Nature Notes February 2025
Date Published: 01-03-2025
A month of grey skies, strong winds and periods of heavy rain, with only the last couple of days improving.
SIGHTINGS
Birds (seen or heard): Carrion Crows, Magpies, Jays, Buzzards, Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Tawny Owls, Sparrowhawk, Great-Spotted Woodpeckers, Wood Pigeons, Nuthatches, Siskins, Wrens, Goldcrest, Robins, Blackbirds, Dunnocks, Chaffinches, Bullfinches, Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Coal/Blue/Great/Long-tailed Tits.
Insects: Midges, Buff-tailed Bees.
Mammals: Grey Squirrels, Mole activity, Fox, Hedgehogs.
Plants in flower/berry: Common Gorse, Catkins, Cotoneaster.
Many birds were observed in courtship.
Several species of birds already visiting nest boxes on site.
Early sightings of Hedgehogs, probably due to the mild temperatures seen throughout the month.
NATURE FACT
Late Winter and early Spring is the time of year when most Catkins start to open out. On many trees, particularly Willows and Hazels, they emerge before the new season’s leaves to take full advantage of the wind to disperse their pollen. A Catkin is a structure consisting of many extremely small flowers in which the petals and sepals (bud scales) are usually absent. These structures are necessary to insect-pollinated flowers since they help to attract insects. But they are not needed by Catkin which are mostly wind pollinated.
Recorders: C. Wilcox K. Wilcox
SITE MANAGEMENT
The work party carried out clearance along the main drainage ditch near the West Moors Road woodland, cutting young scrub that is starting to encroach on the path as well as continuing to thin out Holly within the woodland itself.
Catkins Image by K Wilcox
