UK seasonal weather summary (from the Met Office):
Autumn saw slightly above average temperatures and above-average rainfall. The weather was unsettled, with the first three named storms of the 2025/2026 season and low pressure systems bringing frontal rain across the country.
Winter saw above average temperatures and rainfall for the UK overall, with notable regional variation. The weather was unsettled, with four named storms and a strong jet stream and blocking high over Scandinavia causing extended spells of wet weather for some areas and an unusual rainfall pattern.
Bird-wise, the autumn was somewhat uneventful. There was no influx of passage waders (due to the direction of prevailing weather systems) and passerines, especially Redwing, were hard to come by.
Some late Swift lingered around the town, with birds sighted on 8th and 14th September, and at Hazeleigh on 19th. There was a Hobby still about the Golf Course on 12th & 13th Sept. Passage passerines included a flock of 30 Yellow Wagtail with the cows around Northey Causeway on 6th September and a Wheatear there on the 6th and two on the 12th. A kettle of 14 Common Buzzard above Osea Island on the 5th Sept must have been a fine sight.
Another welcome sighting during this period was of a Glossy Ibis. First seen and videoed over the saltmarsh by Lawling Creek on 8th Sept. Presumably the same bird was seen later in the month at Heybridge Pits on 29th.
It was a low key Autumn for lepidoptera too. At times there seemed to be more European Hornet than moths in the moth traps! Best of the migrant moths was a Jersey Mocha at Hazeleigh on 6th Sept, about the fourth Essex record and the first for our patch.
Also at Hazeleigh, there was yet another Clifden Nonpareil. This impressive moth must surely be breeding in the wood.
On one of our moth sessions we were accompanied by a very approachable Bank Vole.
The first returning Wigeon were noted at Heybridge Pits on 9th Sept. Two passing Sandwich Tern were seen off the Prom on 5th Oct.
On 13th Oct there was an exceptional count of 90 Egyptian Geese at Lofts Farm – a patch record. This gives an idea of how many there now are in the general area! It is likely that this particular gathering was due to them having been disturbed from one of their main regular roosting sites such as Abberton. The previous record local count was of 44 at Heybridge Pits in November 2016.
Stonechat appeared to have had a good breeding season with high numbers seen during October. There were five, possibly seven, at Heybridge Pits on the 9th Oct and an amazing 15 recorded on a walk from Maldon to Lawling Creek on 17th!
In October there were good numbers of Clouded Yellow Butterflies along the sea walls.
The passage of autumn around the saltmarsh was marked as ever by the reddening hues of Annual Seablite, which seemed particularly pronounced this year.
Beach School
During term time, Lisa Brazier runs Beach School Explorers sessions along the beach by Osea Leisure Park. The sharp-eyes and curiosity of the children have resulted in a number of interesting finds.
Back in April 2025, they found an unusual marine worm on Osea Island that has now been confirmed to have been a Bootlace Worm Lineus longissimus. This is a species of unsegmented ribbon worm and is classified within the phylum Nemertea. Anatomically these are quite different from other worms found in the UK, which are classified with the phylum Annelida (segmented worms). Despite being only 5mm wide, bootlace worms can grow to be extremely long, often to a length of 5-15 metres! There are occasional claims of them growing up to 40 metres long – longer than a Blue Whale!
No doubt associated with the Moon Jellyfish that arrive in the estuary in the summer, one of the explorers found a small arthropod on the beach that turned out to be a Big-eyed Amphipod Hyperia galba. These small (up to 1cm) crustaceans live on and within jellyfish, which they parasitise. Something additional to look for if you see jellyfish washed up on a beach!
To make it a hat-trick of unusual records by the Beach School Explorers, on 27th October they found a dead Sea Lamprey washed up on the beach near their Osea Leisure Park base.
Like other lampreys, Sea Lamprey have no jaws but a circular sucking mouth with horny teeth. They are semi-parasitic, attaching to a living host species with their mouth sucker and feeding on the body tissues. Hosts are generally large fish and marine mammals. The young develop as larvae in the mud of larger rivers but migrate to the sea, where they spend their parasitic adult life. Essex records are extremely scarce.
November began with another rare duck find by Simon Wood: a female Ring-necked Duck, a vagrant from North America, which frequented Heybridge Gravel Pits from 1st to 4th.
(Ring-necked Duck is in centre, facing left)
Sadly, the following day a dead Whooper Swan was found at Lofts Farm. The most likely cause was avian flu. The British Trust for Ornithology highlighted a marked increase in flu cases this year, coinciding with the arrival of wintering birds. They noted “Among those worst affected so far (in winter 2025) are waterbirds such as Mute Swans, Whooper Swans, geese and various gull species. These are often highly social species, which gather in large flocks at wetlands and coastal roosts – conditions that can accelerate the spread of disease.”
A couple of Mute Swan were also affected at Lofts Farm but thankfully all those in the sizeable herd that spent much of the winter by Scraley Road seemed unaffected.
November continued with more Glossy Ibis sightings and a hybrid Shelduck, probably Common x Ruddy, off Osea Road.
Water Pipit must surely winter around the patch in small numbers each year but they remain elusive. One was seen at Mundon Creek on 10th Nov, at what may well be a regular site for them. In contrast, Grey Partridge has become exceedingly rare locally. It is possible that four seen at Lofts Farm on 11th were released by a shooting syndicate.
Of the three species of diver that are regularly seen on the Blackwater, Black-throated Diver is the scarcest. Matt Turner was no doubt pleased to spot one off Osea Island while leading one of the regular barge-based birdwatching trips from Maldon Hythe.
Raven again made occasional appearances, particularly around Hazeleigh. They yet again managed to avoid being photographed – we have still to take a local snap of one! In mid-December, there was an interesting report of a Bittern being present at Bean Pond, Chigborough. There were probably two Common Sandpiper wintering in our area – one along the River Chelmer and one at Heybridge Pits – as well as the more usual Green Sandpiper.
At the end of the year there was a cold snap which brought in birds from the continent. Around Chigborough, the herd of Mute Swan was joined by four Tundra Bean Goose, a species that winters in the low countries.
At the start of January, four Bewick’s Swan turned up briefly at the same location. Up to ten years ago, they used to be seen regularly, almost annually around our patch, but we have had a drastic drop in sightings, reflecting the drop in the UK population as a whole. Bewick’s Swan breed in the Arctic tundra of Russia. While they face many challenges, one of the reasons for the UK decline is thought to be due to ‘short-stopping’, where, due to climate change, they are migrating shorter distances, wintering in northern Germany and the Netherlands which are generally now ice-free.
Freezing weather often causes icing up of smaller pools where people have collections of ornamental duck, which then fly off to find waters that are ice-free. The local odd-ball this winter was a Puna Teal, spotted at Chigborough Lakes.
A high count of six Kingfisher along the canal between Beeleigh and Heybridge and an increase in reports of Siskin may also have been weather related.
Goldeneye is another species that is no longer a regular locally, perhaps also due to migrants ‘short-stopping’, as discussed earlier. So ten off Osea on 6th Jan was a good record, followed by two further upstream on 7th. Also, during the first days of January, there were records of a Great Northern Diver and two Long-tailed Duck, around Osea island.
There is regularly a Black Brant to be found amongst our regular wintering Dark-bellied Brent Goose flocks, so it was no surprise when one turned up off Heybridge Pits mid-January and stayed for a couple of months. On the19th, what was considered to be a second bird, turned up on Iltney Farm. Traditionally, we have seen Brent Geese either on the estuary itself or on fields directly adjacent to estuary. This year we have come across flocks feeding on inland fields, including some at Chigborough and one just east of our patch, that included a Pale-bellied Brent Goose.
It rained for much of February, causing flooding from the canal and causing pools of water to form in fields. As expected, Black-headed Gulls gathered around the pools looking for food items displaced by the water.
A Blackcap sang by the council offices during a brief respite on 8th Feb.
It did warm up towards the end of February, which likely contributed to the amazing number of moths trapped in Hazeleigh Wood on the night of the 25th – over 1000 in all. As I have mentioned previously it is always a promise of the arrival of Spring when moths named for the season start appearing, Early Reveller and Spring Usher and Early Reveller being prime examples!
I also enjoyed finally catching up with another early moth – a Pine Beauty, that Simon Wood had caught in his Heybridge garden.
The month ended with sightings of Brimstone and Peacock butterflies, a couple more singing Blackcap and Lesser Celandine in bloom – further signs of the coming of Spring.
LOCAL WILDLIFE SITE NEWS
Local Nature Recovery Strategy
In September, the official launch of the Essex Local Nature Recovery Strategy took place at Cressing Temple Barns. The strategy was developed by a large team of stakeholders and provides a wealth of information about opportunities for habitat improvement and new habitat creation throughout Essex. https://www.essex.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2025-07/Essex%20Local%20Nature%20Recovery%20Strategy.pdf
The delivery is being managed by the Essex County Council Local Nature Partnership and hopefully will drive some successful new initiatives. Examples include encouragement of parish Councils to develop their own Local Nature Strategies and support of ‘farm clusters’ through which farmers can share best practices and grant opportunities work together to improve the outcomes for farmland birds and other wildlife.
Heybridge Wood
During the autumn, The Land Trust (who have been contracted to manage the development of the site in the short term) delivered some major improvements to the wood. Previous surveys had identified a large number of trees that needed to be removed, for a variety of reasons, including disease, risk of toppling and over-crowding. In October 2025, contractors cut down and took away around 200 tonnes of timber!
The result has been the opening up of the two main rides and a number of glades. There is now much more light withih the wood and hopefully this wi encourage the growth of flowers in the coming spring.
(Info and photos from Pip Smith, who is site manager for The Land Trust.
Northey Island
The National Trust continue to develop Northey Island both in terms of coastal realignment and direct action to help wildlife.
In January, three obsolete flat-bottomed barges (‘lighters’) were used to create three new islands of habitat for birds. It is hope they will be used during the winter as roost sites and during the summer as secure nest sites, potentially encouraging the return of breeding Ringed Plover and even Little Terns to Maldon.
It’s nice to be able to have finished with some good news stories!
If you have any comments on this summary, or information on anything that I have overlooked, please let me know.
My grateful thanks to those who have been out and about and contributed their sightings and shared their photographs – without them I would have nothing to write about!
John Buchanan
john.clanbuchanan@btinternet.com
MISC PHOTOS OF LOCAL SCENERY
