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.

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.

IS AUTUMN SET TO BE WARMEST ON RECORD?

The autumn warmth is showing little sign of fading, which could help make this year’s autumn one if the warmest on record.

Fog, mild nights and the odd wet and windy day have all served to delay migrating birds and the arrival of birds in the garden to feast on the offerings.

The latter because there is seemingly plenty of natural food in the surrounding countryside, which is good to know.

Despite reports of flocks of goldfinch being seen in increasing numbers in garden around the country, the garden in front of the house has hardly seen any.

I know they’re close by because I see small flocks when down the lane, but the amount of forays into the garden is minimal. Perhaps when the colder weather arrives it’ll signal the arrival of more goldfinches in the garden – I’m hoping so!

The hedgehog has still not made an appearance and I doubt we’ll see it again, but I do hope it’s found an area to forage and keep warm.

One thing the weather has brought this autumn is all the leaves from the trees and bushes. It’s good news for the garden as it provides food for worms and other small animals, along with nourishing natural food for next year’s growing flora.

One day last week a sparrowhawk was chastened by a group of jackdaws, before taking shelter in the garden.

It’s wonderful to see such a beautiful bird near the house, natural behaviour of other birds towards it, while appreciating the terror an bird of prey causes smaller birds.

A SLOW START TO AUTUMN

It’s definitely autumn, but someone might remind the season itself as the usually autumnal weather isn’t really taking affect.

The worms in the garden are finding the leaves blown to the ground, on the odd windy day, quite useful, but we’re nearly in November and the traditional conditions of strong winds and heavy rain have stayed away.

It does mean that while the summer visitors (swifts, swallows and house martins etc.) have long gone, the autumnal migrants – both to the UK and the garden – are not exactly here in big numbers.

Perhaps the new series of BBC’s Autumnwatch will herald the arrival of normal autumnal weather.

The garden is looking fairly bare in terms of bird numbers and variety; even the blackbirds, robins and tits (great and blue) are infrequently seen.

The house and tree sparrows are hardly in the garden at all, which has all meant the bird feeders do not have to be topped up very often.

Snow and ice are ‘predicted’ by some weather forecasters, but this seems to be the case every year.

If it does come true (that’s a very big IF) then the garden and the feeders could see the odd unusual visitor.

Three birds are on the list to be seen this winter – long tailed tit, redwing and fieldfare. The former usually visits in flocks every winter, but the other two have never been seen in the garden.

They have been spotted nearby, so this year there will be some keen eyes focused on the red berries and fat snacks, just in case.

Finally, Spike the hedgehog has still not been spotted, although it’s too early to put up ‘dead or alive’ posters.

IS AUTUMN REMINISCING ABOUT SUMMER?

The swifts, swallows and house martins have all gone long since, but autumn appears to be still holding a candle for summer; well it certainly feels like that with the recent warm weather

Ok, so the sunny days have been replaced by the occasional cool night, but it’s still good to see the sun, rather than the wind and rain we usually associate with autumn.

I know, it’ll be wet and windy soon enough, but for now let’s be happy with the current conditions.

In the garden it’s a similar theme, with birds stalling in their feeding habits, preferring the open countryside and hedgerows, to the comforts of garden hand-outs.

The garden has mainly seen small flocks of house sparrows, with the occasional tree sparrow, great tit, blue tit and dunnock present at the fat snack and peanut feeder.

But in general these visits are frequent or for very long, with robins, blackbirds and magpies hardly ever seen.

The garden will only become a ‘real’ food station when it is visited by a flock of long tailed tits, and not one had been seen since very early in the year.

The food supplies are now stocked up, so when colder weather does hit and the birds come calling, there will be plenty to go around.

Until then I’m sure everyone is happy with the current climate.