CHRISTMAS CHILL CAME NOT THIS YEAR

Christmas has come and gone, and I missed the opportunity to update this blog due to work, pre-Christmas activity and then being struck down by flu.

I do, however, still manage to ensure the birds were fed, as often as possible, although they probably didn’t need as much support compared to previous Christmas’, mainly due to it being fairly mild.

So mild in some parts of the UK that we in Scotland it reached a low of almost 17c, AT NIGHT. While it’s not unusual for us to get the temperature in December, it’s certainly unusual for it to happen at night, as this BBC report explains.

Nothing much has happened in the garden over the last few weeks, although the relatively benign conditions are probably one of the reasons why the flu bug is has been creating havoc!

The wildlife has benefited in that natural death rates at night will be low and food will be fairly easy to find, with water also not a problem.

I’ll be clearing out the nest boxes in the next week or so, before I decide whether to hook up new cameras – I might just get one new one for the original nest box.

Over the first few weeks of 2020, I’ll reflect on 2019 and how the garden changes, so be prepared for some images.

It’ll give the weather time to get cold and bring us some snow, good for killing bugs and helping the next breeding season avoid too much death through little bugs.

FROSTS BITE HARD AS WINTER DARKNESS CLOSES IN

The first hard frosts since February hit the garden recently, although one bird has been very vocal during the cold spell.

Walking around the garden and down the lanes around the house, I’ve listened and seen a number of robins defending their territories.

The robin, whose territory includes my garden, has been very vocal recently, and it only needs me to be in the garden for a matter of minutes before he’s close by, hoping to catch a quick and easy meal via my presence.

Life in the garden is definitely tough at the moment; the leaves have fallen from the trees (apart from the evergreens), the ivy has stopped growing and the food in the bird feeders is reducing quicker than any time in the last eight months.

I’ve spent some time walking up and down the lane recently, and there’s often a flock of redwings and fieldfares knocking around, sometimes with blackbirds on the outskirts of the group.

It’s great to see birds that are not around in the summer, the winter equivalent of our summer swallows – albeit I slightly favour the swallows!

One thing that has surprised me is the strawberry plant producing fruit (only two though) in the last week.

Each strawberry was not quite fully red, and didn’t look particularly appetising or edible, but it shows the capacity of the plant to produce in the colder months.

As we head towards Christmas, the darkest days of the year approach, so the wildlife will be paying particular focus on the weather conditions, as will us humans.