Nature Notes January 2022
Well, here we are again, having to be careful of where we go and who we see because of coronavirus, but it does make close encounters with wildlife all the more special. Such as the cock Bullfinch sitting in the large Rose bush by our kitchen window one frosty morning, as he warmed himself in the sunshine; his reddish pink breast glowing in the bright light. He sat there for several minutes amongst our local gang of House Sparrows, before flying off to investigate the seeds of the Guelder Rose bush in the front garden. Just before Christmas my father and I watched a Stoat chasing a Rabbit around his garden. Initially, we saw the Rabbit streak across the lawn, hotly pursued by the Stoat, itself a long streak of sandy brown fur, with a black tassel to its tail. Shortly afterwards the Rabbit raced back the way it had come but with the Stoat even closer behind. When the Rabbit hurtled back and shot down a narrow path between flower beds, instead of following, the Stoat raced round by another route to cut off its escape. That was the end of our sighting so we suspect that the Stoat caught its meal. In the same vein, I heard that during last year, a Polecat was filmed taking Frogs from a pond in Reepham! How amazing is that!
More mundanely, during a walk along Furze Lane on another morning of clear blue skies, we were delighted to see Hazel catkins already in flower and blowing in the wind: a promise of spring to come. There was also a small flock of Yellowhammers feeding on weed seeds in a field grazed by sheep. This area is part of an organic farm, meaning that weeds are not sprayed out of existence and so provide winter food for seed eating farmland birds. Numbers of these birds have declined dramatically in recent years, such that even a small flock is good news.
When days are dull and damp, we will sometimes put on wellies and splodge muddily round Booton Common. On one such walk, we came upon a little gem, attached to the underside of a rotting log. It was a 1cm. long spire snail, which looked the kind of thing that would be cast up on an exotic beach. It has ten turns to its spire, each one smaller than the one below. It was a Door Snail, so called because the entrance to the shell is an upright rectangle! Not that we pulled it off its log to look.
Do let me know if you see anything of interest rachel.42rr@btinternet.com