Inspired by others posting photos of waxcaps from elsewhere in the county, in what seems to be a bumper year for them, I was pleased to discover that we had some too! Waxcaps are grassland species that like short, low nutrient, long-established grassland: the kind of vegetation that can be found in many churchyards and cemeteries. I had a plan to tour all of Maldon's cemeteries looking for them. Luckily my first stop, at Heybridge Cemetery on Goldhanger Road, struck gold!
Surprisingly perhaps, several different species often share the same site, providing a kaleidoscope of different colours. Identification can be difficult- I reckon I saw six or seven species of which I am reasonably confident about naming five of them. Please let me know if you think I have got any wrong!! There were also a number of other grassland fungi present, including Silky Pinkgill and a couple of species of bonnets.
Snowy Waxcap (the most abundant of the species found)
Snowy Waxcap
Butter Waxcap (Second in abundance)
Butter Waxcap
Parrot Waxcap
Parrot Waxcap (they turn yellow with age)
Vermilion Waxcap
Vermillion Waxcap
Blackening Waxcap
Silky Pinkgill
(All photos copyright John Buchanan, Nov 4th 2024)
In recent months, Peter Jackson has been regularly photographing the birdlife around Maldon Hythe and the Prom Park. Back in May he took some shots of a particularly photogenic Common Tern that sat on the fence along the edge of the model boating lake.
Common Tern, Maldon Prom Park, May 2024 (Peter Jackson)
After posting on Facebook it was noticed that the bird had a ring on its leg. Luckily, Peter's photos were good enough to mean that zooming in would allow some details of the ring to be read.
Common Tern ring details (Peter Jackson)
Although no one photo had all the information, piecing together the different elements led to the intriguing suggestion that the tern may have been ringed in Africa. Further detective work by Simon Wood identified that the ring had been applied by the SAFRING team, who are based in Cape Town. However our story does not end there. Dr Simon Cox then contacted the British Trust for Ornithology (who oversee bird ringing in the UK) and it turned out that our tern had in fact been ringed by the SAFRING team in Senegal during a project they were carrying out monitoring birds passing through on their way from further south in Africa.
So our Maldon Common tern, that has probably been breeding at Heybridge Pits this year and may even have originally been born at the pits, was ringed at La Langue de Barbarie in Senegal as it headed north on March 30th 2023. This means that this year will have been at least the second time it has made this big migration north.
Common Tern ringing site, La Langue de Barbarie, March 2023
Thanks to the concerted efforts of ringers over the years, the BTO have been able to put together an impressive map showing locations where UK breeding Common Terns travel on their annual migrations.
Ringing recoveries of UK Common Terns (BTO Map retrieved from https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/common-tern)
Considering that the BTO has recorded a Common Tern living for as long as 33 years, it is mind-blowing to consider how far some of these birds must travel during their lifetimes!
Many thanks to Simon, Simon and, of course, Peter, for the parts they have played to solve this detective story! It was good to see that the tern seemed happy here in its summer home- Peter was able to photograph it again, in June, perched in the park.
Common Tern, again, Maldon Prom Park, June 2025 (Peter Jackson)
Postscript During a recent trip to Cape Town in October 2024 I was amazed to see how many Common Terns winter there- I saw literally hundreds around Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. It is likely that many of these will be birds that spend the northern Summer in Europe.
Common Tern, Sandwich Tern, Crested Tern and Hartlaub's Gull Cape Point South Africa, October 2024 (John Buchanan)
It was great a week or so ago to find some sunshine for a short couple of visits to the meadow at Maldon Wick and to find that, as last year, the wild flowers were blooming,
The meadow at Maldon Wick EWT reserve (opposite Morrisons)
(Comparing with 2023) one of the post obvious flowers was again the Corky-fruited Water-dropwort and there were plenty of different peas- Common and Tufted Vetch, Meadow and Grass Vetchling, Birdsfoot and Lesser Trefoil, Smooth Tare and Red and White Clover.
Corky-fruited Water-dropwort
It was good to see species I had not recorded there before, including Common Centaury, Agrimony and Red Bartsia.
Common Centaury
Agrimony
Red Bartsia
Best of all was my first Pyramidal Orchid on the reserve, to add to the list of Bee and Common Spotted Orchid seen previously.
Pyramidal Orchid
It was good to see that the developers of the neighbouring estates have refurbished the old railway bridge to allow access from one side of the embankment to the other. Hopefully this will direct pedestrians and cyclists away from the old railway line, thus reducing disturbance of the reserve itself.
Something of a surprise when looking for a reported Hen Harrier around Ulting, to look into a field and find a Chinese Water Deer staring back at me! They have been spreading into Essex from East Anglia in recent years but until now the closest reports have been from Mersea Island and Copt Hall. This record is over ten miles further west and the first record from the Maldon Tetrad. Unfortunately 100 yards just outside our Maldon recording patch😧 Hopefully more records to come!
My normal river walk is along the south bank of the Blackwater from the Prom Park eastwards, so it was a pleasant change to join a walking group heading out along the opposite sea wall, from Heybridge.
Like the bay by the Dump, there is a bay just past Blackwater Sailing Club that accumulates waders as the tide comes in.
Bay by Blackwater Sailing Club
Waders gathering at High Tide
It was good to see a flock of Wigeon grazing on the grass by the sailing club lake.
Further along it was big surprise to see a group of five Great White Egrets heading north. Larger cousins of the regular Little Egrets, this was a record local number.
Great White Egrets- drifting north
Past the Osea causeway, nice to see a Barn Owl perched by the nest box near the sewage treatment plant.
As the tide was rising, birds were running out of places to rest.
Dunlin, Turnstone, Brent Geese
Dunlin
By the time I reached the point beyond the causeway, the tide was almost in. There was an amazing gathering of waders- Knot, Dunlin, Turnstone, Grey Plover, Oystercatcher, Curlew... plus dozens of Shelduck on the water.
The Knot and Dunlin started rising up and swirling and I became a witness the best display of wader aerobatics I have seen locally. Thousands of birds, rivalling the footage from Winterwatch! Sadly my phone footage doesn't do the spectacle justice...
Heading back, a male Marsh Harrier was sat in the reedbed.
Male Marsh Harrier
There were still a few perches available for those waders delaying their flight to a roosting site, including here a Grey Plover and some Turnstone. A Little Egret was able to carry on feeding in the shallows.
Little Egret
After failing to see any sea duck by Osea Causeway, it was good to find a Red-breasted Merganser fishing off Heybridge Pits.
Red-breasted Merganser
Opposite the pits, the wintering Avocet flock was looking for somewhere to settle.
Avocets by the dredgings opposite Heybridge Pits
Three of the local wintering Greenshanks were feeding just by the sea wall.
Greenshank
All in all an enjoyable walk with good selection of year ticks!
Monday 8 January 2024
Northern Waterthrush, Heybridge 3rd-8th January at least
When I sat down to lunch on Wednesday, little did I know that I would not finish that meal for several hours...
I happened to see movement to my right, through the glass doors, on the patio. Stunned silence, then expletives, followed as I realised that I was looking at a Northern Waterthrush, a small songbird that should really be wintering in the Caribbean and Central America.
Having overcome the adreneline rush, and shaking hands, I took a series of shots and the news was released nationally mid afternoon, to a fair bit of incredularity!
To cut a long story short, the bird was refound the next day a short distance to the west of my house, in an area of scrubland which has been able to take the pressure of the twitch, something which my tiny garden would not have done! To date (8th January), perhaps a 1,000 people have successfully made the journey to see this remarkable little survivor.
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