IS WINTER GOING TO TURN UP?

Unseasonal, mild and temperate are just some of the words that could be used to describe the weather so far this winter.

Whatever word or words are used it won't make any difference to how the wildlife, flora and fauna, is sensing the conditions.

With daffodils and tulips showing themselves and some tress starting to blossom, it’s surely not going to be long until birds start building nests, which for nearly all will inevitably be a disaster.

Cold weather is surely going to come sooner or later and that means the wildlife will be in for a big shock.

Currently it means that the likelihood of seeing traditional winter visitors (fieldfare and redwing along with the local long tailed tit families) is virtually nil while this mild weather persists.

It also means the traditional pattern of the natural world will be out of sync.

The garden lawn will have to be cut again in January, which means it could be cut in every month of the year if the same is required in February.

The big question as we head in to another year is will the cold weather arrive before nature is in full on spring mode?

HAS SPRING ALREADY SPRUNG? SOME FLORA THINKS SO

Winter continues to be mild, with near record temperatures for December days and nights being recorded across the UK.

The warmth is seemingly keeping many birds away from the garden and the free handouts, because natural food – including insects – is still in plentiful supply.

And the unseasonably mild weather isn’t just affecting the birds, the flora is also confused and seems to think it’s spring already.

The garden is already seeing spring bulbs emerge, while some trees nearby are already starting to blossom. The wild strawberry plant is even producing strawberries and the rose bush has fresh flowers emerging.

Can it continue? The likely answer is no because January and February are the traditional cold months of the year and for the good of nature it’s also good to have a few weeks of really cold weather.

There had been hope of the odd sighting of a fieldfare or redwing in the garden, but even the blue and great tits are not seen as often as usual.

The forecast is for the conditions to be fairly similar over at least the next week, so perhaps it’ll be 2016 before cold (and snow) starts to come to the garden.

Next on the agenda is cleaning out the nest boxes, so when the cold weather does arrive there will be a clean(ish) place for the local small birds to roost in.

In previous years the camera has witnessed roosting blue tits, great tits and house sparrows as early as December, but not this year!

Have a great Christmas and hopefully the next blog will have images of roosting winter birds.

A MILD WINTER?

It’s not exactly been a cold start to winter, although typically the coldest weather is normally reserved for January and February.

This is likely to be having an effect on the birds coming in to the garden, because they have not been in the numbers I would normally expect.

The big peanut feeder in the garden hasn’t needed topping up for a week and thoughts are turning to another reason why birds aren’t in the garden much – the local cats!

Between three houses there are seven cats, but one house feeds stray cats which increases the number to double figures.

The daily sight of at least two cats with small animals in their mouths is very unnerving and it’s not a good sign for the local wildlife population.

Cats eating rodents means that food for owls, foxes and kestrels will be in short supply, so they’ll move on, removing the area of apex predators. This will then increase the non-rodent populations of animals that will not be kept in check by the cats.

It’s really sad that people seem to have little or no respect for the area they live in; if you move to a rural location, make sure you respect it and don’t introduce a domesticated predator en-masse to a small area; it ruins it for wildlife and the people who have moved there because of it.

Cats aren’t welcome in the garden, although stopping them is almost impossible. The fact they think other gardens are free to use as their toilet is quite frankly disgusting and shows their owners have a complete disregard for humans, in particular children who might play in gardens and not understand the dangers of cat poo.

Anyway rant over.

While it’s still mild then many insects are active, including the spiders in the ivy and flies that keep coming into the house. A cold winter helps control such creatures, and many more besides, so here’s hoping that after Christmas the cold weather arrives.

Added to that is the increased risk of snow, which means snowmen, snowball fights and sledging! Bring on the snow.