Elsea Park Nature notes – Winter 2009/10

by Peter Ellis - Trust Groundsman

December and January will be remembered for their spectacular snowfall and big freeze. The meadows and surrounding countryside looked magical; sadly many of our smaller birds and wildlife will have suffered. It is important to keep bird feeders well stocked, and bird baths ice-free, we may get more snow and frost later. (Global Warming is beginning to have its attractions!)

Nature must have known we were going to get a bad winter going by the abundance of berries available, which were soon devoured by the Migrant Fieldfares and Red- Wings and native Blackbirds and Thrushes.

Continue to keep feeders topped up because when the weather does warm up, those birds that have survived will be preparing for the breeding season. When you walk across the meadows, you should soon hear Woodpeckers having a drumming competition in the woods. Song Thrushes and some Blackbirds are already singing claiming their chosen territories. Blackbirds are one of our earliest to nest, and you will soon see them gathering nesting material, keep an eye on your nest box.   Listen out for the Robins and Wrens. Wrens generally silent during the winter will start to call for a mate, they have an incredibly strong song for such a small bird, and we have a large number of these on the meadow at present.

This time of year we have bird ringing taking place by the feeding station, this is done by registered bird ringers depending on the weather.  This has taken place since 2006 and up to date records have been kept. It is an important part of bird conservation as it is a reliable and harmless method of identifying birds as individuals. RSPB can monitor populations’ breeding habits and survival rates and much more. If you happen to find a injured or dead bird with a ring on its leg please notify me so that the details can be forwarded on, remember if you see a healthy wild bird wearing a ring (feeding on your bird table for example) you will know its been recorded.

Look! For grey squirrels in and around Math and Elsea wood, they begin to mate in January and February chasing and frolicking along the ground and through the bare trees chattering as they go.

 In December/ January as night fell did you hear the dog fox barking or the loud screams of a vixen (female)? This is their individual way of finding a mate; their cubs will be born in March.

The hazel’s catkins will soon be out, they are the male flowers of the plant, at a close look you will see the tiny red filaments of the female flower appearing along the branches, the wind blows the pollen from the catkins, to fertilise these flowers and hopefully we should have an abundance of hazel nuts for me and the squirrels. In early March look for the first signs of the white flowers of the Blackthorn, which appear before the leaves along the hedgerows, which are commonly  mistaken for the Hawthorn (May) which will flower later, (as the saying goes - don’t cast a clout till May is out).

A major de-silting operation took place on both Tadpole and Heron Ponds; this was last done in 2004 when the new weirs were built. It is vital to remove the build up of silt, to remove the overgrown vegetation as this allows the free flow of water and keeps the water at the required depth for the aquatics. I am pleased with the result; a first class job was undertaken by Mr M Bacon plant hire.