In Britain, the spring weather follows a fairly consistent pattern. The warmer days of February and early March tend to be followed by a short cold spell at the end of March. This cold snap coincides with the flowering of the blackthorn, hence its country name: the Blackthorn Winter.
This year has followed the tradtional pattern. The last few weeks have been sunny and relatively warm, but yesterday we had squally hail showers and today there was a ground frost in the morning. The Blackthorn Winter has arrived.
I’ve been working a fairly hectic schedule recently (as usual!) and I’ve also been on holiday, so I took the chance of getting out and about on one of my Sunday dawn walks. Getting out of bed wasn’t so easy, as dawn is now about 6.30am, although because the clocks went forward this morning that translates to 5.30am in real terms. Nevertheless, it was good to get out again. It’s become quite a comforting routine for me.
Despite the cold weather, there are signs of spring everywhere. The lambs in the fields are getting quite big now.
Frogspawn has started to appear in the pond – not much yet, but hopefully there’ll be more to come.
In terms of wildlife, one of the fields had been invaded by a gang of geese. They were mostly Greylags, with a few Canada Geese joining in. Not a rarity, but it’s the first time I’ve seen them in the village.
The badgers in the woods seem to be doing fine. Judging by the quantity of dung in the latrines they’re obviously busy at the moment. In fact, I was able to add a few more sites to my expanding map of badger latrines in the area. This is starting to make some sense now, and I can get a rough idea of the different territories. Perhaps come the autumn I’ll try the bait marking approach that Pablo mentioned, putting out food containing coloured plastic pellets so I can monitor the precise latrine sites used by different badger clans. As I always say, there’s always more to learn about badgers.
April is nearly on us, so in another couple of weeks I’ll start proper badger watching again. Watch this space for more details.
It may be a blackthorn winter but I can’t remember a time when the blackthorn has bloomed so well in Dorset. It’s white flowers are everywhere at the moment, with a backdrop of green leaves from the hawthorns. Absolutely stunning.
Hi Jane – it sounds like a fantastic sight. I must admit to being slightly jealous, as at the moment only about half of the blackthorn here is in flower, but it’s still good to see the hedgerows looking bright and alive again.
And congratulations, by the way!
These notes have been a joy all winter, especially as my life seems to be so busy at the moment I hardly noticed the snowdrops in early Spring. Couple of comments though relating to previous notes: couple of months back staying back in Herefordshire I remarked that I never heard or saw an owl any more, (20 years ago one heard them every night). The next day there was a Little Owl on a tree.
The Grim Reaper: sadly returning from Herefordshire one Sunday afternoon I counted 8 dead badgers on the side of the road. There is a theory though that as they are protected they sometimes killed elsewhere, and then the bodies dumped on the road side to look like a RTA?
8 dead badgers in one journey OMFG!
thats carnage
as for dumping bodies – I cant see that , the perps of badger murder seldom leave much recognisable after death by terrier – many like to keep trophies – skulls , feet , pelt etc
I dont like where this is taking us , (disturbing youtube videos!)
HUMAN STATS
The total number of road casualties of all severities fell by 3 per cent between 2004 and 2005 to approximately 271,000 in Great Britain. This compares with an annual average of approximately 320,000 for the years 1994-98 and 324,000 in 1984.
I think that may be quite proportional – but stats can say anything…………….
I guess the human roadkill must get cleaned up more quickly – theres definitely more than badger .
Hi there Hedgehogfan – good to hear from you.
Nice to hear about the Little Owls too. The wildlife coincidence has got you! I remember camping up on the Welsh border in Herefordshire a few years back, sitting in my tent at night and listening to the owls calling across the valleys – magical!
As for the badgers on the roads, I’ve heard about the theory that they’ve been dumped, but I think the sad truth is that they are just the victims of road accidents. I think that far more get killed on the roads than people realise.
The three badgers I’ve seen by the roads out here were definitely accident victims. They had no injuries (apart from being dead), so I think the obvious explanation is probably the correct one.
This time of year is a bad one for badgers on the road. Check out the discussions on the Wild About Britain forum, and Michael Clark in his book ‘Badgers’ says that March is the peak time for road deaths.
If nothing else, I guess it shows that there’s still a healthy population out there. Mind you, I wish badgers would learn some road sense.
Aaaah that is what it is , Blackthorn, it is all over the hedgerows in Surrey and on our bit of common land in Ham…a glorious sight!!!!
Hi Sue
Yes, it does seem to be a good year for the Blackthorn. I agree – it’s a great sight in the hedgerows.
All the best
BWM