We passed from the sheep cropped grazing land and into heather moor, to be greeted by a red grouse call, a loud, far carrying, barking laugh. Red grouse droppings are fibrous, tubular and brown with one end tipped with white. They occurred in piles in little hollows between the ling, mosses and bilberry. This delightful bird is declining in numbers due to loss of heather moorland and possible disease. Land demand for forestry and expanded grazing intakes has significantly reduced our national store of high quality moor; the red grouse inevitably suffers too. Work in uplands across the UK has sought to reverse this trend, I wished them all well as we allowed the sun to set before strolling down into the dusk.
I knew the winter would end when a white tailed Bumblebee swung by whilst I was otherwise pre-occupied. It was the 5th February and combined with the white nodding clumps of snowdrops I had seen earlier that day I was reassured that spring was making its annual return. Bumble bees form a new colony each year; it is only the mated queens that survive the winter. My improbable aerial visitor was searching for a handy mouse-hole or tussock base to make this years nest. A set of wax cells to rear the next generation is wrapped in a ball of grass and moss. Bumblebees collect pollen in large baskets on their back legs, which they feed to their young. Since 1945 95% of our ancient meadows and pastures have been lost and alongside this shocking figure of floral bereavement we have seen the extinction of such species as the short haired bumblebee. I made a mental note to open up a new bed in the garden and finally sow the boxes of insect friendly wild flowers that I had bought at the end of last summer to do my bit for our bee friends.
Powerful full blue skies accompanied a number of final winter working days in the woods, racing through the wooding to avoid trampling the spring display. Our toiling reverie was broken by the crashing sprint of a pair of roe deer pursued by a black Labrador. Roe deer are grey brown in winter and when alarmed their rump fluffs up like a powder puff. The dog worked hard whilst the deer pronged their way easily into the distance, we stared slack jawed taking at this mesmerising sight.
As one of our co-respondents discovered this winter it is worth travelling to a wildlife hotspot.
Coed y Dinas is a purpose made wetland nature reserve and even on a wet Saturday offered up Tufted duck, Wigeon, Teal, Lapwing and a very handsome Goosander. The pools can be found just outside Welshpool, a visionary project of the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust, intimate and with handy parking and a hide for birding in the dry.
In stark contrast to the delightful bobbing waterfowl earlier at their home a grim predator had made its deadly move. A reconnoitre by the Sparrowhawk in previous weeks paid off in a noisy pounce on a luckless blackbird. This sad loss was partially balanced by an infrequent visit of a Redpoll, also seen recently in a friends Shrewsbury garden. A result of the wide range of foodstuffs on this local bird table, sunflower hearts and Niger seed helping to draw in these pretty red capped residents, usually found feasting in seeding birch stands.
Winter I know has not left us yet but I sense a growing excitement as the spring signals its return, I think a visit to Coed y Dinas will help bring it all closer.
Wishing you happy animal adventures, yours Pete.
If you would like to share your wildlife sightings please contact me on petewoodman@thewoods12.fsnet.co.uk.
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