It was a day of ferocious north-westerly wind, and as the Naze promontory is perched in the top right hand corner of Essex, we took the full brunt of it on our latest Wild Side of Essex day trip. Strong, gusty and cold, the wind-chilled temperature barely lifted above freezing, and given the wall-to-wall, dawn-’til-dusk lowering cloud, we were thankful at least it wasn’t raining!

The weather really suppressed bird activity. In the clifftop scrub, a couple of bands of Long-tailed Tits contained a few Blue Tits and Goldcrests, while Blackbirds and a single Song Thrush flew away in panic, presumably at seeing people on such an inhuman day. And even the usually reliably noisy Cetti’s Warblers could only muster a few staccato ‘chip’s.

Sadly it was the same on both the open foreshore and in the Backwaters, most wildfowl and waders no doubt seeking shelter well into the heart of the estuary. Just a sprinkling of Grey Plovers, Dunlins, Redshanks, Oystercatchers and Curlews showed their heads above the parapet, and even then the wind was too strong to hold binoculars still. Only the Brent Geese proved hardy (as befits their high Siberian breeding area), with some 500 seen in flocks at rest or being whisked past on the wind.

So it was left to the rest of the natural world to provide our wildlife fix for the day, at least those things unaffected by the wind. Gorse was looking splendid just heading to its peak flowering, in more clement weather the saviour of winter-emerging pollinators.

Lingering summer flowers included the very last Hog’s Fennel (a real  local speciality), Sea Mayweed on the sea wall and Sea Rocket on the low dunes.

On the saltmarsh, just a few Golden Samphire flowers remained, but we all got to savour the smell of the crushed leaves (more than a hint of diesel or shoe-polish). Similarly, Stinking Iris in the scrub edge, with bright orange berries was subjected to the scrunch-and-sniff test: this one roast beef or Bovril.

And despite the best efforts of the waves, Shrubby Seablite was still clinging on, thriving even, in adversity.

Lichens on tree bark are always fascinating, and the yellow Sunburst Lichens on Elder branches lived up to their name, a ray of light on a Grade A grey day….

Despite the freezing weather two weeks ago, grassland fungi were still coming up, especially Snowy Waxcaps, while growing out of seemingly most Cord-grass flower spikes were the horn-like fruiting bodies of Cord-grass Ergot.

Silver Birches also produced their share of the fungal interest, from Taphrina witches’-broom galls in the branches, to Birch Brackets (the nemesis of many a mature birch) and Turkey-tails on dead limbs.

And the of course wholly oblivious to the weather there was the geology of the cliffs and fossils on the beach, telling tales of ancient subtropical lagoons, distant volcanos, continental collisions, the meandering Thames, climatic instability, periglacial dust clouds and (right up to modern times) the erosive battle between land and sea…

All that and a spot of extreme picnicking, clustered in the shelter of a Blackthorn hedge, under an Evergreen Oak. What’s not to love about the Essex coast  at its most elemental!