SS15 wildlife watching

This blog was set up in mid-March 2020 during the emerging COVID-19 health crisis in the UK. It initially aimed to provide records of wildlife sightings and photographs from sites within walking distance of my home in the SS15 postcode area of Basildon in Essex during lockdown travel restrictions. Even though the pandemic has largely subsided, this blog continues to include my local wildlife sightings, my trips away from home plus some personal thoughts and reflections on other issues.

Saturday 31 December 2022

2022 summary in numbers

All UK bird life list

All time UK life list = 354 species

UK year list 2022 = 204 species (+19 on 2021 and the highest year total since pre-Covid 2019)

SS15 and SS14 local patches

Total species list across 3 local patches = 119 (+22 on 2021)

Local patch: St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas

Total species list

Birds = 60

Mammals = 7

Butterflies = 22

Dragonflies and damselflies = 9

Reptiles = 1

Amphibians = 0

2022 species list

Birds = 45 (+1 on 2021)

Mammals = 5 (no change on 2021)

Butterflies = 17 (+2 on 2021)

Dragonflies and damselflies = 7 (+2 on 2021)

Reptiles = 0 (no change on 2021)

Amphibians = 0 (no change on 2021)

Additions to site list 2022

8 …. Mute Swan, Moorhen, Lapwing, Stock Dove, Skylark, Pied Wagtail, Linnet, Bank Vole

Local patch: Noak Bridge Nature Reserve

Total species list

Birds = 44

Mammals = 3

Butterflies = 21

Dragonflies and damselflies = 13

Reptiles = 2

Amphibians = 3

2022 species list

Birds = 30 (-14 on 201)

Mammals = 2 (no change on 2021)

Butterflies = 15 (+6 on 2021)

Dragonflies and damselflies = 5 (-5 on 2021)

Reptiles = 2 (+1 on 2021)

Amphibians = 2 (no change on 2021)

Additions to site list 2022

14 …. Common Shrew, Brimstone, Comma, Common Blue, Essex Skipper, Holly Blue, Large Skipper, Large White, Orange Tip, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Azure Damselfly, Grass Snake, Common Frog

Local patch: Gloucester Park

Total species list

Birds = 60

Mammals = 7

Butterflies = 22

Dragonflies and damselflies = 9

Reptiles = 1

Amphibians = 0

2022 species list

Birds = 35 (-5 on 2021)

Mammals = 2 (no change on 2021)

Butterflies = 0 (no change on 2021)

Dragonflies and damselflies = 0 (no change on 2021)

Reptiles = 0 (no change on 2021)

Amphibians = 0 (no change on 2021)

#DefendNature .... Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

Are we enjoying Brexit yet?

This is what "taking back control", "sovereignty", "independence" and "sunlit uplands" looks like .... or at least to the right-wing, nationalist and head-banging Brexiteers!

Are we enjoying Brexit yet? https://t.co/Q1weRcKwVH
— Deborah Meaden 🇺🇦 (@DeborahMeaden) December 30, 2022

#DefendNature .... Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

Wednesday 28 December 2022

UK wildlife "devastated by litany of weather extremes" in 2022

The annual audit by the National Trust has revealed a dire year for UK wildlife.

2022’s tumultuous weather, including fierce storms, searing heat and deep cold snaps, has devastated some of the UK’s most precious flora and fauna.

The National Trust, which produces an annual Christmas audit of how the year’s weather has affected nature, has said that the climate emergency meant that what in 2002 felt like extreme events were going to become the new norm creating major challenges for many species.

National Trust - Wildlife and climate change

The Guardian - UK wildlife "devastated by litany of weather extremes" in 2022

#DefendNature .... Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

Record from my flat - Cormorant

Cormorant is a species that I have occasionally seen from my flat.

After seeing a single bird on 29th October 2022, the first record for many months, I saw another Cormorant this lunchtime at midday.

I first noticed it from my kitchen window flying very high in an easterly direction but as it did so it was gradually dropping in height. I assume that it was heading for the main lake in nearby Gloucester Park where varying numbers of Cormorants are frequently present.

#DefendNature .... Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

Tuesday 27 December 2022

Colours!

Colors !!! 🌈🌈🌈 pic.twitter.com/yARbUsZQUL
— Carlos Mario Wagner (@carlosmapalina) December 26, 2022

#DefendNature .... Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

Record from my flat - Red Admiral

On my way back home at lunchtime, I noticed a flying Red Admiral in the grassy area adjacent to the boundary fence of the block of flats where I live.

Although it was sunny, it was only 9°C so this was a very surprising sighting.

However, Butterfly Conservation advises on their website that .... "They continue flying into October or November and are typically seen nectaring on garden buddleias or flowering Ivy and on rotting fruit. There is an indication that numbers have increased in recent years and that overwintering has occurred in the far south of England."

In addition, Woodland Trust advises on their website that .... "The adult butterflies are on the wing from spring until as late as November. Migrants arrive from continental Europe and North Africa as early as March, and the eggs they lay produce a fresh emergence of adults in late summer. Most adults begin to migrate south again by the end of the summer, but some are thought to successfully hibernate here through the winter."

So maybe this sighting was not so surprising after all.

Red Admiral is a species that I see regularly on my local patch sites in spring and summer and occasionally in autumn.

Photo: Red Admiral

#DefendNature .... Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

Good things happening in Europe

Amongst the devastating loss in biodiversity in recent decades, not least in the UK which is one of the most nature depleted countries on the planet, there is at least some good news ....

Good things happening in Europe. pic.twitter.com/HYUwJp1CZf
— Derek Gow (@gow_derek) December 26, 2022

Many of these species will have increased their populations due to hunting bans, protection and conservation schemes and rewilding projects. This shows what can be achieved.

#DefendNature .... Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

Monday 26 December 2022

Seasonal wish for Badgers as setts sit empty for the first time in history

Badger Trust - Seasonal wish for Badgers as setts sit empty for the first time in history

#DefendNature .... Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

Saturday 24 December 2022

More Eurasian Beavers for Essex

Two more Eurasian Beaver enclosures are to be built at the Spains Hall Estate in Finchingfield in Essex where a pair of the animals was released into the wild for the first time in 400 years.

BirdGuides - More "Beaver zones" to be built at flood-prone estate

More Eurasian Beaver links ....

SS15 wildlife watching: Beavers United?

SS15 wildlife watching: Beavers to make "cautious" return to England

SS15 wildlife watching: New legal protections edge England closer towards wild Beaver return

SS15 wildlife watching: Today European Beavers finally receive legal protection in the UK

Plus my experience of watching and photographing Eurasian Beavers in Devon in June 2022 ....

SS15 wildlife watching: Trip away from SS15 – Devon and Somerset

Photo: Eurasian Beaver

#DefendNature .... Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

What does "chaos" and "strong and stable" mean?

"Chaos" as per former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron .... Chaos with Ed Miliband - Wikipedia

"Strong and stable" as per former Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May .... Strong and stable - Wikipedia

I would dread to think what chaos and weakness and instability would really look like.

Oh, hang on a moment .....

So far in 2022, the Conservative Party has given us ....

3 Prime Ministers

4 Chancellors

4 versions of a Conservative Government

6 fiscal budget events

147 Ministers including 32 Cabinet members have resigned or been sacked

End this fiasco.

End the incompetence and corruption.

We want and need a General Election now.

We want and need a progressive and internationalist Government that meets the challenges of our communities, our country and our world and delivers solutions for humanity and biodiversity.

Not much to ask for in 2023.

#DefendNature .... Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

Thursday 22 December 2022

Roll on spring and the return of the Nightingales

Every year between April and May the wonderful sound of singing Nightingales can be heard at EWT Fingringhoe Wick near Colchester in Essex.

The short film below celebrates one of the UK's most uplifting wildlife events. The UK has lost over 92% of its Nightingale population since 1970.

Help the Essex Wildlife Trust save Nightingales: https://www.essexwt.org.uk/get-involved/appeals/save-our-species

SS15 wildlife watching: Nightingales

SS15 wildlife watching: Trip away from SS15 – Danbury Common, Essex

#DefendNature .... Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

Sunday 18 December 2022

Sunrise over SS15

An amazing sunrise from my flat this morning ....

#DefendNature .... Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature

Thursday 15 December 2022

Visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas – 15th December 2022

Date: 15th December 2022

Time: from 8:45 a.m.

Weather: dry, cloudy, light wind, -6°C to -1°C

After very successful visits watching and photographing Red Foxes in frosty and snowy conditions on 10th December 2022 and 13th December 2022, I was keen to have another visit before the weather warmed up and melted the lying snow.

It was an extremely cold morning with temperatures of -6°C when I left home before reaching a balmy -1°C by the time I returned at around midday.

Unlike my last visit which was grey and dull, this morning it was bright and sunny.

As on my 2 previous visits, I accessed the site via the track from Larkins Tyres, walked through the trees to the watchpoint overlooking the rough grassy field bordered by scrub, hedges and trees, climbed over the fence and walked across the field and walked through a gap in the hedge to scan the area.

I spent approximately 1.5 hours at this location and around the field that I had crossed and I saw at least 2 different Red Foxes and possibly 3.

The number of Red Foxes and the frequency of their appearances was much lower than on my previous 2 visits. This may have been due to the 2 very friendly horses obscuring my view for much of the time! Whilst lovely animals, their desire to stand right in front of me was frustrating.

I quickly had my first sightings of 2 Red Foxes although both were very distant views ....

Photo: Red Fox

However, sightings and photo opportunities definitely improved thereafter ....

Photo: Red Fox

I finally decided to leave this location and walk back to the Larkins Tyres access track, through the wooded area and cemetery and up to the church.

In the central section of the cemetery, I saw 2 Grey Squirrels foraging together in a tree.

When I reached the church car park, I saw yet another Red Fox walking slowly through the grassy strip that runs down to St. Nicholas Lane ….

Photo: Red Fox

Some time later, I saw a further 2 Red Foxes together in the western section of the cemetery ….

Photo: Red Fox

With regard to birds, I had several notable records.

The most interesting and exciting record was of 7 Lapwings flying over in a northerly direction. This was my first record of this species for the site taking the total number of bird species recorded to 60 and the total number for 2022 to 44. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any photos. This was undoubtedly a cold weather movement of Lapwings.

Redwings were even more abundant than on my previous 2 visits with c.30 at least seen in the western of the cemetery and in the area immediately surrounding the church. Although typically a very nervous and flighty species, I was able to get a number of photos ….

Photo: Redwings

Photo: Redwing

Other notable records from the main Red Fox watching location included the following, all of which I only occasionally see at the site: Greenfinch (1 male), Chaffinch (1 heard calling and briefly seen in flight), Jackdaw (2 flying over in a northerly direction)

I saw both woodpecker species during my visit: single Green Woodpeckers from the main Red Fox watching location and in the western section of the cemetery, a single Great Spotted Woodpecker in the wooded area adjacent to the cemetery and 2 very active Great Spotted Woodpeckers around the church. One of the Great Spotted Woodpeckers took a liking to a telegraph pole at the top of Church Hill and momentarily to the church spire ….