Wakering & District
Natural History Society

Bluehouse Farm

Report by Richard Kirton

Sunday 28th August 2005

Ten of us turned up on this idyllic Sunday afternoon with a blue sky and hot sun, cooled by a welcome gentle breeze. We decided that the toss of a coin should decide our route and since my wife Beryl did not give me any spending money, we had to use John’s coin. Most of us were obviously thinking of the next photographic competition since there were many cameras. John was sporting his birthday present, a new Kodak digital camera with 10x zoom.

We walked towards the river with the black timber clad farmhouse on our left. The back door of this house was bright red and Mavis commented that the painter must have had too much paint since lots of other things were the same colour red. Before reaching the river we saw a common blue butterfly and when we reached the river we followed the bank in the direction of Burnham. We saw many dragonflies, damselflies and grass hoppers and several of us were keen to take some close ups. The tide was on its way out and we saw some samphire and seablite the other side of the bank. We could see redshank close to the shore line along with a pied wagtail.

There were several other walkers out this afternoon and there were two speed boats on the river, one of them pulling some people in a rubber dinghy. It wasn’t long before the dinghy had overturned.

There was a cormorant flying along the river towards Battlesbridge and Barry noticed an old lifeboat heading along the river in the same direction. A ‘Wildlife Cruises’ sign prompted Barry to suggest that it might be Brian Dawson since there were several watchers on board. This was confirmed when both John and Barry looked through their cameras with their 10x zoom lenses. Brian Dawson who was at the helm was obviously on the way back to his mooring at Battlesbridge where his old barge ‘Hazel May’ is moored.

When we reached the first hide there were only two people inside. As soon as we all went inside they decided to move on and it was obvious that we had disturbed their peace and quiet. From the hide we could see three little egrets and many teal and mallard. On reaching the second hide we found it was empty and we all went inside. There was very little to see but as we left a whimbrel appeared.

We all agreed that it was a most enjoyable afternoon. As we turned off the track onto the main road in North Fambridge, Cliff, Doreen, Mavis and Joyce headed left in the direction of the village pub. A few yards further up, Gill and John had stopped outside a house. We pulled up alongside thinking that they wanted to talk to us but they had been invited to tea at their friend’s house.

As it was a beautiful evening, Barry, Helen, Beryl and myself decided to take a little refreshment at the Windmill Tavern in East Hanningfield. Whilst we were there we leaned that England had just beaten Australia at Cricket. A great end to a wonderful afternoon and evening even though we were not treated to an abundance of wildlife.

Note: Blue House Farm is a working farm which was purchased by the Essex Wildlife Trust in 1998 with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and many other donors. Main entrance to the farm is accessed via a track approximately 250 yards south of North Fambridge station.