With the shortest day thankfully behind us, spring isn’t far away. Spring is signalled in the form of birdsong. The usual communication calls of birds are joined by the songs of territorial birds claiming their space and advertising for mates. Apart from robins (both male and female sing over the winter), bird song is usually delayed until late-December or even until the New Year. For months the sound of robins defending their territories has been the only true song we have heard. Great tits joined in during the last week of December. Listen out for blackbird, mistle thrush and song thrush song over the next few weeks. The starlings, chaffinches and greenfinches that will join the chorus later are still gathered in flocks – there is still the rest of the winter to get through before nesting! Listen out for great-spotted woodpeckers drumming on the trees – if the weather remains mild it’s possible to hear them in January.
Keep an eye out for wrens, which will often crowd together to roost in favoured sites in large numbers to conserve heat. Nest boxes are often used – more than 50 birds have been found in a single box at night. Listen out for the hoots of tawny owls. Like robins they have already paired up and have set up their territories. The crossbill, a coniferous woodland finch, is now nesting making it the earliest nesting British bird. Nests are situated high up in pine trees and can be very difficult to spot. Eggs are laid at this time of year because the crossbills’ main food, pinecone seeds, become available for the first time in the depths of winter. If cone crops are good, crossbills can easily gather enough to feed themselves and their nestlings. Most of the early nestlings fledge this month. Another bird found in the conifer plantations is the goldcrest – Europe’s smallest bird. Our resident population is boosted in winter by immigrants arriving from colder conditions in the north. Firecrests are often spotted in amongst flocks of goldcrest. Firecrests look very similar but are identifiable by their black and white eye stripe. They are chiefly a passage migrant seen in autumn and winter, although have been recorded regularly for the past two years during the Spring also. Siskin have been recorded during the autumn and winter in the alders around the lake.
There are small finch, blackbird, jackdaw, starling and redwing roosts in the Park – the latter are the smaller of the two winter-visiting thrushes (the larger is the fieldfare) that stream in from Europe. They feed on invertebrates for as long as they can, but when the ground freezes they transfer to fruit. They flock to berries, hips, haws and windfalls. Because they are so conservative in their tastes redwings often starve to death while other thrushes are seen tucking into kitchen scraps, fat and seeds.
Keep an eye open for woodcock this month. They lie low in damp woods, not taking off until you almost walk on top of them. They are more evident at the moment, their numbers swelled by visiting birds from the frozen North and Scandinavia.
On the mammal front, now is a good time to see roe deer, foxes and stoats as they search for food. The foxes and squirrels breeding season is currently underway. Listen out for foxes mating calls during the night; the most eerie is the vixen’s scream announcing that she is ready to mate. During mild winters amphibians such as frogs and toads have started to spawn this month.
The Douglas fir timber has now been removed and all the paths should be open by mid-January. Many thanks for your patience – December’s weather delayed the path restoration works.