Wildlife features heavily in many Christmas traditions. In this blog RSPB Scotland’s Allie McGregor shares some facts about the wildlife we hear about in the songs of Christmas.
The wildlife of our Christmas songs
Geese
Perhaps unsurprisingly, a more than one entry on this list has found its way into Christmas celebrations through the 12 days of Christmas. By the end of the song there’s almost 200 birds amongst the gifts!
Geese are incredibly fitting for winter given the explosion in numbers we see at this time of year. In Scotland we have been seeing the arrival of pinkies, barnacle, white-fronted, brent, Canada and greylag geese since around September. One of the wildlife highlights to see when the weather gets chilly is the huge flocks of geese that are about!
Some of our reserves, such as Loch Leven and Loch of Strathbeg, are excellent places to go celebrate the 42 geese in the song.
Swans
Swans are another entry from 12 days of Christmas, making up another 42 of the gifts. Like geese, many of our swans arrive in winter.
Mute swans are residents in Scotland and can be seen year-round, while whooper swans are usually here just for winter. Amazingly, almost all of the whooper swans from Iceland migrate to the UK and Ireland. You might also see Bewick’s swans in winter, but they mostly head further south, particularly to England’s east coast.
There’s lots of different things to look or listen for to tell these species of swan apart. One of the most obvious differences to look for between mute swans and whooper swans is the colour of their bills; whooper swans have mostly yellow bills while mute swans have mostly orange.
Holly and Ivy
The traditional Christmas carol ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ dates centuries back and has been linked with the birth of Jesus as well as mythology about fertility.
Holly is an established Christmas symbol and is regularly seen in decorations in December. Holly leaves remain green year-round. Holly berries are a great source of food for birds in winter, but toxic to humans – don’t try picking any out of your wreath for a quick snack! Holly can be commonly found in woodland, scrub and hedgerows across the UK.
Ivy is another evergreen of which two subspecies are found in the UK. It can be found in lots of different habitats across the country. Like holly, it can be important for wildlife in winter when there are less food sources about.
Pine
Christmas trees feature in many of the songs we sing during the festive period (Rockin’ around the Christmas tree is a bop and you won’t convince me otherwise). Christmas trees tend to be either firs, pines or spruces. Of these, the UK’s only native species is Scots pine.
The Scots pine is an absolutely majestic tree which can live for centuries. It’s mostly found in Caledonian Forest in our Scottish Highlands. There is an incredible array of wildlife to be found in our Scottish forests including red squirrels, capercaillie and crested tits. There are also numerous insects which make their homes amongst the Caledonian pinewoods.
Mistletoe
Mistletoe gets a passing mention in numerous Christmas songs, especially some more recent additions to the Christmas music catalogue which embrace a romantic angle.
Mistletoe is toxic to us, but like holly berries it makes a great source of food for some of our wildlife. Something else that mistletoe has in common with holly is that it is ‘dioecious’. This means it has distinct ‘male’ and ‘female’ plants – only the female plants have the white berries. Mistletoe is rarely seen in Scotland, but is widely scattered further south in the UK.
How does nature weave into your winter holidays? I would love to hear about the role of wildlife in other end of year traditions in the comments!