Ground ivy should not be confused with ordinary ivy plants, with the familiar five-lobed leaves, which sometimes spread across the ground instead of climbing up trees and walls. The ivy plants that live on the ground do not normally flower or have berries but the climbing plants are in fruit now, with many big black berries where the birds have not yet eaten them. The larger members of the thrush family – mistle thrushes, blackbirds, and the fieldfares currently wintering in Britain – are particularly fond of ivy berries, which help greatly in sustaining them through winter. A pair of mistle thrushes will sometimes defend an ivy-covered oak against other birds.
RING-NECKED PARAKEETS FROM Asia are now living in woodland colonies in southern England, as well as in the Netherlands and Belgium. They appear to have no difficulty in surviving the winter cold, and some are already laying their eggs in holes in trees. They were first found breeding here in the wild in 1969 and their numbers have now grown to about four thousand birds.
No one knows whether the first birds escaped from captivity or were deliberately introduced but they are a dramatic addition to our bird life. They are often first detected by their screeching cries as they fly past or by their loud, ringing calls in the treetops. They shoot through the sky at great speed, their long pointed tails very noticeable and resembling the tail of no other British bird. In the trees they are often quite hard to detect, but a good view reveals their light green plumage and red, hooked beak. The male also has a narrow pink-and-black ring round its neck.
Winter gnats come out in the sunshine, even on cold days, and dance in the air in the shelter of a bush or a wall. They look as if they are moving up and down on elastic strings.
GREAT NORTHERN DIVERS come down to our shores in the winter from frozen Arctic waters. They are mostly seen off the coast of northwest Scotland but a few are usually found inland on reservoirs after rough weather They are large, handsome birds with a long neck and a spear-like bill, and can easily stay for a minute underwater pursuing fish. In the summer they have a brilliant, spangled back, but at this season they are a dark, oily brown above, with the trace of a black-and-white collar on their neck. They drift far out on the water, usually half-hidden by the waves, or only showing their heads above the surface, but sometimes they will come into a small harbour. In winter they are silent birds, but in summer, when they nest on the shores of islands in great lakes around the Arctic Circle, they make loud, wailing cries. In North America they are called common loons, and these eerie calls have featured in many Hollywood films. They are the national bird of Canada.
Common scoters can also be seen off the coast now, especially the Welsh coast. They are diving ducks that feed on mussels. The drake is completely black except for a yellow patch on his beak; the female is brown.
CORMORANTS ARE NOWADAYS found in winter on rivers and lakes almost anywhere in Britain. These large black birds may be seen perching high up on bridges or cranes and studying the water far below, or floating in the water with only their head and beak and shining green eyes visible above the surface. They dive for fish, and can swallow an eel as long as their long neck, though that may take them some time and effort. Most of the adults go back to the coast to breed, but some of the white-bellied juveniles stay inland.
Their smaller relative the shag is much rarer inland, and is usually only seen when blown in by storm winds. These victims of the weather are often young birds that have come down from Scottish cliffs to the Wash. Thirty of them came down to roost one winter on a church roof in Bedfordshire, and four were seen on Peterborough cathedral. They are quite often reported in Norwich. When it is difficult to estimate their size, it is not always easy to distinguish them from cormorants, but they have thinner bills and a noticeably steep forehead. In summer they are glossy green and have a quiff on the front of the head.
February
THE FIRST CHAFFINCHES are singing in the cold sunshine. They have acquired a richer pink on their breasts and a blue cap, and are now beginning to assert their claim to their territory. Their song is a brisk run of ringing notes, followed by a whirling flourish. It has been compared to a bowler running up faster and faster to the crease, then swinging his arm over. When they begin singing, they often produce a rather creaky version of their song, or a truncated version without the flourish. But soon there will be many of them, all singing the pure, classic form. Most of the other birds that are singing at present have been heard intermittently throughout the winter. The chaffinch is the first real spring songster.
A tree that comes into flower early is the cornelian cherry, which is a native of southern Europe once widely planted here. Nowadays Chinese witch hazel is preferred for late winter flowering. Cornelian cherry is a low, bushy tree, with clusters of cowslip-yellow flowers on silvery stalks. They are just coming out. The leaves will open later: if they get torn, the two halves can still hang together with a kind of latex exuded from the veins.
MISTLE THRUSHES ARE now singing more regularly. They sit high in the treetops, and their loud, challenging song is like a trumpet blast. It often ends abruptly, as though the performer has just been shot; then the bird starts all over again.
A pair of mistle thrushes can frequently be seen now out on a playing field, looking for worms. The two birds may be quite far apart, but they are very aware of each other, and if one of them goes up with its churring alarm call, the other will swiftly fly over to join it. When they stand in the open facing the low morning sun, their spotted breasts look more yellow than buff. They are large birds, and when they fly away with a flash of silver under their wings, they look as much like doves as thrushes.
On larch trees, the leaf buds are like fat little tubs along the bare brown twigs. They will soon show a tiny spot of green on the top of the tub, and the beautiful, fresh green needles that will emerge will be among the first leaves of the spring. Horse chestnut trees are also among the earliest trees to come into leaf, and their pointed buds are now very large and sticky.
WRENS, WHICH WERE still singing vigorously in November, have fallen silent during the past two months. The short hours of daylight have kept them busy all day, searching for enough insect food to see them through the long, cold night. Their tiny bodies quickly lose heat in the chill air. But with February their rapid song begins to be heard again from the dead bracken and the hedge bottoms. As the month proceeds they will start to sing higher up in the bushes and trees: they are advertising for a mate, or disputing