Rangers View - December
December Scene
December is the darkest month in the year with the shortest day being on the 21st of the month. We have to go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. The birds and the animals have to work harder for their food in the very short space of time provided at this time of the year. It is not an easy time for the wildlife.
Sussex Downs Sheep
So what are the farmers up to? ... Well, they will be turning the ground in some places and that ensures that many of the parasites that eat the crops will be killed off in the frosts. Some of the cattle will be brought inside and fed inside through the winter. For the sheep and cattle that are left out, the farmer will have to provide extra salt licks to ensure the animals have enough nutrients. They will also have to break the ice on the water troughs.
Sloe Berries
Conservationists would like to see the farmers filling some of those gaps in the hedges. Preferably filled with a conservation mix of hedgerow plants like sloe, hazel, hawthorn, dogwood, spindle, Field Maple, basically, shrubs that produce berries, seeds or nuts for wildlife to feed on. Planting up the gaps not only helps the farmer make a barrier. It also helps provide continuous cover for the smaller mammals that need to be hidden from predators like foxes and kestrels.
Old Man's Beard
Right up on the Downs most things have died back but it is the time of year for Old Man’s Beard (Clematis vitalba), which is very visible with its white fluffy seed heads. It derives its name - Old Man’s Beard - from its resemblance to an older man’s beard or even Father Christmas’s beard. Its other name – Traveller’s Joy - comes from the discovery of the juice being squeezed on to a head band and then tied around the forehead would relieve headaches of travellers who found themselves dehydrating on long journeys. The seed heads are a great source of food for smaller birds.
Mallards
In our wetter areas, it is a good time to look out for some of our wetland fowl. It is a good time to watch the large numbers of duck like Mallard and geese that come to our wetland areas. There is safety in numbers, because the more ears and eyes to sense predators ensures the alarm goes out and individual members of the flocks can escape being caught.
Holly Berries
On our heaths there is little out to catch your eye but on the edges you may come across a holly laden in berries. Holly (Ilex aquifolium) is traditionally associated with Christmas. Holly bark is full of minerals and natural metals. Holly can often be found grazed by animals because of those metals. If it weren’t for the prickles, the leaves would be devoured in no time. In the past, before lightning conductors had been invented, Holly trees were planted beside people’s homes. This was because they were more likely to be hit by lightning, due to the metals within them, than the houses. This may be one of the reasons for the ancient tradition of sprigs of Holly, preferably with berries, being hung around houses at this time of year because they are believed to ward off evil spirits. Today they are hung as a colourful decoration to adorn our doorways.
Ivy
In our gardens, one of the most overlooked plants through out the year is the Ivy. Our native Ivy (Hedera helix) is associated with the Christmas period and is used as a decoration. Some gardeners hate this plant and are forever cutting it down believing it damages trees when in fact it does not – in fact it lives as a good companion with the tree. It provides shelter for numerous creatures but also at this time of year it is one of the very few plants to flower and so it is an important source of nectar for any winter flying insect.
Norway Spruce
In our woods the fox’s coat has grown thicker and changed colour from a bright orange-red to a duller toned orange with many white hairs. This allows them to blend into the winter landscape more easily so that they can hunt more easily. Bats will have stopped hunting and will have found themselves good hibernation roosts in old trees or in some cases disused railway tunnels or even in our roofs. The tree of the month most probably has to be the Norway Spruce. We especially associate the Norway Spruce (Picea abies) or the Christmas Tree with this time of year. Most of us will buy a Norway Spruce or another similar looking evergreen tree or even a plastic imitation tree and decorate it with tinsel, baubles and lights this coming festive season.
Butchers Broom
The Norway Spruce has been taken into our lives as if it has always been part of our Christmas. However, although it has long been associated with Christmas on the continent it has only relatively recently become a part of our Christmas decorations. Prince Albert brought the first one to this country (since the last Ice Age) as a gift for his wife Queen Victoria. In Austria and Switzerland every Christmas, a Norway Spruce is weighted down at its base, and then rowed out into the middle of all the lakes, and then thrown over board. This is in remembrance to those that drowned there and so that the deceased spirits of departed family members or friends can celebrate Christmas too.
Another plant associated with this time of year is Butcher’s Broom (Ruscus aculeatus). It is a very unusual plant in that what initially look like sharp dark-green leaves are in fact flattened stems but not true leaves. These imitation leaves are known as Cladodes. These cladodes do not drop off in the autumn so this plant appears evergreen during the winter. They produce large red berries, which contrast against the rest of this dark-green plant.
They have traditionally been cut and dried and used in flower arrangements and as colourful Christmas decorations. The name Butcher’s Broom derives from the plant branches once being cut and tied into bundles and then being used like a broom to sweep off butcher’s wooden blocks. This plant is a relative of the lily family and is often found growing at the base of trees in old woods.
Speak with you again in January but in the mean time, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
