The last few weeks of 2012 have indeed been wild, weatherwise, with torrential rain or continuous drizzle, strong gales and racing clouds over land under water.
Look up from the mud and get a glimpse of the blue sky.
The oaks, looking so bare, are actually teeming with life
during the winter, supporting a huge variety of invertebrates which
in turn provide a rich food supply for birds.
An old oak in the evening light, its shape formed by the weather.
Tuesday 18th December, an interlude - it was very damp but hadn't rained, the landscape lit by watery sunshine and the wind turning through WNW, the rivers swift and muddy but the floodwater had fast receded since Friday leaving the steep banks even more scoured and depositing piles of leaves, branches and twigs on the riverside in drifts like seaweed on the seashore. The cheerful sound of a flock of starlings came from one of the old oaks on the bank with more arriving to join in the whistling chorus (40). A fieldfare flew into a hedge thicket which led me to glimpse two more through the branches. Berries and fruits are scarce this year so it's unlikely that we'll see the large numbers that visited last winter. A jay flew into the same oak as the starlings and was followed by two magpies, then another. Great tits could be seen foraging in another oak, with more foraging on the river banks and in thickets, one or two calling (35). Restless blue tits ranged between the oaks and thickets everywhere, just counting them working their way along the river at all levels...quite a few! (c99). Blackbirds too were scattered along the riverside, some busy flicking aside piles of fallen leaves, rich pickings as the ground was soft and others foraging on the river mud (17), a single song thrush with them.
Apart from the starlings, robins (14) were the only birds singing loudly, they have done well this year, wet weather was not a problem and produced an abundance of food when young were being fed. House sparrows (c30) were as usual chattering in their hawthorn hedges and sheltered bramble thickets.
Down on the river a moorhen was dabbling where the current was not so strong, they prefer to keep well out of sight under the banks. A mallard pair flew across, looking for a calm backwater where they could feed and not get washed downstream. Wrens, silent except for the occasional loud alarm call were visible only when they flew across low over the water (4) and dunnocks foraging on the river banks amongst grasses and reeds swept flat by the force of the water were only visible when they too moved (4). Calls from the branches directly overhead revealed a group of foraging long-tailed tits (11) which try to seek out trees sheltered from the wind, being tiny birds, not strong fliers. Goldfinches in a small group (5) flew over in search of seeds, following three chaffinches into a dense thicket where a bullfinch was calling but didn't show itself. The Blackthorn is still very popular with birds even though it holds no sloes, these having been stripped earlier this winter. A group of trees nearby forms an ideal woodland area, perfect habitat with a diversity of heights from understorey to the top branches of the tallest trees, plenty of mosses, dead wood and tangled brambles, holly and ivy. There are far too many woodlands that are managed out of existence, allowed no understorey, where no fallen branches or dead wood are allowed to lie and are not surprisingly devoid of wildlife, empty of song and nests all year.
Here amongst the old oaks and ash, nuthatches were active, busy collecting and storing food - these are birds which always remember where they cached their autumn haul.(4) Tiny movements amongst the brambles - two goldcrests hovering to feed on small insects or perhaps the small seeds of the remaining dried-up berries. Two more were seen very high up in a conifer, their more usual habitat.
Out over the field a kestrel hovered, lit by the low sun, and another dropped down over the back of a hedgerow, then up again swiftly.
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