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.

WINTER IS ON ITS WAY, AS AUTUMNAL FROSTS ARRIVE

The garden has already seen a couple of frosts this year, but the influx of birds has yet to appear.

The garden feeders are being utilised, mainly by a few blue tits, the odd robin and great tits. Other birds are appearing infrequently.

One exciting development recently has been the appearance of a male sparrowhawk.

It was spotted on top of an outbuilding next to the house, and it appeared to be gathering itself after a failed hunt.

It look inexperienced so likely one that was born this year, but there’s hope in the house that it’ll keep making appearances in the future.

Of course that might mean negative news for the smaller garden birds, however it does mean there is a depth to the food chain in the area, with the top predator not being cats!

The next job in the garden is to clean out the nest boxes and make them ready for winter roosting. Checking the cameras are still operating will also be part of the process.

The flora in the garden has gained a new lease of live, with a large lily flowering, along with the rose bush.

The rose bush flowered in every month last year, and has done the same this year, proving it can withstand the rigours of all seasons.

It also means there’s a food source for any insects still hanging around before winter, and for those that appear early in spring on warmer days.

Once again the signs of lack of food in the surrounding countryside is likely to be signalled by the arrival of long tailed tits at the garden feeders, although there’s sadly little hope for any waxwings, redwings or other winter visitors given the history of not appearing.

THE LONG ROAD THROUGH WINTER BEGINS

Autumn has managed to get through most of the season with mild weather, but the road to cold winter weather is well underway.

Snow has been seen in some parts of the country and in the last few days further reports of snow are being made.

But now overnight frosts are now becoming the norm and the wildlife is taking more refuge in and around the garden.

The bird feeders are being visited by more and more birds, and I’m sure a number of small mammals are nicking a few peanuts at night.

It’s hard to see which birds are coming along, with the dark mornings and evenings, so the weekend is the only time they can be counted and seen.

Will the garden be visited by fieldfares, redwings or waxwings? A hope remains, but given the scarcity in recent winters, it’s not too high.

There is probably more hope of seeing snow, which would prove more popular in the house (with the children) than the wildlife outside.

However it’ll be much easier to see which animals are visiting the garden!

WINTER COLD INSTEAD OF AUTUMNAL STORMS

Finding a suitably warm and safe place to roost during the long, cold winter nights is something small birds in particular need to find.

The small number of house sparrows that have been roosting above the front door for weeks now, and despite the leaves falling off they appear to be sticking it out.

Most are now congregating around the outflow pipe from the bathroom, which must offer some warmth because of the heat from baths and showers.

They’ll probably be forced to find another roost site suitable for the depths of winter, but perhaps the conifer hedge, just a few feet away will afford the right warmth and protection form the nuisance local cats.

It’s expected that the garden will start to fill with more birds in the coming weeks, as the lure of ‘free’ food becomes too much, particularly as natural supplies diminish.

The usual winter visits from the long tailed tits must surely be coming soon, and the elusive redwings, fieldfares and the even more elusive waxwings are still to be sighted in the garden in a decade.

Next weekend the nest boxes will be checked, cleaned and the cameras given a quick look over, ready for the potential winter roosting birds.

Fingers crossed the birds don’t block the cameras up or technology fails and delivers infrequent or no video feed.

Then there’s the added problem of birds being sensitive to the cameras and only nesting in boxes with out cameras.

Until then it’ll be interesting to see who all wildlife in the garden will cope with the onset of the cold winter conditions, that is until an autumnal storm comes along.

WINTER TEMPTATIONS NOT ATTRACTING USUAL WINTER VISITORS

This weekend the garden had three pairs of human eyes looking out for birds, although they weren’t the only eyes looking at the garden. There was also by a pair of cat eyes – an unwelcome sight for everyone else.

Once the cat was chased off the counting began; the first tick in the box came for the… grey squirrel, which was quite ironic as we’d not seen one for a couple of months!

But the usual suspects started turning up soon after and within an hour we’d seen most of the birds we see during a weekend.

House sparrow – 8

Tree sparrow – 5

Blue tit – 4

Goldfinch – 4

Dunnock – 4

Blackbird – 3

Robin – 2

Great tit – 2

Magpie – 2

Wren – 1

Unfortunately no long tailed tits, great spotted woodpeckers or starlings, but I know they’re around.

The new nest box has been up for a week and it now has one of the cameras inside it. I hope it will not put off the birds like it has done in in one of the boxes in the triple sparrow nest box.

There is hope for it because it does have a pitched roof, which can house the camera and not interfere with nest building or even put any birds of nesting there.

The only location for the nest box is underneath the triple sparrow nest box, and hopefully the ivy growing up the wall will act as a cover to the entrance. It could even keep the noise down from the noisy sparrow neighbours!

With winter only showing glimpses of its might, sometimes just for a night of low (ish) temperatures before reaching 10c or more the next day, it’s no wonder not many fieldfares, redwings and other wintering birds haven’t been seen.

Instead tulips, crocuses, daffodils and snowdrops are all either growing or flowering. It’s great adding colour to the garden in January, but I fear winter has one big icy blast up its sleeve.

And given the odd report of swallows wintering in the UK and ducklings being born in December and January, I hope no garden birds decide to start the breeding season early and get caught out by winter finally getting its act together.

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?

WINTER IS ON ITS WAY

After a very mild autumn, the first signs of winter have led to frosts, cold winds and even snow in places.

There’s not been any snow, or very little sign of frost, in the garden, but the small birds have been flocking to the feeders.

The flock of house sparrows seems to be increasing in numbers, while the blue tits and great tits are spending more time in and around the peanut feeder.

I’ve also noticed a robin spending plenty of time on selected perches around the garden, sometimes singing, but mainly watching out for other robins and opportunities for grabbing some food from the feeders.

The temporary greenhouse was blown over in the recent and while moving it to the garage for winter storage, I found a huge number of slugs and snails seemingly trying to hide out the cold.

I safely moved them to the green waste bin so they can spend the winter somewhere else and not spend next spring and summer munching on the garden plants and vegetables.

Each day brings more leaves from the trees and it’s now much easier to spot the birds on the branches, but the down side is there’s not much daylight to be able to do this.

I’m hoping that as we go in to December and the weather gets colder, we start to see the likes of fieldfares, redwings and the now more common jays in the garden

This should increase the chances of the local sparrowhawks entering the airspace above the garden and the battle for survival in the coldest and darkest time of the year.