A couple of inches of snow appeared on the 20th November, turning the whole site into a beautiful winter wonderland. The dead angelica plants and burial posts were topped with pom poms of snow and there are lots of wonderful photos on our Facebook page, kindly provided by the aptly named ‘Snows’!
By the 22nd of November the snow had cleared. The starlings had arrived the week before. They replaced the leaves on the trees! With the abundance of starlings, we were able to watch thousands flying overhead each night to their communal roost a few miles away. We were also treated to murmurations as they flocked together to create their beautiful patterns in the sky. No one knows exactly why murmurations occur. This phenomenon could be a defence against predators, information exchange, or social bonding. Sadly, the UK starling population has decreased by 57% since 1995 and is continuing to decline. We do have a few native starlings here but the ones we are seeing are mainly from northern Europe. They spend the winter here, arriving during September and October. They will return home during February and March. In December around fifty redwings were enjoying the berries on a mature holly tree and at the end of January there was a fieldfare regularly seen guarding a tree that still had plenty of apples for it to enjoy. A pair of bullfinches have been seen regularly near the pond and woodcock and snipe are regularly flushed from the scrub areas. The first frog spawn was laid on the 3rd February and by the 15th February there were 30 clumps.
The hazel catkins this year have looked incredible, with their creamy yellow ‘lambs tails’ providing a flash of colour. To us they look more like hundreds of chunky caterpillars suspended from the trees. They were early this year, starting to appear at the end of December and by January there were hundreds of them hanging down from the trees. Hazel is monoecious, meaning that both male and female flowers are found on the same tree. The female ‘flowers’ are tiny but their bright red stigmas make them easier to spot. Hazel flowers must be pollinated by pollen from other hazel trees.
On the 4th January there were two foxes, in fairly close proximity. Foxes tend to be solitary animals, coming together only to breed. Both were in excellent condition.
Alt-y-garreg is a 20-acre nature reserve created in 2010 from four fields that had been improved pasture. There are areas of new woodland (over eighteen thousand trees of eighteen native species), wildflower meadows, scrub and ancient hedgerows. Two of the fields are now a natural burial site. The area is teeming with wildlife. A list of species we have seen on the site can be found here.