Many thanks to all contributors, particularly to the photographers Simon Wood (SW), Paul Langley, Cindy Lawes & Steve Stuart.
After the summer drought, rain finally began falling again mid-August, and the countryside began to recover some of its colour again. During the month, the usual waders began to reappear on the estuary- Lapwing, Curlew, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit, Golden Plover and some Turnstone. Before the end of August, the first Wigeon arrived to join the Teal along with a handful of Shoveler at the Dump Pool and Lofts Farm/ Chigborough Lakes.
A Whimbrel appeared on the mud along Southey Creek and at Limbourne Creek there were up to seven Green Sandpipers. An immature Water Rail there implied successful breeding had taken place.
Passerines also began passing through. With the loss of our own breeding Willow Warblers, it was good to see there were still good numbers passing through that had bred further north (15 at least at Lofts Farm on 16th August). In all, just two Wheatears and four Whinchats were seen along the southern bank of the estuary. They were much outnumbered by a very obvious arrival of Stonechats, which was echoed elsewhere in Essex, perhaps indicative of a successful breeding season, wherever they came from! A handful of Yellow Wagtail sightings were probably more likely to be dispersing local breeders than passage birds.
A barge trip on 31st August was a cause for celebration for Simon Wood when he spotted a Common Guillemot on the river- perhaps his biggest patch bogey bird finally seen. Other good sightings on the same trip included a drake Common Scoter and Moon Jellyfish (there had been reports of a lot of these in the estuary over the summer). On the 2nd September, the first Avocets of the autumn were seen and there was a Garganey on the Dump Pool.
Another walk out to Limbourne Creek to look for waders on the still muddy edges finally produced a goody in the form of a Wood Sandpiper– the first seen locally for quite a few years. Continuing the wader theme, a Ruff appeared for a prolonged stay on the gravelly islets at the Hall Road end of Heybridge Pits. One might have thought it would have got bored of the limited habitat there! Other wader interest included a scattering of Curlew Sandpiper sightings but generally passage waders were sparse. The wader highlight of late autumn was another local rarity- a Purple Sandpiper, found along Mill Beach on the 21st November by a group from Swallow Birding.
Despite it not being a classic autumn in terms of numbers (no flycatchers, scarce terns or flocks of wagtails for instance), there were still some stand-out birds. Simon’s near-obsessive checking of all wigeon made him question an oddball at Lofts Farm which he gradually realised was a female American Wigeon. Differences from the accompanying Eurasian Wigeon were relatively subtle but all there- paler overall plumage, longer tail, taller neck, different shape to forehead, contrasting ear covert-patch etc and striking white underwing coverts.
Then a week later, while walking round Heybridge Pits with Simon, Carla Davis found a Wryneck! Only the second record in recent decades, the first had eluded all but the finder Russ Neave so it was great to finally have a chance to catch up with another.
A Garganey with the Wigeon on the estuary on 25th October was an unusually late record.
The final avian patch mega of the season was a Yellow-browed Warbler, a waif from Siberia that Simon heard calling as it moved amongst a party of Goldcrests along the canal by Hall Road Bridge in Heybridge on 26th October.
The most talked about local wildlife visitor was the Common Seal that spent many weeks along the upper reaches of the Chelmer and was even seen along the canal. Often lounging about on the mud opposite Tescos it appeared to be mainly feeding on the Mullet that appear in shoals at this time of year.
If avian migration was somewhat haphazard this year, there were some good numbers of migrant moths on the move. Simon and Maureen Bissell continued their intensive trapping sessions at Hazeleigh Wood. Highlights were more Vestals and some migrant firsts for Hazeleigh including Delicate and Scarce Bordered Straw. Another Clifden Nonpareil was enjoyable and good micros included the rare Vagrant China-mark (a first for Maldon area) and the second local record of the range-expanding Southern Bell. During this period the overall Hazeleigh moth (and butterfly) list finally broke through the 800 barrier!
Cindy Lawes was also regularly moth-trapping in her garden near the centre of Maldon. One of her highlights was finding the first patch records of Oak Rustic.
On the butterfly front there were a few records of migrant Clouded Yellow and some more Wall Browns– Steve Stuart found one of the latter in a garden in Cold Norton and then another in the garden of The Bell at Purleigh.
Whilst on the subject of range-expanding invertebrates, there were more records of Southern Oak Bush-cricket– at the Chelmer Blackwater Reserve and then in the depths of Hazeleigh Wood. Being essentially flightless, it is something of a mystery as to how they spread though it is thought they hitch rides on the outside of vehicles…
Of course autumn is the prime time for fruiting bodies of fungi to appear. Our annual foray around Hazeleigh Wood with Sarah Manning again gave us a long list of species- some identifiable and some not, despite forensic use of various acids and a cigarette lighter! It seems that the summer drought has had quite an effect on some species. There was a significant lack of species that depend on a shallow mycorrhizal network in the soil- just a single, mutated, Clouded Funnel was found (normally these are widespread at Hazeleigh), no Russulas and no deceivers. The most interesting species found was one we first took to be Dog Stinkhorn but which turned out to be most likely Devil’s Lipstick, Mutinus ravenelii, a North American species only rarely found in the UK. As ever, there was a tremendous range of shapes, colours and textures amongst the fungi encountered, from Rosy Bonnet through Witches’ Butter to Wrinkled Peach.
