Our annual Dawn Chorus walk today, and the weather could hardly have been better. Well, it could have been a touch warmer, but the clear sky and windless conditions made for easy listening.

As we stepped out of the flat, first birds in the near-pitch-black were Oystercatchers peeping as they flew downriver, followed shortly by a hooting Tawny Owl and a couple of Nightingales from across the river Colne in Fingringhoe.

Our small group assembled under the lights of the station, where Robins had probably been singing all night, but at 0430 their voices were swelling and mixing with the mellifluity of the Blackbirds, perhaps four of each audible close to the car park.

Progressing along the trail towards Colchester, a Cuckoo (actually our first of the year) joined the choir from Ferry Marsh, the first of at least three male Cuckoos in the two-hour walk.

By now Wivenhoe Wood was coming alive with Wrens, Great and Blue Tits and, significantly, three or more Song Thrushes taking centre-stage with the background ululation of Woodpigeons. Five years ago, you would have been hard-pressed to hear one Song Thrush – just goes to show how nature can recover if the human pressures (slug pellets in this case) are removed. These rays of hope are essential at a time when it would be all to easy to sink in the mire of ecoanxiety… Then it was time for the summer visitors to get out of bed, with Chiffchaffs and eventually Blackcaps entering the arena.

Light levels increased, and the mist rolled in, an inversion layer so solid  you could almost touch it. A Greenshank called along muddy margins, and as we approached the turning point of the walk, Skylarks from both sides of the river sprinkled the air with their stardust. Sedge Warblers too, if a little less euphoniously, along with Common and Lesser Whitethroats for comparison, and we knew we could do no better when a Nightingale in full Robin-like pose at the top of a tree serenaded us in an apparent duet with Cetti’s Warbler.

The sun rose. The songs continued, but it was time to head back. From Ferry Marsh sea wall, Rowhedge sparkled as if washed clean by the mist,  Reed and Sedge Warblers sang side-by-side for comparison, and at least five more Cetti’s Warblers angrily complaining about the state of the world.

And so the walk drew to a close, a lovely bird-filled couple of hours. But not just birds: Muntjac barking and Foxes scenting the air, the saltmarshes starting to bloom with English Scurvy-grass, trees gleaming orange coated in Trentepohlia, and spiders’ webs glistening with their captured droplets of mist…

Finally, best bird for me, and one of the first we heard: twenty past four, still dark, and the air shrilled to the sound of Swifts moving north low over the town. Rarely have I heard them screaming in the dark before. First Swifts of the year always thrill as the start of Summer, and to hear them arriving under cover of the night, pure magic!

A rather murky February morning saw us and our enthusiastic group gather for our annual foray to Cockayne’s Nature Reserve. Well-managed by the Cockaynes Wood Trust, this is one of Wivenhoe’s best kept secrets – a tranquil place comprising two sections of wood, with open areas of heathland and ponds in between and which supports a vast variety of wildlife.

Prior to 1986 it had been one continuous stretch of wood but, due to its importance as a sand and gravel resource, was at that time earmarked for destruction and extraction.  Fortunately, the sand and gravel company asked for Chris’ professional advice as to how retain some features to be ‘best for wildlife’.  The presence of two rare species – the Scarlet Elf-cup fungus (that area being the only known north-east Essex record at that time, and probably still to this date) and Heather (very scarce in Essex) – shaped the final plans and areas containing these were spared the chainsaw. Happenstance is not a great conservation policy, but sometimes as here it works, sowing the seeds of the reserve we see today.

Not only that, the resulting pits from which the gravel was dug were saved from landfill, and allowed to remain open, naturally fill with water and vegetation and have become important habitats for birds, both local and migrating.  Birds using the lakes on our visit included the relatively rare Water Rail with its ‘squealing pig’ call – these nestle in reedy beds and are rarely seen. Plants including our two types of Reedmace sit happily side-by-side in the lakes, both providing abundant seeds for birds.

Around the reserve, open heathland is developing well, rewilding itself after the traumas of gravel extraction. It really repays getting down low to see the grey, bristle-branched cushions of Reindeer Lichen, and unique to this time of year the gloriously orange mini-forests of Juniper Hair-cap moss sporophytes.

Whilst sunshine would have been lovely, the still, damp air made the woods most atmospheric, and we were accompanied by the thrice-repeated call of the Song Thrush (a bird which has suffered horrendously through use of slug pellets which poison its food, and therefore it), and two types of Woodpecker, Green and Great Spotted. Bright green mosses carpeted fallen branches and trunks, along with Turkey-tail fungi, and provided swathes of colour, while the little grey-green spikes of Bluebell leaves were spearing through the leaf-mould, and the spring-greens of Cow Parsley – a joyous tapestry of greens all lighting up the banks of Sixpenny Brook.

We were on the look-out for Signs of Spring and were rewarded with the male catkins and female flowers of Hazel, wonderful golden curtains en masse, Gorse flowers and the just-flowering buds of  Pussy Willow.

A few flowers on the woodland floor were beginning to raise their heads, including Lesser Celandines, just about poking through their marvellously marbled leaves.

Otherwise, plants included Red Dead-nettles (one of the species that welcomes the first-emerging bees of the year) and as we walked up Ballast Quay Lane, flowering shrubs like Winter Jasmine, proving just how important wildlife-sensitive planting can help our gardens to ‘improve on Nature’ at this low-point time of year for the British landscape.

Given the time of year and temperature, we  were not expecting to find much in the way of invertebrate life, but we did find a spider curled up on a rush flowerhead,  Larinoides cornutus. 

As always we are grateful for local charities including Essex Wildlife Trust (recipients of our donation today) and the Cockaynes Trust for looking after increasingly important sites such as these, for us and future generations to enjoy.