Nature Notes December

Date Published: 02-01-2019

December was mostly wet and windy, mainly mild, but with a few overnight frosts.

SIGHTINGS
Birds: Carrion Crows, Magpies, Jays, Black-headed Gulls, Common Gulls, Tawny Owl, Sparrowhawk, Green/Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Wood Pigeons, Nuthatches, Wrens, Robins. Blackbirds, Song Thrushes, Dunnocks, Bullfinches, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Coal/Blue/Great/Long-tailed Tits, Siskins.
Mammals: Grey Squirrels.
Insects/Spiders: Midges, Bees, Garden Spiders, Sheet Web Spiders.
Plants: Holly Berries, Ivy Seed Heads.
Fungi: Birch Polypore, Lichen.

The inclement weather did not encourage much movement on the Reserve.
Tawny Owls were heard calling.

NATURE FACT
Although our native Scots Pine is the most widely planted species, there are three foreign introductions which are frequently planted in the British Isles. These are the Lodgepole and Monterey Pines from North America and the Corsican Pine from Southern Europe. Pines are valuable to the forester because they grow quickly and produce timber that can be felled sooner than our native deciduous trees. Conifers in general, and Pines in particular, have excited considerable interest for a variety of reasons. For landowners the stately forms of well-grown Pines are an attractive ornamental feature of parks and gardens and, because they retain their foliage, they are effective windbreaks throughout the year. Many species live and feed on Pines.

Recorder: C. Wilcox

Scots Pine picture (image by C Wilcox)