December and January Notes

by David Tidmarsh - 14:44 on 15 December 2013

Kens Nature Notes

The search is on for colour in and around our area, this can be quite challenging at this time of the year as it can be pretty drab. However there are still some hardy plants that can brighten up even the darkest days.
Mahonia has lovely yellow bell flowers that are in full throw at this time of the year, lovely evergreen leaves that have extreme spikes just waiting to prick your hands.
Holly is another lovely evergreen and when it is laden with red berries is a fantastic shrub that sheds colour to any location. This year I have struggled to find very many hollies with berries, some years they can be covered in berries, some varieties look great with their yellow berries, I suppose the next best thing are the variegated hollies with their white trims on the leaves, giving a little compensation of colour throughout the year and if these have some berried fruits it is a double bonus.
Firethorns are doing really well this year with an abundance of yellow and red berries, these will help our birds through the winter if it gets too harsh; of course they look excellent brightening up the dull days.
Hellebores are flowering in our garden and they have an amazing range of colourful flowers, many of them can only be admired by stooping down to observe the flowers which mainly hang down but when looked at closely are fabulous.
I also have a member of the Prunis family of cherry which has just come into bloom, very delicate pink flowers, and looks really good.
Great news we have just taken delivery of a brand new Little Owl Box which has been purchased by the Northumbrian Water Conservation team, thanks go to Steve Scott who has helped to make this possible.
The box will be erected in the New Year at the Woodstone Wildlife area and hopefully will attract the “Little Owls” that have been successfully breeding in the tower of the old Fire station/ Home housing building that is being demolished as I write.
As we are on the subject of bird boxes, I have built twenty three bird boxes with three different hole sizes to encourage different varieties of small birds, half will go in the plantation at New Lambton and the rest will be placed in Woodstone Wildlife area.
Feeding the birds is also very important at this time of the year; this will hopefully help maintain our native birds which we are informed are decreasing in numbers.
So I hope you have a Happy Christmas and a healthy New Year.

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