February 2007
February
This is the month when the frog awakes from hibernation. It is more likely to be encountered as it moves hastily to the nearest pond or ditch.
The brimstone butterfly, unlike many other butteflies, choses to face the winter as an adult instead of a migrant or chrysalis. It chooses thick dense evergreen shrubs for refuge. The growing warmth of late February tempts them to abandon hibernation and start to lay their eggs, especially on the leaf of the blackthorn bushy.
You may well see one of our migrant thrushes, the redwing, over in Britain for the winter from Scandinavia, searching for remaining fruit. Its close relations, the fieldfare and mistle thrush and song thrush, can also be seen in the Pleasaunce over the winter. Less occasionally seen is the waxwing, from the far north of Scandinavia, with its crest and yellow tail feathers.
A few inches of snow provided amusement for park goers and, judging by the lack of trains going by, misery for commuters on Thursday 8th February.
The snow fall on Thursday February 8 came was an almost repeat performace of a fortnight earlier.
Results from the National Fruit Collection in Kent have uncovered the secrets behind the oldest fruit trees in the Pleasaunce and have revealed another connection with Tudor Times.
After a stop-start crocus season, which started in early in the warmest January since 1921 and then was held back by the snow, the bulbs are fully open by Well Hall Road. For the squirrels, the flowers are just another item on the menu.
The warm end to winter has prompted the two Pleasaunce duck species to start looking forward to this year's breeding season; last year saw serious turf wars, leadng to a fight to the death, breaking out between the two moorhen dynasties on the moat.
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| Last Updated: 14th-May-2007 23:44 |
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