Summer breeze and thistledown! A day with a deliciously cool start, and even threatened rain, which of course never came, but soon the unforgiving heat of this summer reasserted itself, very hot and humid where sheltered from the wind.

Just before the walk started, about 20 Swifts in two loose groups passed through, but birds generally were few and far-between, no doubt in part to the desert like conditions of parched brown grass and wilting scrub. But the Pied Wagtails and a Green Woodpecker were clearly finding food, as the Herring Gulls just waited for a supply of discarded chips…

The clifftop was drier than I have ever seen it, and apart from a  couple of  skulking family groups of Whitethroats, the scrub seemed empty, although in places at least the sloes are filling nicely, testament to fine conditions at Blackthorn pollination time, but where have they got their juice from? Not a drop of rain has fallen here for six weeks, with an earlier spring drought before that for good measure.

There were of course still some flowers flowering, especially deep-rooted members of the daisy family, like Yarrow, Common Fleabane, Tansy, Bristly Ox-tongue and Hoary Ragwort …

… along with a good number of non-native plants like Narrow-leaved Ragwort, Buddleia and Duke-of-Argyll’s Tea-tree, improving upon nature by blooming when many of our natives are not up to the job. A message for all perhaps at times of crisis, climatic and otherwise.

One rare native that seems to be thriving, maybe because here it is at the very northern end of its world range, is the local speciality Sea Hog’s-fennel. And while we could see no evidence of the larval workings of Fisher’s Estuarine Moths, its other rare speciality, the micromoth Agonopterix putridella, is clearly abundant from the densely twisted  shoots in which its caterpillars feed.

Especially in sheltered spaces, insects were out, although bumblebees tailed off noticeably as the heat turned ferocious. No fun wearing a fur coat in a furnace! Butterflies included Holly Blues, Red Admirals and Gatekeepers, with smaller numbers of Meadow Brown, Small Heath and Common Blue, as well as a few Silver Y moths.

And of course there were predators too, including a small White Crab-spider waiting and a Candy-striped Spider with its kill. Single Ruddy Darter and Southern Migrant Hawker were feeding in the John Weston Reserve, around the dry pond.

The range and coverage of bark lichens seems to increase between every visit, perhaps a sign that we are doing some good in terms of reducing aerial pollution. Goodness knows we need some positive stories from our beleaguered planet…

Galls also proved interesting. The few Pedunculate Oak Trees showed marble, spangle, artichoke, ramshorn and knopper galls, all caused by tiny wasps…

… with other causal agents being fungi (on Silver Birch), sawflies (on willows), true flies (on Creeping Thistle) and mites on Sycamore.

Down to the beach, the magnificent cliffscape revealed itself, with Sand Martins trilling and feeding overhead:

So many stories to tell, of ancient palm-fringed lagoons and volcanic ash clouds, cataclysmic continental collisions, pre-glacial beaches and left-handed snails, cryoturbation and modern mass-movement and erosion…

Looking seaward, the scene was unperturbed by birds, save for gulls, a couple of Cormorants and a few Sandwich Tern family groups heading noisily into Hamford Water…

… with just a sprinkling of northern waders, including three Whimbrels, a Curlew and a dozen Turnstones that sped past in a burbling tortoiseshell blur.

Rounding the point, the seawall shone brightly under Sea Mayweed, as ominous clouds massed overhead. And then dispersed. Still waiting!

Marram grass on the dunes proved to be rather heavily infested with Ergot, and both Sea Spurge and Prickly Saltwort added to the protective vegetation layer.

The saltmarshes produced a final flowering flurry, including Common Cord-grass and Golden Samphire here at its northernmost locality on the North Sea coastline, while Marsh Samphire fringed the creeks alongside Annual Sea-blite, now adopting an outrageous range of vegetative colour-forms for just one species!

A lovely, varied, hot day of delights from the world of nature.

Compared with the first one a month previously, our second Saturday morning moth club of the summer in the Minories garden was a little disappointing, with fewer moths of fewer species. In part this might have been the result of competing light sources, but the overwhelming reason must have been the weather. Not a drop of rain had fallen on the garden since the very night the trap was last set; the ‘lawn’ had turned to dust, and the plants of the garden were drooping as if in collective mourning for the state of the climate.

And the moths that were found told much the same story, new arrivals to this country, or species previously restricted to favoured warm localities on the south coast that have been able to expand their range as our temperate isle becomes ever more unpredictable and extreme. Seeing these new things is obviously interesting, but recording them is also important so we can try and understand (and maybe manage) the risks of climate collapse to our wildlife and indeed our own lives. A full list of all we recorded, with previous events for comparison, is found here: Minories Saturday Morning Moth Club to July 26

Biggest and brightest was the Jersey Tiger, of which there were three in and around the trap. This started to spread from the extreme south coast of Devon around the start of the century, and started to move through London and up the Lee valley into Essex shortly thereafter, although it has been regular in the north-east of the county only since about 2020.

A Gypsy Moth sadly evaded my camera, but it paused long enough for everyone to see its extravagantly feathery antennae.  Originally a fenland species, this became extinct in those areas around 1900, but a new resident population has been founded around London since 1995, despite the attempts of the Ministry of Agriculture to eradicate it because of the risk of severe defoliation of important forestry or amenity trees. By now it is widespread in Essex albeit patchily distributed away from London fringes.

The Oak Processionary Moth shares a similar history, except that it never had a permanent UK population until around 2005. The first few windblown immigrants were found in Essex and elsewhere from 1995, but true colonisation came after batches of eggs were assumed to have been imported on horticultural produce a decade later. But irrespective of the mechanism, it was probably only a matter of time, and now it has spread out from London across the south-east of England, again in spite of official attempts at closing the stable door….

Box Moth is another one believed to have colonised via horticultural trade, this from the Far East. First seen in the UK in 2007, it reached Essex by 2009, and nowadays Box in gardens is a thing of the past, except to those gardeners (NOT at the Minories!) who are happy to kill the world with poisons if it creates a pristine, albeit lifeless, garden.

The latter is one of the larger micromoths, but there is also a host of the smaller micros that too have taken advantage of natural and/or unnatural vectors and a warming climate. Cydia amplana arrived (probably naturally) in 1990, was first found in Essex in 2004, and is now widespread across the county. Blastobasis adustella is a native probably of Australasia that was accidentally introduced into western Europe and the UK in the latter half of the 20th century, possibly via Madeira and other mid-Atlantic islands.

And Ethmia quadrillella has always been local in the country, found historically in fenland areas where its main foodplant Comfrey is found; it has now spread throughout Essex, probably as Comfrey has spread through urban environments, and the climatic warming may have allowed it to feed successfully on a wider range of memebrs of the Borage family.

There were of course other moths in the trap as well, including macromoths like Willow Beauty, Peppered Moth, Least Carpet and Haworth’s Pug…

… Swallow Prominent, Ruby Tiger, Marbled Beauty and Cloaked Minor …

… and a selection of forms that cannot be identified conclusively without killing and dissecting them under a microscope (which of course we will not do!), here one of the three Common Rustics and one of the four Ear Moths.

Other micromoths ranged from the colourful: Agapeta hamana, Mint Moth and Carcina quercana …

… to the intricately patterned Argyresthia goedartella, several Small Ermine species and Euzophera pinguis …

… and many in shades of grey or buff: Cydia splendana, Eudonia mercurella, Coleophora clypeiferella and Agriphila straminella.

And one final moth, one of the smaller ones but really quite numerous, the Water Veneer, which lives on aquatic plants as a caterpillar, and can realistically have arrived in the garden only from the River Colne, and as part of a mass emergence: the adults live only for a very short time, hours rather than days, and this there is a great evolutionary incentive for synchronised emergence.

But it was not all about moths. There are lots of other insects flying around by night, and many of those are equally attracted to the light of the trap. There were green lacewings, ladybirds, Strawberry Seed-beetles and a Common Carrion Beetle – large, black and orange, and with many hangers-on in the form of mites…

… and a wonderful array of true bugs. Several Birch Shieldbugs presumably wandered from the local Silver Birch in the garden, famously planted there by Yoko Ono.

Half-a-dozen Forget-me-not Shieldbugs spoke of a strong local population of what is always an unobtrusive ground-dweller. Its Essex strongholds are along Thames-side and in the Colchester area; I have found it especially abundant around the ruins of St Botolph’s Priory, where it may be feeding on the related Green Alkanet, but in the Minories garden there are several members of the Borage family that may be able to support it.

In the trap there were also three examples of the Eared Leafhopper, again not a common species in Essex, especially in the east of the county. This is a remarkable looking creature, and the second photo shows well why I think of this as the Mouse Bug!

And finally, once I had ruled out several other similar species, Eremocoris fenestratus, a Red Data species nationally, with just seven previous Essex records, none of which came from the Colchester area. Formerly restricted to Juniper on the Chilterns, it is believed to have become extinct last century, before it recolonised from 2010 onwards, probably brought in with related conifers introduced into gardens.

The bugs were so fascinating that we might just need to think about renaming Moth Club if we run it again next year! Thanks David and Jude for their helping hands, and to Eleanor. I was so proud of her gently passing moths from finger to finger of the younger ones in the audience, and for confidently showing our special guest Phil Jupitus the Jersey Tiger on the Folly!

It was in the third heatwave and drought of the summer and the north Essex landscape was looking decidedly tired. Leaves drooping, few birds and insects braving the heat of the day and, sadly, several of our target species were missing. No Turtle Doves or Sand Martins seen or heard around their well known breeding sites, where they had been earlier in the year; no White Admirals flying in the woods – presumably their flight season has closed prematurely. But of course we carried on, always hoping, consoled by the notion of nature: if sightings were guaranteed, it would mean you were in a zoo, not the wild!

Actually the day started very pleasantly under a veil of cloud, but this soon burned off as the fierce sun once again took control. And all the time a stiff northerly breeze probably kept some activity down as well. But at Wrabness Nature Reserve, clad in its wind-damping cloak of scrub, there were Blackcaps and Whitethroats into their second broods, Goldfinches and Greenfinches twittering in the hedges, several Song Thrushes, presumably having a hard time finding snails and turning their sights on Elder berries, and some confiding fledgling Robins.

Flyover Cormorant, Little Egret and noisy Lesser Black-backed Gulls reminded us of our proximity to the Stour Estuary, while also in the skies Buzzard and Sparrowhawk drifted over, the latter being harried by Swallows rising from the nearby horse pastures and stables, along with a noisy family of Kestrels starting to master the art of flight.

Given the drought, flowering was a little more sparse than usual, but included yellow composites like Bristly Oxtongue, Ragwort and Common Fleabane, white umbellifers such as Wild Carrot and Hogweed, plus Yarrow and Common Knapweed, Great Mullein and Teasel…

… Viper’s’ Bugloss, Meadow Vetchling, Red Bartsia, Common Toadflax, Rosebay Willowherb and Field Bindweed  providing colour and the pollen and nectar for visiting insects.

And Dittander giving a refreshing hit of horseradish when chewed, a much-needed pick-me-up on a hot day!

Butterflies were pretty abundant, although most were Gatekeepers, and almost all were flying low, through the grasses, to stay in the shade. In addition there were a few Common and Holly Blues, Large and Small Whites, Red Admirals, Meadow Browns and Small Heaths, but very surprisingly, not a single skipper, often ultra-abundant here.

A few burnet moths whirred around, occasionally stopping to nectar, when the spots could be counted: most were 6-Spot Burnets, with just one being Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet.

Other insects included Cinnabar moth caterpillars, Squash Bug, Flesh-fly, Sphaerophoria hoverflies, Southern Hawker dragonfly and Common Blue damselfly, together with a couple of knapweed specialists, the bug Oncotylus viridiflavus  and the picture-winged fly Urophora jaceana.

But because the heat was starting to suppress activity, we also spent time looking at fixed features, especially in the shade: leaf-mines and gall. The leaf-miners included Holly Leaf-miner (a fly) and Stigmella aceris and Lyonetia clerkella, both micromoths, while galls included the pea gall and Robin’s Pincushion, both caused by gall wasps on roses.

Down towards the quiet estuary, there were Greater Reedmaces in flower as the spears from last summer exploded, and over the seawall, a saltmarsh alight with Common Sea-lavender:

Moving on to Stour Wood and lunch in the shade, I rapidly reformulated my plans and cut out any idea of heading out into the open agricultural landscape around the wood. In the woods we remained for the afternoon seeking out any hotspots of insect activity.

The trees, mostly Sweet Chestnut coppice with standard English Oaks and a sprinkling of Hazel, Hornbeam, Aspen and Wild Service, were still in full leaf, albeit drooping with drought, but the paths were littered with the recently shed chestnut catkins.

In the shade, the flora, just three months ago a sea of blue and white, Bluebells and Wood Anemones, was restricted to the unassuming Enchanter’s Nightshade…

… while in the rides and coppice clearings, Marsh Thistle and Ragwort added essential nectar resources. It was here that there were butterflies, including good numbers of Ringlet and thankfully, one our targets Silver-washed Fritillaries. They were few at first, but as the walk progressed and the group size dwindled, fritillary numbers increased, and at the end put on a fantastic show for me and the last, lucky couple!

Other activity along the rides came from dragonflies, both Common and Ruddy Darters flycatching, having come some considerable distance from breeding ponds after emergence, to colour up, feed and get into breeding condition before returning to ponds ready for action.

Bird-wise though, all was quiet, praeternaturally quiet, siesta time hopefully, although it will only be in hindsight (when it is too late) that we can evaluate the true impact of climate collapse on our nature and lives. Imagine a world in which the only memories of woodpeckers are their exploratory excavations in our trees…

So, all in all, a trip which failed to provide most of its targets, a struggle in the heat, but hopefully ultimately enjoyable, rescued to a great extent by the fascinating minuteries of life we might just have overlooked if Turtle Doves and Purple Emperors had been distracting our attention from everything else!

As has now become traditional, early June sees me heading to Hockley Woods atop the hills to the rear of Southend, leading Naturetrek day trips in search of Heath Fritillaries at one of their premier British sites. But nothing is guaranteed, and things can go wrong. The preceding two days had torrential rain, 30mm or more, so would they have survived? Indeed, would they even have emerged yet given our odd weather this spring, of drought followed by downpour.

The day dawned grey and breezy, but mild and with a promise of afternoon sun. When we started the walk it was still cloudy and I felt there were fewer insects about than usual, probably due to the rain. But as always we had plenty of things to look at that were not butterflies. The ancient woodland habitat is impressive, at 130ha the largest contiguous series of ancient semi-natural woods in the east of England.

The trees in the woodland picked out the geological preferences of each species, with multi-layered influences overlain from historic land use, management and other interventions. Many of the canopy trees are oaks, not the usual oak of the east but the normally western Sessile Oak, or its hybrid with Pedunculate Oak. A number of them seem to have died recently, while others show signs of bleeding lesions that could signal the beginning of the end: this might be expected as result the stresses these trees must be under as a result of climate change, and is not a bad thing – the woods are overstocked meaning that insufficient light penetrates to the ground floor to produce the maximum biodiversity the habitat can. If we don’t have Wild Boar (yet!) to cause natural disturbance and break up the gloom, then maybe disease will do it for us?

Hornbeam is one of the dominant understory trees, typical of London Clay, but as in much of Essex supplanted in places by Sweet Chestnut, brought here by the Normans, and preferred in the Middle Ages when woodlands had to work for a living. There was also Ash (much showing signs of Ash Dieback infection), Elder (indicative of aerial nutrient enrichment) and Wild Cherry, picking out the springline between clay and gravel…

… and less frequently Hazel, Sallow, Aspen, Wild Service, Crab Apple and others.

Almost all were well munched by caterpillars  – this is a good year to be a baby Blue Tit! – the only exceptions being the non-natives, Sweet Chestnut and invading from gardens at the wood edge, Cherry Laurel and Mock-orange.

Other birds included singing Wrens, Blackcaps and Stock Doves, and calling Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Nuthatches.

But very soon the sun was glimpsed and then appeared more purposefully around lunchtime. And so the insects emerged, including (phew!) Heath Fritillaries in the first patch of their larval foodplant, Common Cow-wheat. The rest of the walk brought us maybe a hundred in all, all pristine, presumably overnight emergers. I guess the following couple of warm days will have seen the peak for the year.

Other butterflies slowly mounted into a respectable list, including Comma, Holly Blue and Red Admiral, with Meadow Brown, Essex Skipper and a single Silver-washed Fritillary marking the advent of high summer.

Other insects were also out in abundance in the sunlight, thanks to the trees sheltering the wide rides from the chilling breeze. Brambles were the main forage source, visited by hoverflies of all sorts: Batman, Marmalade, Footballer, Tapered Drone-fly, Superb Dayglower, Syrphus sp., Pipiza noctiluca, the Essex RDB species Volucella inflata and more Large Pied Hoverflies than I have ever seen in one place before.

Amongst the other flies were the parasite-fly Tachina rufa, the Semaphore Fly Poecilobothrus noibilitatus and the robber-fly Dioctria linearis, here enjoying lunch seemingly in one of its scattered Essex strongholds.

A diverse array of micromoths included the tortricids Celypha lacunana and C. cespitana, Common Bagworm and the larval webs of Spindle Ermine:

In a nod to the advancing summer there were nymph Dark and Speckled Bush-crickets sitting on many a leaf:

Bumblebees were very active, predominantly Buff-tailed and Common Carders with a few Red-tailed and Early Bumblebees for good measure, while Wood Ants were everywhere, wandering, carrying prey and seeds, nesting and milking aphids:

Black Bean Aphids were very apparent, in common with many places this spring, also a bonanza for ladybirds hopefully to come, while other bugs included nymphal Green Shieldbugs and adult Dock Bugs:

And in a final flourish of insects, the beetles: Seven-spot and Harlequin Ladybirds, Willow Flea Beetles glistening like jewels, Figwort Weevils on almost every Common Figwort flower and a very scarce saproxylic click-beetle in Essex Ampedus balteatus.

Insects and other invertebrates do not of course to be actually seen to be identified if their life leaves distinctive structure or patterns. Thus we found the mysterious dangling leaf rolls of the Hazel Leaf-roller Weevil and leaf-mines of the Holly Leaf-miner Fly…

… along with a number of distinctive galls including the pouch galls of the mite Eriophyes torminalis on Wild Service leaves, the swollen stem galls of the gall-midge Lasioptera rubi, known from very few other Essex localities, and the new British arrival the Asian Chestnut Gall-wasp galls that I first recorded at this site last year, but are now appearing throughout.

In the shadier sections of wood, fungi and mosses put on more of a show from Turkey-tail to Polytrichum formosum:

And other flowering plants included two species of Hypericum, Slender St. John’s-Wort and Tall Tutsan, Field Rose, Common Figwort and the lovely grass Wood Melick:

All in all, it was a wonderfully diverse day with delights and highlights from all taxonomic groups, a veritable cornucopia of biodiversity. As one of the group said as fritillaries flittered in the sun around her like wood-sprites, it feels like a ‘little bit of Heaven’. Thanks to Rochford District Council for making it happen – it would take only a few years’ neglect, for example when a new administration with different priorities assumes power, for the woods to become overgrown and the whole wildlife spectacle come tumbling down.