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EFC Centre at Wat Tyler Country ParkOur centre is available for visits on a pre-booked basis on Wednesdays between 10am - 4pm. The Club’s activities and displays are also usually open to the public on the first Saturday of the month 11am - 4pm.

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Essex Field Club
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This forum has now been more or less replaced by the Club's Facebook page at
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The weblog below is for naturalists to use to report interesting sightings, ask questions, report on field meetings and generally post pictures and any information or questions generally relevant in some way to the wildlife and geology of Essex. You will need to register and be logged-on to post to the forum, and you need to upload pictures first, for use in posts. Find out more


Wed 5th February 2014 19:18 by Mary Smith
Spring around the corner? You must be joking!
When the waters subside, we might get some spring, but not yet! I feel for those sheep, getting their legs and trousers wet at Blue House Farm. Sheep have been put out on reclaimed marshland for centuries, and when it gets very wet the sheep hate it, but the cows don't seem so worried. In 1953 I lived on the north Kent coast, with Seasalter marshes and Graveney marshes very close by. When the sea came in at night, some of the animals could reach higher ground, as these reclaimed marshes had odd humps that the local people thought were tumuli (old burial places) until one was found with a Viking longboat in it! Anyway, animals that could reach these, stood on them, and they were all rescued within a couple of days, with no harm done. But there were large high fences separating different groups of animals, and animals so enclosed all drowned, as there was no higher ground within the fences. The water was over 2 metres deep, higher than the now just-submerged fences, and it stayed like that for months. I was told that the bodies were near the fences, mostly, so they had clearly swum to get away, but were foiled as they tried to cross the barbed wire fences. So I feel for those sheep on the marshes at Blue House Farm. Most herbivores are pretty stupid, as you don't have to be clever to eat green plants, but you have to be clever enough to foil a predator, mostly by running away.  But, I am told, that sheep in Wales have learned to stand by a gate, another sheep climbs on its back and can then hop over the gate. Most of that flock will follow, leaving the poor first one behind, away from its friends! They are clearly not all as stupid as we might suppose, apart from the one that stands by the gate, as he/she is trapped inside!
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