STORMY BUT MILD WINTER

Further stormy weather has left people and wildlife with problems over the festive period – not that the wildlife knows much about the festivities.

I’m noticing an increase in the small birds taking shelter in the garden, particularly when the really wet and windy weather sets in.

While this weather provides certain problems for wildlife, the really cold weather of winter will give wildlife even bigger problems because of the lack of food and unfrozen clean water.

Of course the cold weather is yet to arrive and the winter has been fairly mild so far – even if some people think it has been very cold already.

I think I’ve only had five frosts on my car and none were particularly bad.

The one thing the wind does is move the leaves that I’d placed on the borders – as a protection blanket from the cold weather – and also some of the horse manure too.

It means a little bit of extra work to put everything back and provide cover for the small wildlife from the cold and ensure a plentiful supply of food when the breeding season starts in spring.

The next job for the garden is installing the second nest box camera in the sparrow nest box and hope they use it again in 2014. I suspect one of the three sections that make up the nest box will be used because of the number of tree and house sparrows that flock in to the garden every day.

Time will tell, although I’ll be waiting for the wind to stop before getting up my ladder to fix the camera!

RARE WINTER VISITOR IN MY GARDEN

The snow may not have hit us, well apart from the highest mountains, but the wind and rain have certainly made their presence felt.

Watching the weather forecast for the next week and Christmas, it looks like we’ll all get hit by storm after storm, which isn’t good for us or the wildlife we share our space with.

While many people would rather we did without the cold, snow and ice, I rather enjoy these conditions in winter – it shouldn’t happen in spring or autumn for me though.

It gives the chance for wildlife to rest, for bugs to be killed off and for us to enjoy watching trails of wildlife that may have passed in our gardens or on our streets during the night.

Today I watched a first in my garden as a pair of redwing scouted around for food. I can’t recall a time when I’ve seen them anywhere near my house, so today was a real treat.

They only stayed for about ten minutes, but I hope they return during the rest of winter.

The blue tits and great tits are now regulars on my feeders, while the house sparrows and tree sparrows continue to visit daily.

A robin is starting to call from the trees and bushes, presumably staking my garden as part of his territory.

The blackbirds are also returning, although other birds are still reluctant to venture from the natural food supplies.

I’m really looking forward to when the long tailed tits make a visit, as they show that winter is really with us and the natural food supply is low.

Until then I’ll be on the lookout for more redwing and even the odd fieldfare. I think a waxwing is probably out of the question.

STORMY WEATHER BRINGS CHAOS TO WILDLIFE

It’s been a week of shocking weather that has badly affected our wildlife.

Firstly the extremely strong winds that battered the country, swiftly followed by the storm surge that has hit both humans and wildlife.

Hundreds of grey seal pups washed away along the North Sea coasts and I’m sure many birds have been blown off course or away from their intended targets.

My garden hasn’t seen too much negativity, apart from the temporary greenhouse that blew over and the dead leaves that I’d covered the borders with being blown all over the place – more work to fix that required.

What has happened has been more birds frequenting the feeders in the garden since the weather abated.

Throughout the weekend the visits from blue tits, great tits, robins, blackbirds, dunnocks, tree sparrows and house sparrows has increased rapidly.

The weather hasn’t got colder so I can only assume that the strong winds meant they didn’t want to travel far and a good food supply, that is found in my garden, with good areas of cover is the best place to be for now.

Perhaps next week they’ll disperse into the countryside again and utilise the natural food supply – only time will tell.

Christmas is just over two weeks away, but it doesn’t have the feel of winter and therefore Christmas just yet – then again maybe that’s just me.

It means that the final vegetable in my garden will be excavated and hopefully enjoyed by the family during the Christmas Day meal. Once the parnsips are dug up I’ll put some pics up to show whether it’s been a success.

As for the weather, it looks like a mild(ish) week and fairly quiet for the wildlife, which is not too bad after last week’s one in 200 year event!

IS WINTER COMING THIS YEAR?

December is already upon us, but we’re yet to see any really cold weather engulf the country.

There is promised to be a short spell of cold weather, not very cold, this weekend, although that is not expected to last too long.

So what affect will this mild-ish start to winter have on our flora and fauna?

Last weekend I saw flowers emerging from one of the garden bushes, which is highly unusual, and I’m wondering if my horse manure and leaf covered borders and rockery will simply give all the bulbs I planted a false warning about spring.

The rose bush that forms a hedge to one part of the garden has also produced flowers in the last week and while most of the trees have dropped their leaves, I do think some of our plants could be hit by the bitter coldness of winter just when they think it’s spring.

This isn’t something I’m concerned about with the birds, although they still aren’t coming in to the garden in large numbers despite plenty of food for them.

The odd blue tit, great tit, robin and blackbird have been seen feeding, but it’s still mainly the house and tree sparrows making use of my feeders.

I’ll soon know when it’s tough for them because the long tailed tits will visit the garden that is when I really know the natural food supply is in short stock.

One bird I’ve seen a lot of recently, although at a distancer in the field next to my garden, is a whimbrel - at least I think it is. I’ve seen it feeding in groups of up to ten for about a week now and intend to get some pictures when I’m here in the daytime and have more time to use the diminishing daylight to get some snaps. I'll also be taking my binoculars to make sure my thoughts are correct.

Until then I’ll keep an eye on the weather forecast and see how long it takes the small birds to flock to my feeders.