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.

WILL SPRING BRING DOMESTIC BLISS FOR THE HOUSE SPARROWS?

We’ve had a few quiet nights in the occupied nest box, with just the female house sparrow roosting.

Of course it was all very different at the start of the week when the male house sparrow was being quiet vicious to the female.

As you can see from the images, this was more like cage fighting than wrestling, although the female did fight back once or twice. They even managed to start fighting again while still asleep, after nodding off.

 

I’m still unsure as to whether the female and male are partners, of if this is an unattached male bird trying to steal the nest box or the female.

As for the nest, it’s a very slow process so I’m presuming that warm spring days are still a few weeks away.
 

There are now plenty of bulbs coming through, adding a touch of colour to certain areas of the garden. As you can see below the difference a couple of weeks makes is quite something.

The weather has helped recently, with the odd mild early spring day. But cooler, or even colder, weather appears to be still capable of unleashing itself on us.

And this time of year the odd Atlantic storm can also cause major problems for wildlife and humans. Even sedentary garden birds can be affected, so not just those who make journeys to breed.

In general the same birds are visiting the garden, with very few unusual visitors. I think this means there’s enough food away from my handouts to keep them going.

GOODBYE WINTER, HELLO SPRING

The mild winter has now officially finished as March 1^st heralded the start of spring, but the last week of winter showed clear signs of spring already having arrived.

More and more spring bulbs are showing and flowering, which are brightening up the garden, while the blossom on the fruit tree is almost covering each branch and twig.

Unfortunately the two nest box cameras have not had any activity, with the birds seemingly happy to roost elsewhere with the mild winter evenings.

Typically spring has started with a mixture of sunshine and showers, although some would say it’s a refreshing change from the winter storms.

Once the temperatures starts creeping up and the sun shines for even longer during the increasing daylight hours, I’m sure the flora and fauna will be frantically active and I may even see some activity in the nest boxes.

Until then I’ll keep providing food for the birds, they’ll keep gobbling it up and I’ll enjoy the spring bulbs emerging.

I’ll also be planning for the planting season and hope the ground I’ve prepared over winter will deliver bumper crops.