Saturday afternoon took me and my good friend Becky up to
Heybridge Basin near Maldon, in the car to hone my driving skills. It lies
where a canal meets the River Blackwater, effectively the estuary of the river
Chelmer in North Essex. We parked up in
the free, council run car park on a grey afternoon, and wandered down a short
length of canal to the village which stands beside the ‘basin,’ a sort of
parking area and maintenance yard for canal boats. There were a number of Common Terns fishing around the spot where the fresh water of the canal passes
through lock gates into the Blackwater.
A few black-headed gulls were there too, more powerful birds than the
terns in many ways, which kept out of their way. The Black-headed gulls did not
compete with the Terns in the grace and style stakes though, the forked tailed,
almost angelic “sea swallows” made the larids look dumpy and inelegant. That said, the last time Bexx and I had met Terns, on a sunny day in Northumberland almost exactly a year previously, they had attacked us. We were in the Farne Islands, and on one of the islands they just dive bombed any visitor stepping withing the colony, making contact with their beaks! Terns look pointy at the best of times. When they're going for the top of your head they are very pointy indeed. Today, however, they just allowed us to stand impressed by grace and fishing prowess.
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| Beautiful Common Tern. |
The salt marsh which borders the estuary separating Hebridge
from the historic town of Maldon was alive, the vegetation was green and though
of course the wintering birds are long gone, and the Autumn passage migrants
yet (but soon) to arrive in any numbers, the peeping calls of Oystercatchers
regularly broke through, and, as we walked the sound of Gulls became louder. A lone Little Egret shook his feet in the shallow, muddy water, and moved with elegant high-stepping motion across the mud. He seemed to dislike having a camera pointed at him and was soon on the wing, steadily, almost casually, making his exit from view across the saltmarsh.
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| Little Egret at Heybridge |
A
number of old sand or gravel pits near Heybridge, between the canal and the
Blackwater, have been turned over to nature, and black headed gulls, apparently
in their hundreds, have taken to nesting on the small, gravelly islands. Tufted
Ducks were about, some of the males still in their striking black and white but
some turning over into their duller eclipse plumage, as were some of the drake
mallards which were about too. A few swallows were hunting insects, sweeping
around near the waters surface and over its grassy margins, never appearing to
cross the Blackwater. A cormorant flew
overhead, straight and true, a jet-black adult.
There were a few Whitethroats and Acrocephalus spp. warblers singing in
the bushes and lakeside vegetation, but passerine activity was a little
disappointing, a couple of greenfinches flew over our heads. I’d seen a cuckoo
there a couple of years ago, with my father who always seems to find cuckoos,
but there wasn’t one about today. This breeze probably wasn’t helping, and nor
was the cold.
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| View of the River Blackwater from Heybridge. |
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Maldon’s sea front is dominated by bright
building fronts, an old church and the wide Marine Park, the fountains of which
could be seen from across the river. A stretch of tidal river, lined with lush
saltmarshes, separates it from Heybridge. Here a number of shelducks filter-fed
in the mud, and a couple more of these lovely, big white and black ducks flew
over. Shelducks congregate in Northern Germany to moult, evidently these birds
had yet to leave, and retained their smart breeding plumage, which includes an
iridescent green head and red bill, and a chestnut band around their chests, in
both sexes. These handsome birds
specialise in life around river estuaries, and are common in places like this
but scarce in other habitats, some wintering on gravel pits, but rarely far
from the coast.
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| Maldon |
Maldon is a pretty town, when viewed from back here, and today there was some
live music coming out of it, apparently from one of the towns old pubs. Its sea front is dominated by bright building
fronts, an old church and the wide Marine Park, the fountains of which could be
seen from across the river. As the sky began spitting rain on us, I wondered if
a boat over the river would be a good plan.
We walked on, past several cute, small rabbits, and reached a bank of
spectacular, and very photogenic wild flowers.
These bordered some new build housing, presumably a backwater of the
one-horse town of Heybridge. Perhaps
they had been put down as a seed mix as mitigation for the loss of habitat
resultant from the building. Poppies nodded in the wind, beside camomile and
some of the most brilliantly electric blue cornflowers I have ever seen. The
flowers were popular with bees, and I wondered if more invertebrate fauna might
be forthcoming were the weather a little less grey, and becoming colder.
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| A wildflower mix. Instant wildlife for developers. |
Luckily the rain continued to hold off as we walked back up the canal to the
free car park which stands by it. We passed the narrowboats on the canal, which
looked far more charming than the millionaires’ motor yachts which sat
alongside more elegant sailing craft in the Basin itself. Although the two,
appropriately nautically-themed pubs looked appealing for a glass of branded
cola and a warm up, we had a dinner invitation in Witham to take up. Oh yeah,
because I can drive now. Which is win.
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| Black Headed Gull at Heybridge Basin. These breed in substantial numbers on the old gravel pits. |
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