Our snowdrops were late this year. By mid-January the white ‘drops’ were showing and ready to blossom. And then nothing happened. From a combination of frosts and wet, they remained frozen at this bud stage right until the end of the month. They are only peaking now, at the start of the second week in February, and at least two weeks later than usual. The same was true of winter aconites, normally shining bright above their green ruffs by mid-January, but this year deciding to wait until the end of the month. Hazel catkins, too, stayed where they were, although, by February, trees in full sun were cascades of yellow ‘lamb’s-tails’, releasing puffs of yellow pollen with the least breath of wind.
One has to visit overgrown woods at this time of year to realise just how over-run with deer we are. Their tracks, left by the herds as they crocodile through the woods, are everywhere. Walking in the Marridge Hill area we spotted two herds of fallow deer, one with around 30 animals, the other with over 50, and including an albino. These were mixed herds, with bucks as well as hinds. More usually they separate, but I’m told that they often join forces when feeding on agricultural land. Our chequerboard landscape of copses and open fields are just right for these deer, all of which are descendants of park deer, once enclosed in places like Littlecote and Ramsbury Manor.
We now have a date for the opening meeting of our proposed Ramsbury Wildlife Group. Please mark it in your diaries: it is Monday 27 March at 7.30 in the Memorial Hall – at the start of spring. Entrance is free (there will be a paying bar). Paul Swan (Bird Notes) will be in the chair, so to speak, and I will give a talk. Let’s try and give our new group a rollicking good start!
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