Wildlife of the Bollin Valley
What to Look Out for in November and December
Winter. Long cold nights, short cold wet days, less food. How do plants and animals cope?
Hibernate
The unique solution! Hedgehogs and bats feed up in autumn, then just tick over until spring.
Grey Squirrels, however lie up in bad weather but come out to forage for food on good days.
Their nests (dreys) are visible in the trees now.
We notice evergreens because deciduous trees and shrubs are effectively hibernating too.
Rhododendrons, laurel, holly, bramble and ivy have thickish waxy leaves.
There are two types of needle-leaved evergreens:
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Pines and Cedars have long cylindrical needles in groups of two, three or five
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Spruce, Fir and Yew have shorter, flattened single needles |
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But Cypresses and Wellingtonias have scale-like leaves |
Take a Winter Holiday
Summer Visitors, eg swallows, left long ago. But some birds come here to escape even worse weather in their breeding grounds further north.
Look out for:
mixed flocks of redwings and fieldfares, probing the fields for insects and taking hips and haws
goldfinches with resident and visiting siskin and redpoll in birch and alder trees
bramblings joining chaffinches to feed on fallen beech mast
Wear Something Warmer
A long-tailed tit fluffed up against the cold.
Thin, worn feathers were replaced at the end-of-summer moult.
The new ones, with waterproof tips but downy at the base, give good insulation.
Use Antifreeze
Most herbaceous plants keep some green leaves all through the winter. If their sap froze, it would expand and damage the plant's tissue. So, as winter comes on, extra sugars are dissolved in their cell sap, to keep it liquid even sub-zero.
Eat Plenty
Fallen acorns, hazel nuts, beech mast and sycamore keys abound.
The way these hazel nuts have been nibbled is the clue to who's been having a feast:
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cracked open lengthways by a squirrel |
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gnawed down, teeth marks inside - bank vole |
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neat, round hole, teeth marks outside - wood mouse |
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long, jagged hole made by a water vole |
Fleshy, often bright fruits (hips, haws, holly, honeysuckle, bittersweet, bryony, elder, sloe) attract birds and animals which then spread the seeds in their droppings.
A few plants eg daisy, gorse, common chickweed, groundsel, red dead nettle, flower all year round, but winter flies and moths depend on ivy which flowers from September to March.
