A very short blog! Following on from my post earlier in the year on all things tiny, the best find of the year turned up in one of the moth traps on the night of 25th September in Hazeleigh Wood. The pseudoscorpion Dendrochernes cyreneus, is very rare in the UK, a Red Data Book species that inhabits ancient woodland and lives under bark etc. on the south facing side of trees. It is an ancient woodland indicator and is found at just a few sites including Burnham Beeches, St James Park, Windsor Park and Sherwood Forest so Hazeleigh joins an elite bunch! It is almost a giant amongst UK pseudoscorpions, of which there are 27 species, but is none-the-less rather small at no more than 4.5mm in size. It is, however, an impressive looking beast

A Dolphin on the patch!

Yes amazingly, last Thursday, a Common Dolphin was photographed by River Bailiff Nigel Harmer on the river off Maldon Prom!!!

What is more, it returned again over the next couple of days. Myself, Simon Wood and Carla Davis were lucky enough to be able to watch it for over two hours on Friday (27th Oct). It later transpired that it had also been seen and photographed a couple of days earlier, off Maylandsea on Wednesday (25th Oct).

It seemed to be following a set pattern of behaviour, appearing on the rising tide and hunting in the channels before heading out again, shortly after peak tide. A plausible theory is that it was following fish (most likely Grey Mullet) as they were also coming in with the tide, much as we suspect the occasional Harbour Seals that we see locally are doing.

We were initially worried about the potential of stranding but the fact that it was repeatedly diving and had no listlessness about it led us to think it may have been fairly healthy. Its forays towards the shallows looked as though they might have been tactics to coral its prey, making it easier to catch. 

It was giving the occasional passing boat a wide berth. Perhaps the disturbance from the increase in river traffic over the weekend led it to seek feeding grounds elsewhere, following the last reported sighting off the Prom on Saturday 28th.

This is the first record of a dolphin that we are aware of anywhere around Maldon and Heybridge. Interestingly however, on 16th May this year, a pod of four Common Dolphin were seen and videoed on the River Crouch, off North Fambridge. It is possible that ‘our’ dolphin may have been associated with these ones.

The only regular cetacean to be found in the Blackwater is the Harbour Porpoise. Sadly the only porpoise records as far upstream as Maldon so far have been tideline corpses. With numbers apparently increasing in the outer estuary, we eagerly await our first live porpoise encounter within the patch. But we can hardly complain after our recent dolphin experience!

(All photos copyright John Buchanan)

Little mines, please little things….no, that’s not an error…let me explain. As well as birds, my other pretty much life-time fascination has been with moths. Most people’s experience of moths is a brief brownish blur in their car headlights or bashing around their bonce at night when standing under a light. Boring brown things, far less pretty than butterflies is what I often hear. How wrong people are...

Moths are attracted to lights (I should add that technically they probably are not truly attracted to light, but that is another story) and the use of moth traps which run mercury vapour, actinic or LED bulbs can ‘attract’ in large numbers of moths, sometimes in their thousands.

Mercury vapour moth trap

A moth trap in operation

If you ever get a chance to go to an organised moth trapping event, your perception of moths will be change for ever. By the way. the moths are released unharmed after being identified. 

Clockwise from top left - Convolvulus Hawkmoth, Antler Moth, Mocha and Herald, all caught round Maldon in the last two weeks.

 

However, having been trapping like this for many years, my attention has been diverted to looking for the feeding signs of many smaller moths and I mean small; some of our smallest have a wingspan of only 3mm. To find these feeding signs you have to have two things - a reasonable knowledge of plants and secondly, a willingness to spend hours peering into trees, bushes, shrubs and grasses etc without attracting too much unwanted attention!

Many such moths feed between the two layers of a leaf - a minuscule thickness about the width, well, of a leaf! And they make some amazing, but often distinct patterns which, when considered in conjunction with the species of plant that they are on, allow identification of the species involved. Others will graze the surface of the leaf of specific plants and then create a fold in the leaf, or they will create a mine over a small area of the leaf or perhaps will cut out a piece of the leaf, form it into a cone-like structure and wrap it round themselves and then feed from that. 

Caloptilia fidella - first Essex breeding record - makes a fold after grazing leaf surface 

In the last few weeks around Maldon, I have found some interesting species - the best being in my garden on Hops, Caloptilia fidella which is the first Essex breeding record (after the first Essex record of the species elsewhere in May this year).

 Others noted in the last few weeks include Stigmella tityrella on Beech and Bucculatrix thoracella on Lime at Beeleigh -

Bucculatrix thoracella - one of the smaller leaf mines

Stigmella tityrella - a small dark wiggly mine

 

Phyllonorycter rajella on Alder in Oak-tree Meadow, 

Phyllonorycter rajella - upper surface of mine (caterpillar is on underside)

Antispila petryi on Dogwood

Antispila petryi - note the caterpillar within the thickness of the leaf

 

and Etainia louisella on Field Maple in Hazeleigh Woods 

Etainia louisella - short mine in the seed of Field Maple

whilst going further back my favourite ‘case-bearer’ or Coleophora is the bizarrely shaped Coleophora kuehnella 

Coleophora kuenella - barely 5mm tall 

What do the adult moths look like, I hear you ask...well, that will have to be for another time.

This is just a tiny sample of the tiny moths out there, right under our noses but they are not the only families to mine leaves, large numbers of flies and beetles do too, adding an extra level of challenge to any identification. Indeed, two new species of fly never before found in Essex have been identified in Hazeleigh Wood over the last two years, both feeding on Wood Anemone.

Top Phytomyza hendeli, bottom Phytomyza anemones, both new to Essex

As you can guess, I have become enthralled by these tiny creatures and their fascinating lifestyles. Take a look next time you are out and about - see if you can see any, take a picture, go on, get hooked!

Staring at Walls

While putting together an article on non-flowering plants around Maldon (after giving them relatively short shrift in my book), I realised how many species are limited by the predominantly clay make-up of the soil here. What a lot of them need is lime. Prompted by a mail from Phil Luke listing some miscellaneous records, I realised I should be looking at old walls, where the lime-rich mortar is sufficient for a number of smart looking ferns and other plants to grow locally,

Thinking about old walls around the town, the obvious choice was the wall around the old priory garden, leading from the Chase up towards the library.  A look along here revealed a wall-loving threesome of flowering plants- Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Rue-leaved Saxifrage and Thyme-leaved Sandwort, but no ferns, which were my main target.

Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Priory Wall, Maldon

Next I had a hunt around St Peter's Church around the High Street. Again some interesting flowers, including Yellow Corydalis, but only a single fern, a rather meagre specimen of Hart's Tongue Fern. I had to try harder! 

Yellow Corydalis, St Peter's Church, Maldon

Hart's Tongue Fern, St Peter's Church, Maldon

Fortunately Phil's list had given me a hint as to where I might find fern-central: the Railway Bridge on Spital Road by West Station Yard. Here at last were some new ferns for my Maldon records- four different species growing healthily around the mortar in the aged brickwork. The most obvious was the Maidenhair Spleenwort, but searching around revealed Black Spleenwort too, as well as Common Polypody and Wall-rue.

Railway Bridge along Spital Road, Maldon

Maidenhair Spleenwort

Black Spleenwort

Common Polypody

Wall-rue

With my immediate thirst for ferns sated, I was keen to track down another plant with an odd name, Pellitory-of-the-wall. The name pellitory apparently is derived from an Old French name linked to the pungent taste of its roots. Where else are there old buildings around Maldon? Gate Street and the Blue Boar. Sure enough, a quick check of the walls in this area of the old town revealed a number of Pellitory plants, as well as plenty more Ivy-leaved Toadflax.

Pellitory-of-the-wall, Gate Street, Maldon

A final addition to my day's tally was some Mexican Fleabane, by one the houses near the Carpenters Arms. During a recent trip to the Isle of Wight, I saw this invasive growing all over the place. According to the recently published BSBI atlas, it is continuing to spread northwards and is has been consolidating its position "particularly in inland areas. On species-rich anthropogenic sites such as old walls it can be invasive, eliminating almost all other taxa." Let's hope it doesn't increase around Maldon to the detriment of the other plants mentioned in this post!

Mexican Fleabane, Gate Street, Maldon

Avian flu decimates the gull colony at Heybridge Gravel Pits!

For several decades now, there has been a sizeable Black-headed Gull colony at Heybridge Gravel Pits, across the river from Maldon Prom. In recent years, there have been around 300-400 nesting pairs, along with around 20 pairs of Common Terns (thanks to Simon Wood for help with these numbers!).

The Heybridge Pits Black-headed Gull colony in a typical prior year,
with plenty of juveniles to be seen (photo June 2012, Simon Wood)

Back in March, I posted some photos showing this year's normal build-up to the nesting season at the pits:

Black-headed Gulls gathering to nest at Heybridge Pits, March 2023

Black-headed Gulls on their traditional nesting area, March 2023

Last year, Avian flu did not have much impact on gulls locally (the only possible casualty I saw was a sick looking BHG by the Sunny Sailor). The main casualties around Maldon then seemed to be a number of Mute Swans.
This year, however, it became apparent by June that our Black-headed Gulls were suffering. Reports included Jo Phillips seeing 9 dead bodies off the Prom and Nic Lindsell seeing multiple dead BHGs, and also Common Terns, at the pits themselves.

Black-headed Gull corpse off the Prom, June 2024

I visited the pits on 3rd July to find the main areas of the colony completely deserted. There were no nesting birds on the spits and just a few adults hanging around. Similarly, while Common Terns were seen, I didn't see any nesting. In total I saw around fifty adult Black-headed Gulls but not a single juvenile.

Area of abandoned gull colony (with two corpses), July 2023

 

Area of abandoned gull colony, July 2023

Black-headed Gull corpse, Heybridge Pits, July 2023

While there were corpses about, there was only a small number compared with the size of the colony, so it seemed that the majority of gulls had consciously abandoned the site because something was going wrong, rather than wait to catch the disease. 

Looking at the southern end of the pits there was a glimmer of hope. There were some adult BHGs on the flat shingly island and amongst them seven or so appeared to be sitting on nests.

A few adult gulls were still present on the flat island at the southern end of the pits

   amongst which a handful or so appeared to be sitting on nests, July 2023

The Heybridge Pits colony has been the only Black-headed Gull colony in the immediate vicinity of Maldon, so is very significant locally. Sadly the losses have been part of a national pattern. It seems that this year there has been a new wave of Avian influenza that has particularly hit these kind of colonies. In June the British Trust for Ornithology were saying that at least 10,000 Black-headed Gulls, 4% of the total UK population, were feared to have died since the end of March. Hundreds of Common Terns also died, with signs of severe losses for this species still to come.

The virus involved, known as a Highly Pathenogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), is killing birds globally, with big impacts in the UK to sea birds such as Gannets, Great Skuas and Terns. Fingers crossed that it will gradually disappear from populations or else birds might develop some immunity, but who knows?

A Walk Round Maldon Wick Essex Wildlife Trust Reserve

Sunday morning saw me heading to Maldon Wick to join an Essex Wildlife Trust working party on the reserve. 
For those not aware, the reserve entrance is off Limebrook Way, directly opposite Morrisons Supermarket. It comprises a two and a half kilometre stretch of the old railway (towards Cold Norton) along with a meadow, and pond.

As I arrived, the meadow looked amazing in the sunshine, with a striking display of Oxeye Daisies and Meadow Buttercups.

The Meadow at Maldon Wick

Oxeye Daisies

Meadow Buttercups

The quality of the meadow is demonstrated by the presence of the many other flowers to be found amongst the various grass species. These include Common Vetch, Smooth and Hairy Tare and the locally scarce Grass Vetchling.

Grass Vetchling

There was also a lot of the strangely named Corky-fruited Water-dropwort, that appears to be spreading in its distribution, possibly due to climate change.

Corky-fruited Water-dropwort

Best of all though, was the discovery of a lone Common Spotted Orchid. 

Common Spotted Orchid

As we walked round to the back of the pond we were suprised to find that the huge volume of the invasive Floating Penywort, that was starving the pond of light and crowding out other species, has been removed. Not sure who carried out this work but many thanks whoever you are!

The pond at Maldon Wick (June 2023)

The pond as it was in Sept 2022, covered in Floating Pennywort

We then walked along the path down the centre of the old railway line embankment. Though not an official public footpath, the path is open for people to use and connects up with public footpaths running east-west further along the embankment.  
Again we were impressed by how tidy it was. Great that people are looking after it.
Despite it being quite late in the day, there was still plenty of birdsong, including Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Whitethroat. A Cuckoo was calling in the distance. About a mile down the line we heard some brief phrases from a Nightingale and then heard another from the treebelt leading towards Hazeleigh Hall Wood.

We noticed several small trees completely covered in webs of caterpillars, that had stripped them of leaves. The trees were Spindle Trees and the moth caterpillars, Spindle Ermines. Whilst the trees were seriously impacted, please note that these caterpillars are completely harmless to people- quite unlike the hairy caterpillars of Brown-tailed Moths, that should be avoided as they can cause quite severe skin irritation.

Webs of caterpillars in Spindle Tree

Spindle Ermine Moth Caterpillar

The southern end of the reserve is somewhat of a dead-end as the next section of railway line is on private land and there is no footpath access to it.

'The end of the line'

The walk back was enlivened by the sight of a Grey Heron flying up from the pond.

There were lots of Speckled Wood Butterfies along the pathway, cavorting in the sunshine, and some Orange Tips, as well as one of the other whites, but the only other species seen on the reserve was a Common Blue. As elsewhere in the county, butterfly numbers have been very disappointing so far this year around Maldon.

From June onwards, the reserve is usually also the haunt of a wide range of dragonflies and damselflies. On Sunday, the only one I spotted was Azure Damselfly. Hopefully the other expected species, such as Emperor Dragonfly and Red-eyed Damselfly, will join them soon.

Azure Damselfly

My final view was of the Dog Roses, providing some wonderful colour to the hedgerows along the eastern border of the reserve.

Dog Rose

Many thanks to Gary for arranging the work party and for providing most of the equipment. This is a reserve worthy of respect and needs to be looked after for the benefit of us all.

A Mixed Spring with one or two Surprises

From an avian perspective, Spring around Maldon was disappointing. Chiffchaffs were singing at Lofts Farm on 15^th March and an early Swallow flew by at Heybridge Pits on the 16^th, but there was little in the way of follow up passage. As ever, Lofts Farm was a good place to pick up Sand Martins, and then the first House Martins and Swift, and there was a smattering of passing Willow Warblers heard singing around the patch. But no Wheatears or Whinchats were spotted. There were some Whimbrels along the estuary and a couple of Little Ringed Plover sightings but the only half decent passage bird encountered was the drake Garganey seen by Tony Kennelly at Heybridge Pits on the 10^th April. Fortunately, there were other wildlife distractions around the town!

Certain plants seemed to be everywhere. Red Dead-nettle was abundant, Greater Stitchwort widespread and Alexanders were seemingly along every roadside and sea wall. 

Alexanders along the sea wall by Southey Creek

Alexanders aren’t native, and it would be better if they weren’t so successful, but at least they deliver lots of early nectar that attracts a broad range of pollinators, from bees to dung flies! One notable fly of spring is the St Mark’s Fly, so named as they traditionally appear around St Mark’s Day, 25^th April. They fly in a characteristic, sluggish manner, with legs dangling, and I was pleased to get a photo of one in flight.

St Mark's Fly on Alexanders

Yellow Dung Fly on Alexanders

Another fly I was pleased to see was an Alder Fly. Not rare but the first I had properly clapped eyes on. Their youngsters are entirely aquatic and are voracious predators. Indeed, a great many of the insects that we enjoy seeing around lakes and rivers- dragonflies, damselflies, caddisflies, mayflies- all have early stages that live underwater, demonstrating how vital it is that water quality is maintained, if the adults are to appear!

Alder Fly on Greater Reedmace

As ever, the first of the odonata to appear was the Large Red Damselfly- a nice distinctive species, often seen in gardens.

Large Red Damselfly

In April, Simon Wood discovered a patch of field at Lofts Farm that had been left uncultivated for a few months. For once, a whole load of traditional wild flowers had a chance to grow, and for a few weeks there was a chance to see the likes of Field Pansy, Common Fumitory and Henbit Dead-nettle. These belong to a group of species known as ‘arable plants’ that, due to modern agricultural practices, are rarely encountered these days.

Area of uncultivated field at Lofts Farm

Field Pansy, Lofts Farm

Common Fumitory, Lofts Farm

Mousetail, Lofts Farm

The arrival of spring also encouraged our reptiles to get out and about. We have yet to locate a local Adder, but the Maldon ‘big three’ were all seen:

Grass Snake, Hazeleigh

Slow Worm, Hazeleigh

Common Lizard, Maldon Hall Allotments (Susan Mint)

At Hazeleigh, there was a typically impressive spread of Bluebells. As well as providing an attractive display, they also provide habitat for other species, such as the micromoth Bluebell Conch.

Bluebell display at Hazeleigh Hall Wood

Bluebell Conch, Hazeleigh

Another example of interdependancies involves the Rivulet. Its foodplant is campion. Unfortuntately, campions are also eaten by Muntjac deer. In Hazeleigh we saw a lot of nibbled shoots but luckily there were still some blooms and Rivulet still seem to be hanging on.

Rivulet, Hazeleigh

Red Campion

Red Campion nibbled by Muntjac

Moths appear to be having a particularly tough time at the moment. This spring has been exceptionally poor for moth numbers at traps throughout south-eastern England. A post on the Recording Moths in Suffolk site by Neil Sherman gave a good summary of likely causes. An ongoing north-east airflow and clear nights have not helped and the cold, wet recent weather may have killed larvae and pupae.  But possibly the main cause was the drought last summer that decimated larval foodplants.

This lack of moths was reflected at sessions at Hazeleigh Woods, where species counts were less than a half of the totals on the same dates in previous years.

Many of the spring moths that did show at Hazeleigh, were species that try to blend in to their surroundings.

Pale Pinion

Waved Umber

But in contrast it was good to also see more striking species, including the always impressive Eyed Hawkmoth, as well as White Ermine and the attractive micromoth, Common Tubic.

Eyed Hawkmoth

White Ermine

Common Tubic (known by moth-ers as 'Geoffrey' on account of its scientific name)

Walking through the Maldon countryside in springtime there are always critters to spot, often surprisingly colourful...

Black and Red Leafhopper, Hazeleigh Wood

Malachite Beetle, Hazeleigh Wood

Gorse Shieldbug, Lofts Farm

Amongst the regular species, there were a couple of good finds at Heybridge Pits. 

Simon Wood found a Large Garden Bumblebee and the first of several local Small Yellow Underwings was spotted feeding on Cornsalad.

Large Garden Bumblebee, Heybridge Pits (Simon Wood)

Small Yellow Underwing, Heybridge Pits

Finally, around the beginning of May, a couple of classy appearances at Chigborough helped restore Maldon's reputation for birds. Now just looking forward to what the summer will deliver!

Night Heron, Chigborough, May 2023

Spoonbill, Chigborough, May 2023