tailed Bumblebee – the wonders of a fur coat! One of the best things any gardener can do is to plant midwinter-flowering shrubs to fill the nectar-gap when our native countryside simply is not up to the mark, the gap that used to be a hiatus in insect activity but now in an overheated world simply not the case.

Another surprise was a new insect for the garden, at least for me: nestling down in the solar reflector leaf of a Cistus populifolius was a Parent Bug, long-anticipated as likely to be present. Another one to add to the inventory we are starting this winter!

So winter may be here, but there is still plenty of the wild side of life to appreciate in the Beth Chatto Gardens. Open Thursday to Saturday, 10.00 to 16.00, until 21 December – AND until then it is entry is half-price – Welcome to Beth Chatto’s Plants and Gardens

Cooling towers, canals, caves and a cathedral: the Trent Valley, east to west

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Rail

Our monthly short breaks often have their genesis from a single place or sight or activity we want to experience, padded out into a two- or three-night stay with other things we think might be of interest in the vicinity, or at least easily accessible by public transport. November’s trip was no exception: for this, we need simply look back to the televised rail journeys of Michael Portillo. Love him or hate him as a politician, it cannot be denied that he opens the eyes of many to the abundant delight of rail.

A few months ago he alighted at East Midlands Parkway. A station in the middle of nowhere – except for that fact that the platform is almost within touching distance of the iconic cooling towers at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station….

For this one we were hoping for fine sunny weather, and as we left St Pancras, it seemed we were in luck. But by the time we reached Nottinghamshire, the anticyclonic gloom of the past few weeks had closed in again. We shouldn’t have worried: against blue skies or grey, so close up those iconic megastructures cannot fail to inspire awe.

And yes for a few precious moments, the towers lit up as a few shafts of sunlight broke through …

To hear that these cathedrals to power generation are due to be demolished, we knew we just had to visit. And just in time perhaps, as the power station ceased generating at the end of September this year, the very last coal-burning power station still operating in this country.

Of course, it is wonderful to know that such power stations are no longer polluting our world. But do their most obvious manifestation, the cooling towers with their almost sensually curved shape, need to be wiped from the face of the Earth? Surely there is still space for these iconic buildings, if nothing else as a memorial, Lest We Forget the damage inflicted to our planet and its future over the past three or four generations, and the damage inflicted upon human communities by heartless political dogma without effective transitional help towards low-carbon economies.

Every step we took, we were overlooked by the eight brooding, tamed beauties, even down by the River Soar at Redhill Marina, just about the only place within walking distance to find an afternoon cuppa.

A few hundred metres short of its discharge into the Trent, the river here is canalized, with locks, towpaths and barges, the stiller waters rampantly colonized by invasive Floating Pennywort.

In common with seemingly everywhere this year, the valley grasslands abounded in fungi, including fresh cowpats with the orange discs of Cheilymenia stercorea.

There just past the lock was the red hill after which it is named, quite a surprise in the flat valley. And the rocks really are very red, a type of friable mudstone with numerous ramifying seams of fibrous gypsum, up to several centimetres thick.

It could be the gypsum that is imparting a calcareous influence to the soil, with seepages encrusted in tufa, and the slopes festooned in Old Man’s Beard.

Then, after a happy three hours in the middle of nowhere, it was back onto the train and onwards to Nottingham.  What a revelation! As the light stated to fade we were back among canals and warehouses …

… including the welcome Canalhouse Bar, in a former canal museum and still with a narrowboat on show inside the bar.

The Premier Inn, also by the canal in the Island Quarter, was conveniently situated just along from Binks Yard restaurant, which provided us what has to be the very best meal of the many we have tasted on our monthly travels this year. For me it was free-range local pork chop with sautéed potatoes, seared hispi cabbage and a delicious honey mustard dressing, while Jude went for the rainbow salad with all sorts of magical ingredients, topped with fried halloumi strips. We finished off with the richest possible salted chocolate tart, with blood orange sorbet, though pleased we ordered just one with two spoons! And very reasonably priced even with a splendid bottle of Tempranillo… I don’t usually put such foody detail in these blogs, but that really was one of the best of the best, one to be savoured vicariously over years to come.

Next morning, the grey had given way to blue as we headed back along the canal, the sunlight showing the distinctive red bricks to advantage, and contributing to some lovely reflectascapes …

… which were rendered even more exotic by the extravagance of displaying Mandarins.

But there is another side to the city, perched on the red sandstone hills: castle, cathedral, churches, municipal and other monumental buildings looking down over the canal.

Then built into the cliff is the art gallery, Nottingham Contemporary, continuing a centuries-old practice of expanding the city underground into hundreds of caves hewn out of the soft rock.

Used for storage, shelter and industry, we visited the ‘City of Caves’. Perhaps the tours under the castle would have been better organised, albeit no doubt more expensive, but we were left a little disappointed, especially when the wifi signal dropped out and we were left without commentary half way through …

Still we got the drift, and emerged blinking into the bright sunlight into a pop-up garden, full of dahlias, and even in very unprepossessing concrete surroundings, teeming with insect life!

And all that was left to do was head to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, built into the Castle mound, for a good lunch within the beating heart of the underground city.

Next stop further up the Trent valley was Lichfield. Again we had few preconceptions about the place, but very soon realised it is all about the Cathedral, the three spires from every angle looming large over the city and its other historic attractions.

It soon got dark, and even though it wasn’t illuminated, the cathedral made its presence felt, like something from the brushes of Atkinson Grimshaw, the master of nocturnal painting,

Overnight rain came as a bit of a surprise, but by breakfast the sun was out and the skies cobalt blue. First stop of course was the cathedral: up close its many statues, figurines and external decoration lend it an intricate Gothic scariness, the sort of thing we have felt previously in cathedrals such as Cologne.

And no doubt it was not so long ago even more forbidding, before most of the stones were cleaned of the grime of the centuries to reveal the natural red sandstone, which now with lower aerial pollution levels is allowing colonization by mosses, lichens and ferns.

And so inside. The space feels vast, and it comes with all the requisite pillars, ornamentation, stained glass and wall paintings, but both of us felt it lacked a certain indefinable something. We couldn’t fault the warmth of the welcome, but the fabric of the building simply didn’t have it for us.

Out again into the sun, time to stroll around Stowe Pool for lovely reflections, visit Dr Johnson’s house, walk past Erasmus Darwin’s house, and settle down in the Angel pub for a fine local ale. And before we knew it, back to the station and home. But only three weeks until our next trip!

The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: a time for renewal

Beth Chatto Gardens, Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

Now that November is upon us, the Gardens have started their winter semi-hibernation, open only Thursday to Saturday, time for them to recover from the exuberances of summer. But at least they can still be visited to bring the joys of nature into our lives, and for half-price to boot …

The summer’s growth is starting to be recycled into next year’s growth …

… but the flowers are not yet done. Especially pinks and purples blend well into the message of autumn, and at least on sunny days they are still drawing in insects.

Even earlier this week when the day was grey, the air moist but still, there were Honeybees and a few bumblebees visiting the ever-reliable spikes of Bistorta amplexicaulis: there is no better plant in the gardens to feed these and many others. And no doubt, if the sun should ever come out again (it has been a grey week, not good for anyone prone to the wintertime blues) there would be a whole lot more, at least until the advent of the first frosts.

Cooler air means that the insects, if you find them, are less flighty and easier to see in close up. One such on my visit was this was a Twin-spot Centurion, our largest and latest of this group of soldier-flies, with distinctive orange legs and a pair of white spots above the antennal bases. This was my first record, not only for the garden, but anywhere: it is widespread in Essex, but records are rather thinly scattered especially in the north of the county – it may owe some of its apparent scarcity to its typically late-season emergence.

Berries and seeds, food for birds in particular, were also much in evidence: sprinkles of colour on the bushes, architectural forms rising from the beds and grass-heads exploding like fireworks from their tussocky bases:

And then of course the leaves – such a rapid colour change, fewer than two weeks since my last visit, signifying ‘peak autumn’.

And without any recent strong winds, the fallen cover the ground, plants and water like gentle foliar confetti, destined to become a deluge when this unusually calm spell gives way to winter proper.

But for now, there is still time to visit and see the garden in its full autumnal splendour! For details see Explore Our Gardens – Beth Chatto’s Plants & Gardens.

#WildEssexWalks: autumn in the Wivenhoe Cemeteries

Britain's Wildlife, Bug & Botany Walks, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

#WildEssex today resumed its tradition of offering a fungi walk in November.  This year we stayed local to Wivenhoe, exploring both cemeteries to hunt out not only fungi, but also foliage, fruits and an interesting addition to our town this year – Firebugs! An ‘effing’ good time was in prospect!!

But the weather dampened things a little. Light rain for much of our two hours (we stayed in the wooded Old Cemetery when it turned more purposeful) gave way to occasional warm sunshine, and a magnificent double rainbow. And the raindrops certainly embellished the tips of the beautiful Bhutan Pine…

The fungi are always unpredictable, even in these cemeteries, renowned as one of the best locations for fungus-hunting in the area. But this time, we managed to hit the peak (probably) of a good year. Under the trees there were numerous Death Caps (appropriate for cemeteries!), a single Fly Agaric, parasols and Clouded Agarics:

In addition we discovered fungi growing on dead wood (Turkey Tail types) and microfungi on leaves: Sycamore Tar Spot plus various rust fungi, not to be confused with leaf-mines, galls and other blemishes:

In the more open New Cemetery, the important grassland fungi put on a great show, with six or more waxcaps, from white, through yellow, orange and scarlet, to black; Golden Spindles; puffballs and earthballs; milkcaps and cheesecaps; plus numerous LBJs  (Little Brown Jobs).

In a footnote to the above, just a couple of weeks after this walk, we were out on the King George Field. Grassland fungi were coming up there too, including at least four waxcaps and one club fungus (photos below). I have not seen fruiting like this at this location here since 1987. It was this half-remembered diversity that guided my choice of the southwest corner for the first Wivenhoe haymeadow seven years ago. Comprehensive fungal survey certainly needs patience!

And the rich flora was not completely over either, with Field Scabious, Mouse-eared Hawkweed, Ox-eye Daisy and Yarrow still flowering, although the Ivy Broomrape (possibly its only site in Essex, discovered this summer) was well over. Having said that , as a parasitic plant with no chlorophyll it always looks dead anyway!

Fruits abounded on Cotoneaster, Holly, Yew, Ivy and Stinking Iris – all important resources for birds:

And autumn-tinted foliage lit up the paths as we walked through the cemeteries:

As always we were on the look-out for insects. Some gravestones (particularly those under Lime trees) proved popular meeting places for large numbers of Firebugs. These lovely creatures have only been known in UK for a few years, and now have a foothold here in Wivenhoe. How they manage to disperse and spread is all rather mysterious as the vast majority of individuals do not have wings and so cannot fly.

Other invertebrates included a rather splendid ichneumon wasp, Virgin Bagworm moths and a single Parent Bug, while the final discovery of the day was an Issus coleoptratus, a bug which we have seen very few of in recent years.

In addition to general nature walks, this year WildEssex have introduced ‘Botany Club’ events. These are for anyone interested in learning more about the craft of identifying wildflowers, and no previous experience is required.  Using Chris’ book ‘British & Irish Wild Flowers and Plants’, a few samples are collected each time and then the process of identifying explained. More events of this type are to be arranged next year. For more details of these, or our other, events please contact Jude at jmgibson1959@btinternet.com.

A half-term short break in London

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Rail

During school holidays, we always like to take our granddaughter Eleanor, aged 6, away for at least one night, to start to show her the world. This week it was to London: always busy, but buzzing and vibrant. And despite the half-term crowds, the only time we were queueing was right at the start, to get on to the cable-car across the Thames. But in fact the wait of nearly an hour was quite fortuitous: we started queuing in heavy cloud and light rain …

… but once aloft the sun came out …

… and by touchdown it was clear blue skies! At least for a few minutes, until the grey gloom settled in once again.

After lunch, it was back under the river to Canary Wharf, the glass cathedrals to business now softened with the newly created and very attractive Eden Dock garden.

Time then before it got dark for the playpark in Greenwich Park before we headed to the Greenwich Premier Inn for a very comfortable night. After breakfast next morning we took the opportunity for a walk around the back of the hotel and a view over Deptford Creek, one of those tidal tendrils of the Thames, once so important for trade and commerce. It may be hemmed in by development, but it must look quite impressive at high water. And there were Mallards and a Grey Wagtail to brighten up the dull day, as well as a team of Large White caterpillars demolishing a cabbage!

The Horniman Museum and Garden was out destination for the second day.

Situated in Forest Hill, it really is on a hill, and we were very pleasantly surprised at the views of London from the top of the garden, snapshots of familiar places between the trees.

What attracted us there was the butterfly house, thinking Eleanor would find that exciting. As of course did we: a great place for taking photographs (once the lenses stopped steaming up) of unfamiliar butterflies and caterpillars, along with tropical flowers and even a Cottony Cushion Scale-insect.

Although the end of October, it was still mild outside so there were insects there as well in the lovely gardens, with ecological plantings, interesting flowers and autumn colours:

Yes, Eleanor did enjoy the butterfly house, although as much for flowers and foliage as for the butterflies as her photos show:

But what really seemed to inspire her efforts with Granny’s phone camera was the garden. We do rather forget that those of smaller stature see the world very differently to us, framed by fences and barriers that we quite literally overlook.

She was clearly taken by some of the more showy flowers …

… but also the colours, patterns and textures of the leaves around her. It is a privilege to share some more of her photos – the world as seen through the eyes of a child!

And then all that was left was a visit to the playpark across the road (‘fun’ is always needed, as well as ‘interesting’), serenaded by squawking hordes of Rose-ringed Parakeets, and home after a lovely couple of days.

The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: Autumn glories

Beth Chatto Gardens, Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

October, the month when the low-angled sun sends shafts of dappled light through the garden, illuminating a scene of nature starting to bed in for the winter. This month I am fortunate to have had excuses to go there on four or five occasions, almost all of them under blue skies and in sometimes unseasonable, unreasonable warmth…

It was the month that started green …

… developed russet and orange tints …

… until now when whole swathes are alight with the glow of autumn flames.

Misty mornings add their own veil of mystery, leaving evidence of their passing in the form of dewdrop diamonds adorning flowers, foliage and silken webs alike.

The process of autumnal change is both intrinsic and extrinsic, senescence with an added splash of leaf-miners, sprouting galls and sporing microfungi …

And then there are the macrofungi, this autumn being one of the best I have seen for them in the garden, including my first record of Fly Agarics fruiting under the Silver Birches:

 

Fungi are one of the main groups of decay organisms, adding to that overlooked but vital virtuous circle of ‘life → death → decay → renewed life’, hopefully cycling ad infinitum. But the initial part of decay is down as much to the chompers as the rotters, and for the first time we had a look for some of those by scrabbling around in leaf-litter and under logs. Here are just a few representatives of that rich ecosystem of detritivores (and their predators!), from worms, woodlice, harvestmen and springtails to beetle larvae, spiders and centipedes.

Autumn is also a time of bounty, with plants in fruit all around the garden. From grassheads glinting gold in the sidelight to swelling capsules of Agapanthus…

… and of course the burgeoning berries in a kaleidoscope of colours, each food for someone, reassurance that if we ever get a hard winter again, Nature will provide.

While floral displays are fading, they are still there and providing, especially Hylotelephium and Crocus for bumblebees, Bistorta and Verbena for Honeybees, social wasps and pretty much everything.

Dragonflies and damselflies, the true spirits of High Summer, have still been flying throughout the month, mostly Willow Emeralds (more than I have ever seen before) and Common Darters, with a few Migrant Hawkers to mid-month. Assuming we don’t get early frosts, we can look forward to the first two species well into November, maybe beyond.

A selection of the leaf-feeders during the month includes a Grey Dagger moth caterpillar, a Hairy Shield-bug and most surprisingly a Gorse Shield-bug, the first time I have ever found it in our garden. We don’t have much Gorse, and this species has a very close relationship with that food-plant – although remarkably that particular specimen was actually on Euphorbia!

And yes there have still been butterflies around, reflecting the fact that the previous month saw the greatest number of butterflies for the whole of this poor summer. I saw a total of six species during the month: most numerous were Red Admirals, looking increasingly battered and presumably individuals that had ‘opted’ not to join the record-breaking southward migration in September.

Commas too were numerous, including the one casting a very appropriate shadow for Halloween on the wall of Beth’s House!

Birds don’t often feature highly in my walks around the garden given the number of human visitors, but at migration times they can be numerous flying over, this month Swallows and Skylarks in particular. And it has been a long time since I recorded three new species for me in the gardens in one month. Two were perhaps not unexpected, a pair of Red-legged Partridges wandering in from surrounding fields, and a Grey Wagtail that dropped in on migration. But the third was a real delight, a Nuthatch calling loudly from either side of the Reservoir Garden on one visit; although not uncommon across much of the country, it is very scarce, indeed largely absent, on the Tendring Peninsula, east of Colchester. So a month of colour, a month of delights, and a month of new things for the Beth Chatto Gardens, our incidental nature reserve!

An autumn break in Kent and Sussex: part 3 – to the seaside at Hastings, St Leonards & Bexhill

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Rail

And so on our second afternoon we headed down from Tunbridge Wells to the coast of East Sussex, taking in Bexhill, St Leonards and Hastings, all conveniently linked by regular and always prompt trains.

We stayed in Bexhill, simply because of a gig we wanted to see at the iconic De La Warr Pavilion – Oysterband and June Tabor, on their final ever tour. Yes, that was very good, as was an Italian meal at Trattoria Italiana preceded by a restorative walk in the dark along the prom listening to waves on shingle, but otherwise we couldn’t find much to recommend it…

In fact most interesting spot apart from the Pavilion was the railway station, both as a way out to pastures new and in sunshine at least providing lots of opportunity for interesting photos of receding vistas:

A couple of times we had chance to wander around St Leonards where the feel was very different, careworn maybe, but not tired, and seemingly with more pride in itself. And the Dandelion Deli provided an excellent breakfast!

Our second visit was as the weather was starting to break on our final day, but ‘bracing’ is a positive attribute for any seaside town, and the waves and sea-foam were quite spectacular.

We have been to Hastings before, a couple of years ago: we enjoyed it then, and with a sunny day in the forecast it seemed a good place to spend our full day on the coast. Not just for the food of course – outstanding fish and chips at Maggie’s, on the beach among the iconic sail-lofts, – but that helped!

We started the day walking the sea-front of ‘new’ Hastings, down to its pier. ‘English Seaside Architecture’ on one side, the large shingle beach, complete with beach-huts, and expansive views of the Channel. Sadly, between the two, a busy road: whoever though it a good idea to sever a town from its main asset?

The waves were lapping up the shore, enough to fill the air with shingle gently clashing followed by the gurgle of each wave sinking into the beach. Sea Kale was growing along the very upper beach where waves so rarely reach, along with Red Valerian, and patches especially on the prom of Water Bent, a newly arrived grass on our shores, spreading rapidly but not it seems displacing anything much – it helps green the arid cracks where nothing else lives.

Around the town, there was plenty of art to be found, both in the form of official installations but also ‘found’ art created by the transient interplay of sunlight with concrete…

Out then to Old Hastings …

… where the split-level street provide a wonderful habitat for attractive wall plants, from Polypody and Mexican Fleabane to Shaggy Soldier and Trailing Bellflower.

Under the gaze of the cliffs and castle, all the trappings of a seaside destination were there, very attractive until you lower the line of vision to car-park level….

Thankfully at the eastern end, Rock-a-Nore cliffs are still unspoilt and majestic, home to Peregrines above, Rock Pipits among the collapsed boulders, and sweeping views, along to Dungeness nuclear power station, some 40km distant but reaching up defiantly from below the horizon. The Earth really is spherical!

The sandstone cliffs were a picturesque mix of strata, faces and colonising vegetation …

… with plants including Tree Mallow and Rock Samphire, but worryingly large amounts of the aggressively invasive space-filler Hottentot-fig. Once our winters were too reliably frosty for it to survive without protection, but no longer it seems.

And then all that was left was to wander back along the shingle beach among the fishing paraphernalia, the iconic sail lofts and of course, Maggie’s fish and chips! A great finale.

Well, not quite the last act of our break. On our way home by train, we had decided to stop off for a few hours in Battle. Clearly a famous historic site, but the weather by then was such that we thought spending money to wander round a field in the wind and rain not especially enticing. So we took refuge in two lovely pubs (the Chequers Inn and the King’s Head) and listened to the incessant roar of busy traffic on the A2100. Another part of the south-east where car is clearly king: there are not even any pedestrian crossings to easily explore the other side of the street: heaven forbid that a motorist should be inconvenienced by a mere pedestrian. But, as we demonstrated, a visit by public transport, helping support local hostelries, is perfectly possible!

 

For other blogs in this series see:

An autumn break in Kent and Sussex: part 1 – Tunbridge Wells | Chris Gibson Wildlife

An autumn break in Kent and Sussex: part 2 – Eridge Rocks | Chris Gibson Wildlife

An autumn break in Kent and Sussex: part 2 – Eridge Rocks

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Rail

After a very comfortable night (and outstanding breakfast) in the Royal Wells Hotel, we headed out again under blue skies by bus across the border into East Sussex to the village of Eridge. The bus stop was outside the local church, and as the churchwarden was just opening up it would have been rude not to have had a look around…

A bit Arts & Crafty on the outside, the inside was delightfully simple, with some glorious modern stained glass, very reminiscent of the Chagall windows at Tudeley we had seen a few years previously…not surprising perhaps as that is only some 20km away.

Plenty to see in the churchyard too, from lichens on the gravestones to waxcap fungi studding the springy turf, and Red Admirals nectaring on the flowering Ivy in the hedges.

But our real reason for being here was the Sussex Wildlife Trust nature reserve just down the road, Eridge Rocks. This was Jude’s first and my second time here – and my visit six months ago was in very different circumstances, both wet and windy. Heading down the lane there is little sign of the wonderland therein…

But as soon as you enter, the world is transformed. Rocks and cliffs, caves, cracks and crevices, enfolded by trees and dripping in mosses, liverworts and ferns as befits this south-eastern outlier of the Atlantic rain-forest.

It is the province of goblins and wood-sprites, the petrified heads of lizards and giants, entwined with garlands of Ivy and Bracken. It may be the same Wealden sandstone rock formation as we saw yesterday at Tunbridge Wells Common, but here it is imbued with the spirit of bountiful, even pagan, Nature.

In places the rock faces are etched with the signs of millennia of the gritty wind erosion characteristic of deserts (as we have seen previously in Menorca and West Bay in Dorset), each face a unique honeycomb of geological history.

Elsewhere, the trees have melded with the rocks, moulded into such contortions it is difficult to see where wood ends and stone begins.

The older trees are Yews, perhaps the longest-lived of all our trees, harking back to an age before there were any churchyards for them to be trapped within. And the tips of many a shoot were swollen into the almost mini-artichoke form of the gall caused by the the midge Taxomyia taxi. Although the national distribution of this gall is very sparse and patchy, we do seem to find it in many places, including this nature reserve and Eridge churchyard.

And there is the life to be found on the rocks, carpets of moss and lichen. sprouting ferns from each crevasse. Some deep overhands had the green baize ceiling carpet of Killarney Fern gametophyte and, just where I found it in March, the Tunbridge Filmy-fern, denizen of the lowest light-levels imaginable.

 

And yes there were a few insects and fungi …

… but really centre-stage were the bones of the land, a journey back into the depths of pre-history, almost enough to mask the distant but incessant roar of the A26….

For other blogs in this series see

An autumn break in Kent and Sussex: part 1 – Tunbridge Wells | Chris Gibson Wildlife

An autumn break in Kent and Sussex: part 3 – to the seaside at Hastings, St Leonards & Bexhill | Chris Gibson Wildlife

 

An autumn break in Kent and Sussex: part 1 – Tunbridge Wells

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Rail

It may have been the height of autumn, but the weather for our October short break in Kent and Sussex had other ideas: for three of the four days, blue skies, light winds and warm sunshine kept the memory of summer very much alive. We started at Tunbridge Wells, Royal Tunbridge Wells no less, with appropriately Regency architectural styling all held together by the distinctive and appealing red brick and tiled pavements…

From residential terraces to the historical heart at the Pantiles, the concentration of impressive buildings was remarkable, centred on the original chalybeate (iron-rich) mineral well-spring. Full of shops selling high-end coffees and diamonds, it was admirably traffic-free, at least to the eyes. But to the ears – an ever-present rumble, rising to a crescendo every so often as if to prevent one from becoming habituated.

In the other half of the town, nearer to the railway station, there were again some remarkable buildings, many repurposed for commercial use, such as the Opera House (now a Wetherspoons), others in civic use, like the museum – all you ever wanted to know about Subbuteo, the football game, which originated here. And real shops selling real things, not just aspirations and fripperies…

In any town, open spaces are of course a refuge, and those we visited all gave us that, from the bustle and the traffic. In The Grove the parkland trees held lots of birds including roving multi-species tit flocks, plus several Chiffchaffs, and one of the trees had a fine, if worrying, sprouting of Ganoderma fungal brackets.

Calverley Grounds was much larger, with more formal gardens, but plenty of space to breathe…

But it was Tunbridge Wells Common that impressed us the most. Running uphill from the edge of the busiest road, the value of trees in suppressing sound and enhancing the air was immediate. Robins were singing. Nuthatches and woodpeckers calling in the still air, as Speckled Woods made most of the sun-flecks.

Trees and scrub gave way higher up to grass and heath, even a little bit of Heather, and then Wellington Rocks, an outcrop of the local sandstone worn by eons of water and wind, (and centuries of childrens’ exploration) into white sand, the home of ground-nesting Bee-wolves and Ivy (or perhaps Heather) Bees.

 

The rocks have such a pleasing profile they kept us happy with our cameras for most of the afternoon, the sun moving round and shadows progressively revealing more and more detail in the faces of the rocks.

 

Cracks and crevices, sometimes enlarged into chasms provided shelter for plant life…

… the north-facing walls with ferns and liverworts, the southerly with lichens and orange Trentepohlia algae.

And then right at the top of the Common was our splendid, and well-priced hotel, the Royal Wells, complete with views over the town. After an indifferent start, the town for us was saved by this hotel and the Common, such that we will actively seek to return to continue our explorations of the Wealden landscapes.

For other blogs in this series see

An autumn break in Kent and Sussex: part 2 – Eridge Rocks | Chris Gibson Wildlife

An autumn break in Kent and Sussex: part 3 – to the seaside at Hastings, St Leonards & Bexhill | Chris Gibson Wildlife

 

 

#WildEssex Walks in Progress: Station-to-station through the heart of Colchester

Britain's Wildlife, Bug & Botany Walks, Travel by Rail, WildEssex

The third of our recent trips to investigate potential new nature walks was much closer to home, starting just one stop down the railway line at Hythe, and walking the route of the River Colne up to Colchester main station three weeks ago.

Particularly the earlier part of the walk we knew well in the past, both having worked in Harbour House at the Hythe, but that finished 15 years ago. It always was a pleasant walk, but would the same be true now, especially given the litter-strewn route the last time we ventured there maybe five years ago?

The Colne is in two sections, tidal in the lower reaches, but above the sluice at East Mill, non-tidal and sluggish. At times of low flow, little water spills over the sluice so the section below is not only tidal but salty, as evidenced by Sea Aster and other saltmarsh plants growing along the muddy margins.

The first section of the walk was across the Moors (historic moorings, not uplands swathes of Heather!). And what a change there has been, with spontaneous woodland now springing up on this brownfield site, areas of which were a disposal site for Paxman’s factory spoil. No room now for the Wasp Spiders we knew so well, and the former swathes of interesting plants like Tree Lupin and Wormwood are much reduced, but the riverside scrub held at least three singing Cetti’s Warblers, almost unthinkable when we first knew it.

Flowering Ivy bushes sporadically along the path, as always, were a magnet for late-season insect activity, including Ivy Bees, Honeybees, bumblebees, Commas and many more.

The only areas remaining unwooded are the flood-prone sections now clothed in beds of Russian Comfrey and Stinging Nettles, botanically poor but supporting lots of insects, here  Parent Bugs and a Dock Bug, and lots of spiders.

Nettle and Comfrey both love high nitrogen conditions, probably derived from flood overspill. Colchester sewage works forms one of the main tributaries of the Colne: it may be downriver but on a flood tide its effluent will be pushed upstream. And probably again and again as it takes several tides for water entrained in the upper tidal reaches to finally exit to open sea.

Another feature of the water was the slick of lurid green Least Duckweed. The source of the duckweed was obvious when on the bridge over the sluice next to East Mill … the still river upstream was chockfull after a few days without rain. There was only the merest dribble of water passing over, the duckweed discs jostling like coins in the penny-falls of an amusement arcade on Clacton Pier. But after heavy rain, the downflow of duckweed will be greater, and indeed the sluice may be lowered periodically to clear the river, as we have suspected when the green slick passes our flat.

Along the tranquil upstream stretches, Alder trees and various willows form stands along the banks, the Alder leaves bearing the tell-tale holes of the recently arrived Alder Leaf-beetle and an array of mite-induced galls. in these spots, several Grey Wagtails were feeding, and a Kingfisher sped past in a moment of brilliance.

Moving upstream away from the sluice, the water became clearer of duckweed, and revealed a number of other water plants such as Arrowhead. In such spots in the sun, Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters were feeding and breeding while Willow Emerald damselflies flittered among the  branches, and a Forest Bug teetered on the brink of disaster wandering around the leaves overhanging  the water.

At lower Castle Park, it was time for a diversion away from the river. No time to examine the impressive array of ornamental trees, but we had to stop and enjoy a Rose Chafer that flew in from nowhere and landed right in front of us. Colchester is a national hot-spot for this magnificent beast, bur the mid-September date seemed rather late.

Running between Upper and Lower Castle parks is a superb section of the Roman city wall, constructed substantially of septaria nodules front the London Clay exposures around Harwich.

ThIs is the site of one of my career failures. Thirty or so years ago, the wall was visited by an eminent lichenologist who rated the diversity of wall lichens he found one of the highest in Eastern England. And then another expert, this time on an even less celebrated group,  lichenicolous fungi, came along and found several species new to Britain and some new to science. I pushed for the wall to be given SSSI status; English Nature’s council had other ideas. Too obscure an interest, and not wanting to get into a fight with English Heritage on whose call Colchester Borough Council was proposing clearing, cleaning all vegetation from the wall.

My intervention may have done some limited good, but walking along the north-facing wall this week it seemed rather less special for wildlife than it was previously. Having said that, still some specialist wall plants, including Pellitory-of-the-wall, Red Valerian (with its distinctive bug gall), Oxford Ragwort, Yellow Corydalis and even some local scarcities such as Wispy Willowherb, Fern Grass and Black Spleenwort.

Also on the wall were mating orgies of picture-winged cranefly Tipula confusa, for which the Essex Field Club map shows only a couple of sites in north-east Essex (Earls Colne and Walton). However maps are not always complete, and indeed a niggling memory was tracked down to a photo of one we found in Bures. And then one in the ferry port of the Isle of Coll – it would seem not to have been recorded on that island before. Always something to find, and learn, and share… a salutary lesson always to send in interesting records!

Back to the river, we continued across Middleborough and right then round to Cowdray Avenue, with a happy short detour for an excellent lunch in the Marquis pub.

So, another interesting walk for us to offer in due course. Interesting also to see parts of Colchester previously unknown to us, despite having lived and worked there. And it was also very pleasing to note the lack of litter along the route, a tribute to the efforts of Colchester City Council or volunteers or whoever does the selfless, and all-too-often thankless, task.

*************************************************************************************

Three weeks later we returned to do this as a walk with eight happy walkers, enjoying the return of blue skies and sunlight, although unfortunately the litter-free nature of our past walk wasn’t repeated. However, given that we had at least three Litter Faeries with us, our group certainly made a positive difference. Thank you for all your efforts!

There were changes over the three weeks, mostly reflecting the onset of autumn. There were fewer insects, with just a few Red Admirals and a Dock Bug, along with bumblebees feasting on the final Comfrey, Bristly Ox-tongue and Ivy flowers. But we did find a couple of (sadly) squashed Rose Chafers, further extending their flight period which even in September seemed longer than any we had experienced before.

Festoons of Traveller’s-joy were more Old Man’s Beardy while those of Virginia Creeper on the Moors had assumed the ‘traditional colors of a US fall’; in Castle Park, our trees were making their own subtle colour-shifts. Perhaps the fact that last night we almost had a frost will produce one of our periodically spectacular autumn fire-shows, which would resonate well with the second major aurora event reported around Colchester last night (not by us!)

The non-tidal section of the Colne above East Mill also looked very different, lacking the thick carpets of Least Duckweed. Occasional rather heavy rainstorms have clearly pushed the mats of duckweed discs over the precipice of the sluice into the salty tide, and so to oblivion. There was a family of Dabchicks on the upper sections, birds that will voluntarily head downstream shortly as the risk of icing on fresh waters increases.

Galls are always a feature of autumn, such as these Spangle Galls on Oak leaves, and there are then of course the fungi. Their high season is just starting, and will be a feature hopefully of the next #WildEssex walk…for today, it was Sycamore Tar-spot  and a troop of Shaggy Ink-caps in all stages of development.

And so it was lunch in Castle Park followed by a welcome drink in the Marquis as a fine full stop to the event, one that may become a regular offering, suitable for any time of year.