Another very wet winter is almost at an end and as mentioned in previous updates, we tend to stay off the Garden during winter to avoid compacting the soil. In fact it’s been such a misserable winter we haven’t done much in the Garden at all. Thankfully spring is almost here, although the weather remains grey and wet for now.
But we have seen the earlier signs of spring. Small flocks of Gold Finch have been passing through the Garden in the last couple of weeks, the Hazel tree is full of catkins and finally last night, 22nd February, we heard the return of our favourites, the Frogs. Although, we already knew they were back and busy a week before, when we noted the first frog spawn of the year in the larger pond on the 16th February.
We began 2024 with 582 recorded species in the Garden and ended it with 623, our lowest every uplift in new species recorded in the Garden (just 41 for the whole year). Of these 623 species, 218 have not been recorded in the last 5 years. Whilst this seems alarming, especially after the unprecidented poor year for wildlife in 2024, the majority of these 218 species are moths and we simply have not been trapping enough to record many of these species. Indeed only 13 species were not moths and we will focus on these during 2025 to see if we can find them, they are:
Two insects Malthodes spp (an unidentified Soilder Beetle), Neoascia podagrica (a Hoverfly)
Four species of mammals – Common Noctule Bat, Common Pipistrelle, Hedgehog, Brown Rat
One amphibian – Common Toad
One reptile – Grass Snake
Three birds – Great Tit, Coal Tit, Song Thrush
Two plants – Forget-me-not and Rough Meadow Grass
Of these we are reasonably sure Forget-me-nots are no longer present in the Garden. Rough Meadow Grass is, we just havent recorded it. Great Tits will almost certainly be present from time to time, whereas we havent seen Coal Tit or Song Thrush for a long while.
Grass Snakes are unlikely to return but are recorded regularly in the nearby nature reserve. Currently its difficult for hedgehogs to enter the Garden, although a nearby neighbour recorded three at once in her Garden not so long ago. We have definately seen Brown Rats, just not recorded them, likewise we have picked up both species of bat listed above with our basic bat detector. Although despite scanning for them several times last year, we didnt detect or spot a single bat. Yet the real concern for us remains the Common Toad, we just don’t know why we are not seeing these, especially as we regularly record Common Frogs and Palmate Newts.
Fingers crossed for 2025.
DC: 23.02.2025
Wildlife Garden 