On Monday I made my way north of the Thames to have a poke
around some more of the Bulphan Fen farmland to give me more of an idea of what
to expect once the farmers are on board.
Footpaths are few and far between and I chose my ingress
point off the main road through West Horndon only to find Footpath 4 pointing
directly at a shimmering golden Wheat field so I tried further along and found Footpath 8 from within the houses.
It took me south through a couple of ploughed fields to
start with that had many loafing gulls but the edges were and ditches for the
first half a mile were mercilessly mown and even the ditches and up under the
sparse hedges had been scalped. There
was very little wildlife at all with just a few Meadow Browns, a couple of
singing Yellowhammers and a family of Green Woodpeckers but thing improved once
I got beyond Field House and crossed a swishing Barley Field.
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Not a bird following the plough or even in the same field
|
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| Yellowhammer |
This next section had a tributary of the Mardyke running
alongside it and was deep and lush and probably a bit overgrown but was
bordered by a fine grassy herbal margin and an on off thick hedge. As such there was so much more insect life
with Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers, Whites, Peacocks and Red Admirals and both Common Blue
and Brown Argus. Sphaerophoria and
Episyrphus balteatus were the two common Hovers an there were few Bumbles and
Honey Bees too on the Ox Tongue, Water Mint, Teasels and Great Willowherb.
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| Gatekeeper |
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| Brown Argus |
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Small White
|
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| Peacock |
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| Episyrphus balteatus and Sphaerophoria |
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| Teasel |
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Sphaerophoria sp on Perennial Sow Thistle
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A Long-tailed Tit family and several Whitethroats and Blackcaps
moved ahead of me as I approached the big Willows surrounding the fishing lake
at Slough House. I did not try to gain
entry but hopefully I may be able to do so in the future via a friend who has
access. He saw three young Cuckoos along
the back edge the following day that must have fledged almost at the same time.
The invisible lake was bordered by the aforementioned
willows but then by an amazing buffer strip of Nettles, Thistles and Ox Tongue
that must have been 20m wide on three sides.
It was alive with insects with many more Butterflies, Bees and Hovers
and a few Migrant Hawkers and Darters.
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| Helophilus pendulus on Bristly Ox Tongue |
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| Bristly Ox Tongue |
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The Buffer
|
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Perennial Sow Thistle
|
The old barn tucked among the modern ones had Barn Owl
pellets so that bodes well too. I
continued down China Lane a ways before cutting through a Wheat field (with a
path) to Footpath 142 where I crossed the sluggish Mardyke.
A male Banded Demoiselle posed for me but I think it was too
choked for Scarce Chaser that I had seen about a mile downstream. The adjacent field was a sea of yellow
Oxtongue with a couple of old Oaks stationed in the middle. Four more male Yellowhammers were in song and
trekked back north where the grassy margins had more Meadow Browns and a single
Marbled White.
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| Banded Demoiselle |
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| Salsify |
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Small Tortoiseshell
|
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The Mardyke is down there somewhere
|
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| Yellowhammer |
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Marbled White
|
The Mar Dyke veered away
from me again as I headed back up to West Horndon pausing only to have a good
look at a raised carp lake near Tillingham Hall that looked very welcoming with
its Lesser Reedmace and Phragmites margins with Water Mint, Sedges, Fleabane
and Gypsywort. However to my surprise I
only saw two brief Emperors and no Damsels and not a single bird.
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Gypsywort
|
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Lesser Reedmace
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I crossed the last barren Wheat field back up to the main
road and cut back to my car. I was wet
from the waist down having had to wade through the grass and wet from the waist
up through the surprisingly warm morning sunshine on a predicted cloudy day!
From here I headed up to the A127 and then down onto Canvey
for a play in the famous Dragonfly Ditch.
I did not take long to get there and I was soon in amongst the Blue Eyed
Hawker action. In fact I only walked a
couple of hundred metres of the ditch and still saw 17 male and three female
BEHs while countless Scarce Emeralds (Robust Spreadwings as we call them in Lesvos) and a couple of Commons were seen in the
sedges. I did not look too hard for
Southerns this time though.
I spent my time trying for flight shots of the male Blue
Eyes and was pleasantly surprised but the results once again. They truly are a stunning Dragon and it is wonderful
that they now part of our Thameside insect fauna.
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Just how I got so many in focus male Blue eyed Hawkers I do not know
|
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| Scarce Emeralds |
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| Scarce Emerald |
The Clegs were not much of a problem and after a fairly
close encounter with the inquisitive cow herd I decided to amble back passing a
couple of Six Spot Burnets on the Teasels on the way as well as my first Lesser
Marsh Grasshoppers of the year amongst Field and Meadow.
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| Lesser
Marsh Grasshopper |
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| Six Spot Burnet |
From here it was time for a lunch pick up and then onto
Canvey Wick where amazingly, as usual I bumped into Richard Stanley and the
litter crew. It does not matter which
RSPB site I visit down here, Richard always seems to be where I chose to go and
after chewing the fat I pottered off around this most strange of places.
As usual the visit was insect centric with plenty of Hover
action with a couple of tiny Paragus, Chrysotoxum festivum and Eristalinus
sepulchralis the pick and amongst the Hymenoptera there were some feisty Bee
Wolves which allowed me the chance of some more aerial shots, Anthophora
bimaculata, Dasypoda hirtipes and Cerceris rybyensis. I saw quite a few other small species,
especially on the sandy area but I really do need someone to guide me in the
field with bees and I am lost for the most part as to where to start.
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| Eristalinus
sepulchralis |
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Helophilus pendulus
|
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| Chrysotoxum festivum |
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The tiny Paragus sp
|
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| Chrysotoxum festivum |
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| Beewolf - Philanthus triangulum |
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Unknown small Wasp
|
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| An unknown large Megachile sp |
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An unknown large Megachile sp
|
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Bombus terrestris
|
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Dasypoda hirtipes - male I believe
|
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| Dasypoda hirtipes - male I believe |
There were a few Butterflies and Silver Ys, a beady eyed
Onocera semirubella along with Six spot Burnets on the Marjoram. The only big Dragonflies that I saw were
Migrant Hawkers.
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| Gatekeeper |
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Small Copper
|
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Common Blue
|
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| Six spot Burnet |
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| Six spot Burnets |
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| Onocera semirubella |
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| Silver Y |
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Unknown Fly
|
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Field Grasshopper
|
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Long-winged Conehead
|
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Kentish Snail
|
Clumps of the naturalised Rose Campion dotted the site along with three Ragwort types, Large Flowered Evening Primrose, some Scentless
Mayweed that had grown very tall, a fine yellow Sedum, Broad-leaved Sweet Pea, Jersey
Cudweed and a solitary clump of Ploughman’s Spikneard.
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| Rose Campion |
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| Large Flowered Evening Primrose |
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| Broad-leaved Sweet Pea |
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| Ploughman’s Spikneard |
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| Jersey
Cudweed |
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| Hemp Agrimony |
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| Scentless
Mayweed |
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| Sedum sp |
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Blue Fleabane
|
Young Sparrowhawks could be heard whining from the Birches
and the sound of Curlews drifted up from Holehaven Creek.
With the clouds scooting in from the south west and the
temperature dropping I cut my losses for the day.
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