Description

Join Dr Chris Gibson for a week of guided wildlife watching around his home patch in northeast Essex, based at the delightful Wivenhoe House Hotel, near Colchester.

From birds to botany, galls to geology, and landscape history to modern conservation, this tour will lift the lid on the sometimes surprising ‘wild side of Essex’.

Chris has lived and worked in the area for 30 years and his career involved the care and protection of the wildlife and wild places in the region. Chris is a passionate champion for wild Essex and he will delight in showing you some of the best locations for wildlife, in a range of habitats. These will include ancient woodland, historic parkland & gardens, salt marshes, dunes, estuaries, meadows, and more!

The break has been designed for participants to self-drive to daily meeting points or make use of the local public transport network. This is particularly useful during the current times of social distancing that we must all consider in our daily lives.

The tour will focus across the broad spectrum of flora and fauna but being early autumn, we can expect to spend a fair amount of time on birds, fungi, trees, late season flowers, and insects. We may even be able to find fossils, during our visit to the sea cliffs at The Naze, at Walton.

Chris will also be giving a 45 minute slide presentation one evening, entitled ‘Wildlife & Conservation of the Essex Coast’, based on his 30+ years’ experience of doing just that.

We also intend to include an evening outdoor session, for bat watching and moth trapping.

If you wish to discover the wild side of Essex, you can’t be in better company!