Nature Notes

The unseasonal mild weather continued through the month but changed to colder temperatures in the last week, bringing sleet showers and frost. Another quiet winter month for recordings.

SIGHTINGS
Birds: Magpies, Carrion Crows, Wood Pigeons, Jays, Herring Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Heron, Green/Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Sparrowhawk, Blackbirds, Robins, Dunnocks, Song Thrushes, Siskins, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Chaffinches, Bullfinches, Wrens, Goldcrest, Nuthatches, Coal/Blue/Great/Long-tailed Tits.
Plants: Gorse in flower.
Mammals: Grey Squirrels.
A pair of Bullfinches which produced five young last Spring/Summer, are again active in their territory, visiting garden feeders along the Hazelwood fenceline. A sighting of a Goldcrest was very welcome, as few sightings were recorded last year when many were lost following a harsh spell of winter weather. Birds continue to night roost in the nest boxes on site. Any required repairs or replacement nesting boxes have been made during January.

Nature Fact

The Goldcrest is our smallest British bird measuring 9cm. A very small hyperactive species that always seems to be on the move. It feeds among branches and will sometimes hover to snatch food from the undersides of leaves. Outside the breeding season it often joins flocks of other small birds such as Tits