Nature notes January 2020 - A new year, what will it bring?

January: the month that just goes on and on and on... Actually, as my birthday is mid-month I don't mind it at all, but the still-dark days after all the celebrations of Christmas can seem to last forever. Happily, if you're a nature lover there are always lots of things to enjoy!

The year here started off generally quite mild and damp. Then Storm Brendan arrived and deposited quite a lot of rain. The River Great Ouse was in flood, as it generally is on these occasions, and the flood meadows (and flood defences) all seemed to be doing their jobs.

In amongst the damp days we had the occasional cold snap, with a heavy frost and clear blue skies. Always a good plan to get out for a walk, and there was lots to see: a flock of fieldfares and starlings, a buzzard silhouetted in a small tree, reed buntings along the ditches, and a fab pair or goldcrests in the hawthorn and blackthorn hedges along the bridleway. The sticky mud of the bridleway was full of tracks - people, dogs, horses and muntjac deer. And a kestrel surveyed a paddock from a telegraph pole in the afternoon sunshine.

Every year for the past decade or so I've kept a list of birds that I see or hear from the house or garden, and I usually get to the end the year with a count of fifty-something species (2014 was my best year so far with 58).

So far, as of the end of January, I've seen/heard 28 different bird species from the house and garden. In order of appearance they are: woodpigeon, house sparrow, blue tit, starling, dunnock, robin, blackbird, song thrush, great tit, carrion crow, magpie, herring gull, stock dove, collared dove, wren, goldfinch, jackdaw, chaffinch, coal tit, greenfinch, treecreeper, great spotted woodpecker, kestrel, long-tailed tit, red kite, goldcrest, green woodpecker and pheasant. Twenty-eight in January is a good start, and I'm looking forward to seeing the summer visitors!

And finally, the last weekend in the month saw the RSPB's Big Garden Bird Watch. The weather seemed better than last year, but the birds were definitely lurking - I counted for an hour and saw 13 individuals of just six different species. Still, an hour well spent!