February 2015

Now that the days are slowly stretching, nature is responding by pushing up the bulb shoots, extending the hazel catkins and swelling the leaf buds on some of the understory trees and shrubs.  It will not be long before we see frog spawn in the ponds, snowdrops in flower and after that the first celandines. Already the cow parsley is growing to catch the early-year low sunshine which can penetrate the stands of naked deciduous trees.  It pays for understory plants to leaf early before the large deciduous trees steal from them the strong rays of summer sun with their dense canopy of broad leaves.  Sometimes, these leaves can be totally defoliated by thousands of caterpillars, and for a time the sun can get through.  However, the caterpillars are not there for long, and soon pupate before becoming moths or butterflies.  Then the trees have a second flush of leaves, often known as Lammas growth in July and August as it coincides with the Christian Celtic harvest festival of Lammas or loaf mass (August 1st).

Anyway, back to February.  It is cold, and wet, often windy, occasionally snowy, and the wildlife is having a hard time.  Wood pigeons are harvesting the rich crop of ivy berries, often hanging upside down to get at them.  The thrushes and blackbirds are still seeking out the remaining holly, rowan and hawthorn berries to keep themselves sustained in the harsh weather.  It is usually no good searching for earthworms, because the top few centimetres of soil are often frozen, and the worms have gone down deep.  However, some gulls have learned that when it is not freezing, they can bring up a rich harvest of earthworms by paddling on the soil with their webbed feet which causes the worms to come to the surface where they can be grabbed for a ready meal.  Some say that the paddling action of the gulls feet make the worms think it is raining, because worms like to rain-bathe, that is to stretch out on the surface of the soil during a rain storm and let the water wash over them.  Earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris) are just one of around 10,000 species of oligochaete (meaning many bristles) worms as earthworms have rows of tiny bristles along their length which help them to move through the soil. Many oligochaetes are aquatic.  Indeed if you disturb a rain bathing earthworm at night with a torch you may be surprised how quickly it can retreat back into its burrow!