Rippingale nature columnist talks about impact of snow and ice on wildlife particularly at RSPB Frampton Marsh near Boston
As I write we have experienced two bites of severe winter weather, writes Rippingale nature columnist Ian Misselbrook.
A short cold spell brought a little snow back in November but the arrival of a whole series of troublesome weather throughout most of the first half of January brought misery to some. A few centimetres of snow on January 4 and 5 was followed by heavy rain resulting in widespread flooding, sadly including damage to many homes and businesses.
This was followed by a prolonged period of sharp frosts and very cold temperatures by day and night.
So, what effect has this weather had on our wildlife? Well, some of the Scandinavian thrushes that I wrote about a few weeks ago, especially redwings, left our area to find milder conditions further south. The birds that remained became increasingly dependant on the food and water that we put out for them. I put out a wide range of food for the birds including fat balls and blocks, peanuts, high energy seed mixtures as well as fruit and scraps. Trying to maintain a supply of unfrozen water was not easy. The number of birds species feeding in the garden rose from about a dozen to the mid-twenties and included a blackcap and the first song thrush for a few months.
The blackbird population is augmented by arrivals from the continent and they are particularly attracted to any apples that are put out. A friend of mine did just that and was amused by the behaviour of dominant blackbird that spent all his energy chasing off the other blackbirds that had come to join the feast. Considering that there was a plentiful supply, this aggressive behaviour was unnecessary.
Another story that I heard during the cold spell, was that the beaters on a pheasant shoot were perplexed that despite their best efforts, the pheasants were flying the wrong way. It turned out that a fox was driving the pheasants the other way! Whether in hope of killing some birds itself or picking up some shot birds we will never know.
Some areas of marsh and open water remained frozen all day on several occasions. Many of the wildfowl and waders left but the remaining birds were in peril from two causes. The first and most obvious is the inability to feed. Frozen water certainly prevented many ducks from feeding, but these birds were also more vulnerable to predation; both from ground predators such as foxes and badgers walking across the ice at night and aerial predators such as harriers, buzzards and peregrines, taking advantage of the duck’s difficulty in taking off from frozen surfaces. I witnessed a female peregrine feasting on an unfortunate duck that she had caught on the ice.