How has the weather been for you this winter? I’d describe it as wet, windy and mild here in south-east England – none of which are great for the arrival of many of my favourite winter birds. For good numbers of wild geese and the scarcer ducks to arrive from the continent, we need a nice cold north-east or easterly airflow, combined with freezing conditions to the north and east of the UK. The dominant flow of west and south-west winds into the UK this winter has made it a bit of a damp squib for the "hard weather" arrivals so far, so I'm missing some old favourites in my notebook.

Like most people, I’ve hardly enjoyed a deluge of birds such as smew, white-fronted and tundra bean geese and Bewick’s swans that tend to need a bit of an “push” to dislodge them from feeding grounds on the continent and across the North Sea. Having realised I hadn’t seen a single smew, or white-front all winter (and I live in one of the best counties for the former in the UK – Cambridgeshire - thanks to an extensive gravel pit network), I decided to put it right over the weekend.

There's quite a contrast between male and female smew, but either is a star winter sight (Mike Langman rspb-images.com)

A flock of white-fronts, now being commonly referred to as “Russian white-fronted geese” (a name I like as there is a distinct sister subspecies that breeds in Greenland), arrived at RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes on Friday, so I decided to head up the A14 for the 20 minutes it takes me to get there. The birds had been there earlier in the day, but on arrival the favoured spit on ferry Lagoon was deserted as I eagerly scanned for those white faces. Ah...

A distant flock of Canada geese caught my eye about a quarter of a mile to the north-east, so I set out on what turned out to be one of the slipperiest riverside walks I have ever done due to the river recently causing flooding on site. It was the only way to take me around the pit and to fields the other side of the river where I had a hunch they may have gone. As it was raining, there was not a soul in sight and, not for the first time, I questioned my decision-making, especially as I could have stayed in to enjoy the opening two games of the Six Nations Rugby.

Smaller and a lot wilder than most of the greylag geese in southern England, the Russian white-front is a winter specialty (Mike Langman rspb-images.com)

A few greylags were in one field, but no smaller, black-belly barred Russians with them, sadly. I hauled myself along to the next field, struggling to find any grass on the path among the clay fen soil, and there among an encouragingly large gathering of greylags were the white-fronts. There were 26 in total and as with many wild geese, they watched me much more carefully than the feral greylags, subtly sitting in dips out of view and staying just below the riverbank. Eventually they got used to me and all walked out together to feed and drink from a (growing) puddle in the field.

Smew are a strong contender for our most handsome duck and they have been really scarce all winter. A small group has been seen on and off at a pit not too far from me so I called in on the way home and in the dusk, picked out the white cheeks of three immature smew among a large raft of tufted ducks. A glowing “silver back” among the tufties revealed the presence of a drake scaup – always a quality bird inland, so a pleasing find. Next target is those bean geese and Bewick’s swans but we may need some hard weather for their numbers to pick up.

The drake scaup is a smart seaduck that crops up among tufted ducks and pochards inland (Mike Langman rspb-images.com)

To add a bit of colour to proceedings and some mid-winter cheer for all Nature's Home uncovered readers, here are some of the scarlet elfcups I went to look for the next day at my local hotspot. 271 fruiting bodies counted in all – a fabulous sight. This was my second visit, after my early season sortie back in December.

The red of a scarlet elfcup  - one of the Nature's Home February targets - glows on the winter woodland floor (Mark Ward)


Three of the 271 fruiting bodies of the brilliant scarlet elfcup I found at my local hotspot (Mark Ward)

Don't forget to keep an eye on your Nature's Home magazine for our month by month targets, events and activities. How are you doing for the February spread? Snowdrops are at their best here at The Lodge now, I have the photographic evidence that scarley elfcup has been well and truly done, hazel catkins are looking lovely both in my garden and here at the Lodge and my blue tits have been house hunting in the garden, despite the building works.

So, that's a full house for February for me from the Nature's Home Spring 2018 issue and I have a head start for March as I've just seen my first queen bumblebee of the year (a buff-tailed at The Lodge in my lunch break today). How are you getting on so far?

  • Nice work Aisling!

    Sounds like you're in a nice part of the world for these beauties. I haven't been to Ebbor Gorge, so I'll look it out next time I'm down your way. Scarlet elfcups are rare where I live in Huntingdonshire, but luckily one of the sites for them is a very good one!

  • On the advice of your December blog on searching for scarlet elf-cups, I was reminded to have a quick root around for them on a damp Sunday afternoon in Ebbor Gorge, Somerset, this weekend. low and behold! I saw a few of them myself. Looking forward to ticking off more of my Wild About Spring finds over the coming weeks, and keeping up to date with your tip tips for seeing them.