Blog Archives: WildEssex

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

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

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

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

#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.

The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: Autumn glories

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!

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

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.

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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.

#WildEssex on Tour: across the border – to Felixstowe

Following two previous successful #WildEssex on tour events, to Harlow last year and Burnham in 2022, this time we ventured abroad (out of the county!) to Felixstowe. A different county maybe, but Essex was in sight for most of the time…

We assembled at lunchtime on the first day at the Alex, for a fine snack and a drink. We had been worried by the wet and windy weather forecast but it was warm enough to sit outside, and the sun even came out for us. Indeed the weather gods were on our side for all three days: the threatened heavy, prolonged rain came when we were indoors or asleep, and the only time we got really wet was walking home from the station at the very end.

Our first afternoon was spent examining the Felixstowe seafront and gardens. Looking out seaward gave some idea of the busyness of the shipping lanes out there, with some huge container vessels on the horizon looking more like the Manhattan skyline than anything afloat.

Large rock groynes provide an artificial rocky shore habitat, with seaweeds, limpets and other marine life. As we looked at an array of shells found on the shingle beach, a Red Admiral plonked down next to us. A very fresh individual, it was probably migrating southwards, something that has been happening en masse over the past couple of weeks.

The planting on the cliff slopes is largely Mediterranean shrubs, some still in flower, others in fruit…

Best of all for insects though, as always at this time of year, was the flowering Ivy, abuzz with Ivy Bees, Honeybees, bumblebees and hoverflies, all a rich source of food for the Garden Spiders.

The Holm Oaks were absolutely riddled with leaf-mines from the micromoth Phyllonorycter messaniella, to a greater extent than we have seen elsewhere. Although a bit unsightly, such infestations apparently don’t affect the tree significantly, and each mine contains a mini-morsel for a Blue Tit – it is good to see a non-native tree that is likely to be a big part of our future landscape garnering its own ecology, fitting it to its new home.

The geology of the cliffs, with gravels over clays, means there are springs, which have been tamed and corralled into water features, some dripping with newly formed tufa, ponds with Curled Pondweed, Watercress and Monkeyflower; pond-skaters skittering on the surface; and rocks covered with Ivy-leaved Toadflax.

Grassy slopes had Wild Clary in flower, and the lower, salt-splattered lawns were clothed in the attractive rosettes of Common Stork’s-bill and Buck’s-horn Plantain. And cracks on the promenade were colonised by Guernsey Fleabane and Water Bent, two relatively new plants in these parts, but again likely to be a big part of our future in an overheated world.

A walk along the prom, via a cuppa in the Spa Pavilion, finished the afternoon, with most then opting for dinner at the Premier Inn. But no takers for the batting option in Langer Park!

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Next day dawned dull with spots of wet in the breeze. As we headed to the north side of town on foot and by bus, a patch of Caper Spurge weaved an interesting pattern …

… and the view out to sea reflected to rather dismal weather.

Heading towards Felixstowe Ferry, we soon diverted onto vegetated shingle, an internationally important habitat type and one for which Suffolk is justifiably renowned, the realm of Sea Kale and Sea Pea, Sea Campion and Sea Beet, Sea Holly and Sea Spurge … quite a theme developing there!

Down by the saline pools there was a saltmarsh of Sea Purslane and Annual Seablite, now assuming its diverse autumn tints, but few birds apart from gulls (including a Great Black-back), Cormorants and a Little Egret.

Continuing along the seawall, past the Martello Towers, we found plenty of botanical interest, including Lucerne (purple), Sickle Medick (yellow) and Sand Lucerne, the remarkable hybrid between the two in a whole range of intermediate and extramediate hues.

White Ramping-fumitory was  in good flower, and there were plenty of (soggy) seed-heads, including Hare’s-foot Clover, Rough Dog’s-tail and Bristly Ox-tongue in a veritable botanical menagerie.

 

Here Jude also spotted several Firebugs feeding upon Mallow seeds, a very recent arrival first found across the water around Harwich in the last five years, and Turnip Sawflies, in a similar colour palette.

Having discussed (and in some cases tasted) foods from nature on the shingle (pea, kale, holly and beet) we soon found ourselves among more edibles and flavourings, including Fennel, Duke of Argyll’s Tea-tree (goji berries), Dittander (like Horseradish), Sea Radish and, best of all, the mini taste-bombs of Crow Garlic bulbils, a revelation even to me. The Suffolk coastal paleo-diet seems an apt descriptor, except of course that many of these plants we simply not here in ‘paleo’ times!

Into Felixstowe Ferry hamlet, with Bawdsey Manor in sight, we headed into the Ferryboat for liquid refreshment, while once again the sun came out and warmed things up, before the foot ferry to Bawdsey Quay took us to a lovely picnic spot overlooking a tranquil Deben Estuary.

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At our feet was a small sand dune with Sea Holly, Sea Mayweed and Marram, with a drift-line of Sea Rocket, Frosted Orache and Prickly Saltwort.

The rocket and related crucifers were being absolutely demolished by Large White butterfly caterpillars.

In the humid air, Migrant Hawker dragonflies were flying around in force, while along the woodland edge a few insects were tracked down, including Nettle-tap moth and a pair of the long-legged flies Liancalus virens. Normally associated with waterfalls and fast-flowing streams, and therefore mostly found in the western half of the country, there is one previous record on the NBN Atlas from around Ipswich, and in Essex at least there is a concentration of records from the estuarine fringes.

Juicy brambles and Alexanders seeds (like aromatic peppercorns) were added to our seaside banquet as Robins were singing their wistful autumn songs in the trees, which included several large Turkey Oaks. The Holm Oaks here had leaf-miners, but mostly the smaller galleries of Ectoedemia heringella, along with pimple-galls caused by gall-mites. Lime and Field Maple also showed mite-galls, impressively so in the case of the lime nail-galls,  while Field Maple and Sycamore showed distinctive signs of fungal attack, mildew and tar-spot respectively.

But as the afternoon was progressing, it was time for the return ferry, into Winkles café for a cuppa, then the walk back, past migrant Wheatears, some Tamarisk in full bloom and a Devil’s Coach-horse with upcurled abdomen, alarmed and alarming in equal measure.

The return buses were so infrequent and the clouds so threatening that we decided to walk the whole way back along the prom (or as near as we could when diverted), to the Boardwalk Bar on the pier for rehydration purposes and sunset, the Fish Dish for a splendid meal. And for some a more leisurely return to the Boardwalk afterwards….

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A rainy breakfast time on the final day soon dried up; the sun came out but the wind rose, scuppering the plans of some of the group to take the Harwich Foot Ferry home in the  afternoon. But time for a good couple of hours on Landguard Point and Common, a great vantage point to watch the incessant port activity and comings and goings of shipping, and recognize the internationally strategic value of this location, now and in the past – the reasons for the Fort and the bird observatory being there, defence and migration study respectively.

At the seaward edges of the shingle peninsula, lines of Oraches, including Babington’s, and Prickly Saltwort picked out the drift-line.

Moving inland, impressive patches of Yellow Horned-poppy, untidy but still just in flower, mingled with Sea Kale again.

Sandier patches were dominated more by Sea Spurge and Sea Holly, with a few plants of Ray’s Knotgrass, never an easy species to track down.

One the more stabilised dune- and shingle-heath shingle Heath, Reindeer ‘Mosses’ and Sandhill Screw-moss dominated large patches, with  Common Stork’s-bill (in flower this time), Sticky Groundsel and Sand Cat’s-tail, plus last few flowering Viper’s-bugloss.

    

Despite the wind, a few birds on the Common included feeding Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits, with twittering Linnets in the bushes and Starlings overhead. Then to the oldest part of all, vegetation-wise, the shingle scrub with Elder and Wild Privet. In the shelter and sun, there was plenty of insect activity including a Box Bug nymph and more Common Blues than we have seen put together over the past summer…

All that was then left was to head back to the Viewpoint Café for a superb (late!) brunch, passing Narrow-leaved Ragwort and Jersey Cudweed on the way, more new plants potentially brought in by the port trade.

And after a great three days, time for fond farewells, all without getting seriously wet: WildEssex 1, Met Office 0! Thanks to all who helped make it such fun!!

The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: a last blast of summer

My final Wandering Naturalist events of the summer were bizarrely on one of the warmer days of the summer, despite the equinox fast approaching; around 45 visitors over the two walks went away (hopefully) satisfied!

Not only warm, but as busy as I have seen it all year both for people and for butterflies. The latter were mostly Large and Small Whites, with a very few Speckled Woods, Red Admirals and Commas.

The butterflies mostly favoured Verbena bonariensis, which also fed many a bumblebee…

Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters provided flashes of dragonfly colour, with Willow Emerald damselflies more unobtrusive but still stunning in the right light.

A pollen and nectar powerhouse for the past six weeks, Bistorta amplexicaulis in all its varieties was still going strong, albeit slightly past its best but still drawing in social wasps, Honeybees and a host of other insects such as Dock Bugs.

But as summer blooms fade, so the stars of autumn assert themselves, especially Hylotelephium iceplants and Symphyotrichum Michaelmas-daisies, both genera with unfamiliar names (Sedum and Aster, respectively, until recent genetic analysis) and both hugely attractive to flies and bees.

And of course there were still plenty of other nectar and pollen sources, despite the unpredictable weather of summer …

… including just a few bits of flowering Ivy. This is the last great floral bonanza of the British landscape, and plays a similarly key role in gardens, even given the availability of other nectar and pollen resources. Here it is attracting Graphomya maculata, a rather sparsely distributed  relative of the House Fly in north Essex.

Several of the beds were swarming with Turnip Sawflies, actually a type of wasp, more numerous than I have ever seen before…

… and a final selection of flies completes the insect story.

Two however deserve special mention because of their scarcity: Ptychoptera contaminata is a wetland crane-fly which on the maps on the Essex Field Club website has only a dozen or so localities in the northern half of the county, and the snipe-fly Chrysopilus laetus has only one dot in the whole of Essex (and I know there have been more records than that, as I found it in Hockley Woods near Southend a couple of years ago, a spot that hasn’t found its way onto the map).

It’s autumn. Robins singing wistfully, Buzzards mewling overhead, greenscapes being transformed slowly, or indeed rather quickly in the case of Amelanchier, always the harbinger of autumnal russets.

And yes, it is time too for fruits and seeds. Most berries were still ripening, fruiting grasses were taking centre-stage, and ivory-white nutlets of Purple Gromwell added a touch of the exotic to birdfood-fest to come.

If anyone wants to join me on a nature walk around the gardens, I hope that Meet the Wandering Naturalist will be returning next summer.I do have a couple of walks this autumn, but they are special events for Friends of the Garden. If that might tempt to join, you can find full details here! Membership & Vouchers – Beth Chatto’s Plants & Gardens

Blogs of the previous Meet the Wandering Naturalist events this summer can be found here:

April: The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: among the April showers… | Chris Gibson Wildlife

May: The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: the height of Spring | Chris Gibson Wildlife

June: The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: is summer finally here? | Chris Gibson Wildlife

July:  The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: focus shifts to the ponds | Chris Gibson Wildlife

August: The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: Summer peaks, Autumn approaches… | Chris Gibson Wildlife

A walk round Silver End…

It was the day before the autumn equinox, but the weather had other ideas: perfect blue skies and hot sunshine, in a last flurry of summer. Where to go? What to do? Why not a trip to Silver End: train to Witham, then bus to our destination, only 40 minutes’ travel if the connections work.

We do like a bit of social history, especially living history in bricks and mortar. Over the past few years we have spent very happy days visiting Saltaire, New Lanark, Port Sunlight and East Tilbury, all living villages that were created to house the workers from local industry. Whether through philanthropy or a desire of the ‘master’ to exercise control over his workforce more easily is a moot point…

But our closest ‘model village’ was until this weekend a mystery to us, despite the fact we have driven past the sign to it on the A12 countless times over the years. Silver End was developed from 1926 as a village to house workers for the Crittall windows factory, and plenty of the original buildings survive, mostly with the distinctive metal-framed windows produced at the site, and apparently used here to test their durability in the face of British weather.

Especially on Silver Street and Francis Way, the view is still remarkably intact, with flat-roofed ivory-white buildings, often with pebble-dashed chimneys, in remarkable conformity.

Aside from these, there is an array of contemporary housing designs, each immediate group differing from others through the whims of different architects, together with buildings providing community services such as schools, hotel, larger houses for the management and municipal parks.

One of the most celebrated of the listed Modernist houses is ‘Le Chateau’, the one that established the template for the rest of the village, although its current state of apparent neglect shows that listing is of little value in itself unless it comes with a responsibility to maintain.

But the whole community still feels intact. We had been expecting the worst, especially having seen East Tilbury, but we were very pleasantly surprised…

East Tilbury still has the iconic BATA factory, albeit in a state of dereliction, at its heart…

… but sadly at Silver End, the Crittall factory buildings were mostly demolished in 2008. The heart was ripped out of the meaning of the whole settlement, despite its recognition as a conservation area.

Just a few disused factory buildings survive today, amid a vast swathe of brownfield land. It is hard to imagine any modern development that could replace these without destroying the raison-d’être of Silver End. Perhaps it would be best left in this state of ‘urban decay’, which of course would certainly add wildlife value into the mix.

The small area we were able to explore (most is behind serious exclusionary barricades) had a typically random mix of plants from Narrow-leaved Ragwort to Raspberry, and Red Valerian to Guernsey Fleabane, all covered in Large and Small White butterflies and Seven-spot Ladybirds. Brownfield sites never fail to excite!

 

While the hub of Silver End seems to be the Co-op, on the site of a department store to serve the model village which burned down in 1951, only at the edge of the village is there a pub, the Western Arms. And what a find that was: a good pint (or two!) and great food  (homemade pie for me, mushroom linguini for Jude, with a seafood starter from the fish kiosk) in the beer-garden. And with a female Migrant Hawker  for company  as well! She found the wooden fence to her liking, and arched her abdomen several times as though she were egg-laying, although no water in sight: a mystery to finish our excellent day out!

 

Walks in Progress: Exploring the Colne Valley Path around Chappel

Again looking for potential new day-long wildlife walks (see Around the peaks of the Essex Alps.…), we headed by train to the village of Chappel, half -way along the branch-line from Marks Tey to Sudbury, on a lovely, calm, sunny autumn day. Often overshadowed by its neighbouring Stour Valley, the one with the designation of Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (now rebranded National Landscapes), to our mind the Colne, running from Great Yeldham to Colchester and thence to the tidal estuary we are fortunate enough to wake up to every day, is every bit as ‘Outstanding’!

We headed upstream from Chappel through the broad, sweeping pastoral valley with well-wooded slopes.

Every so often the paths approach or cross the river itself…

Here we found Grey Wagtails, Kingfisher and Little Egret; twittering, feeding Swallows; and riverbanks in places with dense patches of Small Teasel, scarce in Essex, and very much a speciality of the northernmost river valleys.

And plenty of human interest as well from churches to mills and fishing ponds.

Away from the valley bottom, the landscape was more enclosed with large hedgerows, just bursting with the fruits (and galls) of the season, as well as buzzing with the multitudinous visitors to the late-summer riches of Ivy flowers: Honeybees, Ivy Bees, bumblebees, hoverflies, Box Bugs, social wasps and many more. Also Red Admirals, although not showing the urgent migratory behaviour we had seen for the previous week along the coast.

In the grassland, several Small Heaths were flying, and a sluggish Hornet gave unbeatable views.

At Chalkney Mill we left the river behind and headed uphill through Chalkney Wood. An ancient wood with a interesting history, I was involved 20 years ago in securing the deconiferization of the two-thirds of the wood owned by the Forestry Commission. And now you would never know that it had had a forty-year blip in its venerable history of coppicing. It was especially reassuring to see Small-leaved Lime, the tree for which the wood is especially renowned, rising from the ashes of herbicide application and dense, dark overshading.

Far from the best time of year to see such a wood, the sheltered rides at least had good numbers of dragonflies: Common Darters, Migrant Hawkers and a Southern Hawker.

Returning along the higher ground, passing damp woods and springs filled with Great Horsetail and Common Fleabane …

… we reached some of the more sandy peaks, with excellent views and a few characteristic plants such as Blue Fleabane.

In addition the arable fields on the plateaux were not without interest, some sown with bird-seed mixes, and others newly ploughed tracts revealing abundant flints. There is no chalk locally for flints to come from: these hills are clothed in ‘chalky boulder clay’, the accumulated detritus picked up further north from the melting of the Anglian glacial advance.

And something I have never seen before, Wispy Willowherb Epilobium brachycarpum growing as an arable ‘weed’. This is a a rapidly spreading species from its first UK discovery, near Colchester, as recently as 2004.

Another short walk and the magnificent railway viaduct formed a fine full stop to the walk. Completed in 1849 and still used to this day, this is one of the largest brick structures in the country, containing about the same number of bricks – some 6 million – as Battersea Power Station!

All this, and more on our stroll, when ended very convivially with a pint and a super meal in The Swan Inn, back down beside the river itself. Lots of potential for wildlife walks around here: quintessentially English landscape, with nothing rare perhaps but still lots to see at any time from spring to autumn.

 

Walks in Progress: Around the peaks of the Essex Alps….

In the search for new locations for day-long walks, my eyes alighted on that great fold of London Clay that runs transversely, north-east to south-west across Essex, from Walton-on-the-Naze to Epping Forest. Thrust up as a shock-wave of the continental collision some 20 million years ago that created the Mediterranean basin and the mountains around it, the peaks are actually clothed in gravels from a course of the River Thames that once ran over the newly laid-down claylands.

‘Peaks’ may seem an overstatement, but at a little over 110m the village of Danbury sits atop the highest point of Essex away from the north-western chalk. Given the gravelly and sloping nature of the land around, the surroundings have escaped widespread agricultural intensification. And now the village is more-or-less contiguously embraced by nature reserves owned and managed by both the National Trust and the Essex Wildlife Trust. There is nowhere in the heartland of Essex with such a concentration of nature, all lying in close proximity to the settlement and providing ample walking opportunities, avoiding significant lengths slogging along roads.

The habitats I encountered in my recce a couple of weeks ago ranged from ancient coppiced woodland through to dry heathland, including species-rich grassland, secondary woodland and scrub (often on historic gravel extraction sites), spring-line wetlands and even a small area of raised bog, very scarce in Essex.

So late in the summer, those areas dominated by Heather were looking their very best, especially on the Backwarden Reserve. Any bit of Heather in Essex is important, given its scarcity in the county as compared with for example the Suffolk Sandlings.

However, coming hard on the heels of a two-month near-drought with some very high temperatures, other flowers were a bit frazzled. But Wood Sage spread its subtle beauty along the woodland edges,  Creeping-Jenny and Water Mint were in damp spots long with fruiting Tutsan, while the more shaded small wetlands were often luxuriantly covered in ferns or Giant Horsetails.

There were plenty of flowers still in Hitchcock’s Meadows, especially Common Knapweed, Harebell and Musk Mallow, but sadly no sign on the parched slope tops of Autumn Lady’s-tresses where I knew them so abundantly 35 years ago. Has the same fate befallen the Green-winged Orchids that once graced the same fields in May? Next year may tell… One very definite change though was the growth of trees to the south such that the once-impressive view over to the distant North Downs has been somewhat curtailed.

Earlier summer rains have filled out some of the autumn fruits while the first fungi were beginning to show, including Common Earthballs, a frequent, albeit well-camouflaged, sight on the gravelly slopes under trees.

Just a few butterflies were in evidence (sadly typical for this summer), with Speckled Woods most numerous, and also several Small Coppers in Hitchcock’s Meadows. And there, on the higher sandy ground, digger wasps including Cerceris rybyensis, the Ornate-tailed Digger Wasp, were doing their thing.

Otherwise, insects included Common Darters and Migrant Hawkers in many places, and the unmistakeable galleries of Elm Zig-zag Sawfly larvae.

Not the best time of year for birds, but especially the woodlands rang to the songs of Chiffchaffs and Robins, with calling Nuthatches and woodpeckers and wandering mixed flocks of tits.

One of the special parts of Essex, the Danbury Ridge has something for everyone, at any time of year.

#WildEssexWalks: Harwich town and beach

Despite disappointment that our proposed ferry trip to Felixstowe wasn’t possible due to windy weather, we nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed half of our planned day’s event – a morning’s walk around Harwich – the Wild Essex event for September.  The ‘après walk’ of lunch in the Pier Café and a drink in the Alma only added to the fun and we’d like to thank everyone who came along.

Harwich with its many historic buildings was once a busy and thriving port, but today had a relaxed air of an out-of-season holiday destination, with few other visitors. And the cracks of the pavements were filled with interesting plants such as Shaggy Soldier.

We had the beach to ourselves, which gave a free rein to admire and study the plants which thrive in this most inhospitable of habitats: Sea Rocket on the strandline, Lyme Grass, Rock Samphire, Sea Spurge and Sea-holly on the low dunes, although the latter especially was looking very frazzled after the midsummer heat and drought.

Greenest of all was the clump of Japanese Rose, also with its large lustrous hips and a few extravagantly scented flowers. An aggressive spreader in some circumstances, it was good to see it has remained pretty stable since we left the area a decade ago.

We did a quick roll-call of shells on the beach – cockles, mussels, oysters, limpets, slipper-limpets and whelks to name but a few, but although we hunted high and low we weren’t fortunate enough to find any of the fossilized sharks’ teeth which we know reside on the beach.  It’s one of those things – sometimes you’re lucky and sometimes not!

Of course we managed a spot of birdwatching whilst there, with Sandwich Terns passing by noisily and fishing just offshore,  a medley of different gulls providing aerial entertainment and  Turnstones feeding unobtrusively on the rocky, weed-covered shoreline of the Harwich Stone Band, the only natural rocky shore between North Norfolk and Kent.

The few insects around (there had been quite a temperature drop overnight) included plasterer bees feeding and fighting (or frolicking?) on flowers of Bristly Oxtongue: the bees were probably Sea Aster Mining-bees, though related species are very difficult to tell apart.

On the other side of the estuary the comings and goings of the busy port of Felixstowe were interesting to view, as were the various arrays of wind turbines, very visible in the clear morning sky.

We hope to rearrange this trip next year – aiming for early summer rather than late, in the hope that the weather will be calmer and the ferry will be running.

The Wild Side of Essex with Naturetrek: an autumnal feel to the Naze

Birding hopes were high as we gathered for the latest Naturetrek Wild Side of Essex tour of the Naze. The previous day had seen a significant arrival of goodies, including Red-backed Shrike and Wryneck. Would they still be there? The answer was ‘probably’. But the strong cool wind and unremittingly dull conditions were not conducive to them being on show in the swishing Tamarisk and other shrubs.

Still, there were plenty of migrants to be found, including a Wheatear on Stone Point, a significant gathering of Swallows (with a few House and Sand Martins) hawking flies around a sheep field, that in turn attracted the attention of a hurtling Hobby three times (or perhaps three separate Hobbies?). Coasting flocks of Goldfinches and Linnets, with a few Chaffinches and Goldfinches, and feeding groups of Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits added interest to the bird scene.

But perhaps the most remarkable feat of migration was from Red Admirals. The preceding five days had seen the most sustained southward migration I have witnessed in recent years, and dozens of them continued throughout our walk, battling the gusty winds.

The remarkable geology of the Naze was there as always, if not as radiant in the gloom as it can be: cliffs and shores telling tales of tropical lagoons, ancient volcanoes erupting far to the north, the collision of continents, beaches at a time of natural climate collapse, and vast dust storms from a frozen East Anglia.

Out to sea there was little action, apart from passing Cormorants, Sandwich Terns and  a Great Black-backed Gull.

The shoreline waders were however starting to build up in number, most numerous being Sanderlings and Turnstones, along with Ringed, Great and Golden Plovers, Curlews and several more.

On Stone Point, there was quite a gathering of Sandwich Terns and, best bird of the day, a Merlin settled on a clump of driftline detritus before creating mayhem as it powered along the beach.

Drift-line and embryo dune flora was in good form, with Sea Rocket alongside Frosted Orache, Prickly Saltwort and Shrubby Seablite. On the saltmarshes, Cord-grass was in full dangly flower, Golden Samphire was now going over, and Glassworts and Annual Seablite were developing their attractive and individually distinctive autumn colours.

The autumnal feel also pervaded the ponds, with the three species of late-season Odonata – Migrant Hawker, Common Darter and Willow Emerald.

And a few other bits and pieces in the scrub and higher ground, from Birch Bracket to Brown-tail nests and Sea Hog’s-fennel all contributed to a varied day of delights from the Wild Side of Essex!