The first few days of February were very dry, if rather windy. However, heavy rain arrived from the evening of the 6th and paths once again became extremely muddy and fields waterlogged. With health mainly restored, I started local walks again. I made a couple of visits to Briary Lane in the hope of seeing Royston's first reported winter Waxwing, but without success. However, a walk on the west side of The Heath on the 2nd provided a surprise in the form of a Chiffchaff. Wintering Chiffchaffs are increasing in numbers in the UK, but they are almost always found close to water and there was none where this bird was found. Was it moving through the area or wintering here? Royston Sewage Works (now off-limits) has regularly harboured wintering Chiffchaffs (including a 'Siberian' sub-species one year), but this is only the second bird that I have seen on my Local Patch in February. Nearby, a male Stonechat was holding winter territory. This is a much more regular winter visitor to The Heath.
I can see the folly at Wimpole Hall from the rear bedroom windows, so I decided to go for a walk there, for the first time in two years, on the 6th. Mandarin Ducks winter on the main lake there - I saw seven on my visit. A good range of water birds on the lake included Great Crested and Little Grebes, Wigeon, Shoveler and Egyptian Goose. A look through the flocks of 100+ Greylag Geese that were feeding on the parkland failed to produce any rarer species (I've seen Barnacle Goose, Russian White-fronted Goose and Tundra Bean Goose here in previous winters).
Retreating Mandarin Ducks, Wimpole Hall Lake, 6 February
A smallish murmuration of perhaps 500-700 Starlings was noted at Hatchpen Farm on the late afternoon of the 8th. With more birds arriving as I left, it is possible that numbers might have reached the 1300-1600 that I saw here two winters ago.
A few of the several hundred Starlings seen at Hatchpen Farm on 8 February
After a few days of dry weather, rain returned with a vengeance in the middle of the month and wellington boots once more became essential for getting around the muddy and, in places, waterlogged footpaths and bridleways. Incredibly mild weather accompanied the rain, and I saw a couple of Peacock butterflies in flight during sunny intervals, the first being encountered on the 2nd. On the 14th I was surprised to encounter a very early Pasque Flower on Church Hill. It is not unusual to see this beautiful and rare wild flower appearing at the end of February, but this particular bloom was exceptionally early!
A very early Pasque Flower, Church Hill (Therfield Heath), 14 February
A local walk on the 19th produced a pair of Ravens over Burloes Farm and a pair of Stonechats in fields less than one kilometre south of my house. I didn't have a camera with me at the time, and the birds were gone when I next visited. A female Sparrowhawk was flying over my estate when I returned, and this or another bird was later seen flying over the garden. Other walks on my local patch were uneventful. One unusual sighting in my garden was of a pair of Feral Pigeons, which seem to have taken up residence on my estate. Hundreds of Feral Pigeons live in and around Royston town centre, but this is the first time I have encountered them in the garden! One of the birds was particularly aggressive towards the ever-present Woodpigeons, head-butting one at one point, much to its surprise! The presence of Collared Doves in the garden as well provided an interesting size comparison, as the sunflower hearts that I put out in feeders for the smaller birds disappeared at an alarming rate.
The multiple storms during the winter months brought down lots of trees and branches across the region. The continuously wet weather combined to produce some interesting fungi on this dead wood, an example of which is shown below. The February rainfall record for my back garden had already been broken with six days of the month to go and further rainfall on the 'Leap Day' made this the wettest February in East Anglia and the South-east since meteorological records began back in the 1850s. My own reading was 4.28 inches (109mm).
Fungus and Lichens on Dead Wood, Therfield, 27 February
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