The Twelve Coombes wildlife highlights of Christmas!
Get ready for our final Christmas countdown blog...
...four holly trees...
Holly is a true icon of Christmas. We use it to decorate our homes during winter, but I wonder how many of us actually know why?
Well there are loads of superstitious reasons. Firstly holly is evergreen so keeps its green spiky leaves all year round. In times past holly was thought to have magical properties to keep its leaves. It was believed that it would ward off evil during the winter months. This is why people hung it around their homes... are we still afraid of wintery evil spirits?!
Holly was also very important fodder for livestock. Shepherds used to cut holly for their sheep to eat during the hard winter months. So holly was seen as good luck for shepherds too! Even today when grass is scarce, deer and livestock feed on holly.
Holly has created its own defence mechanism to tackle those pesky sheep. If you look at a holly tree you’ll notice the leaves towards the top of the tree are less spiky. That’s because holly leaves are mostly spiky towards the base of the tree where animals are more likely to try and eat it. And also where we are most likely to pick it from! So watch your fingers.
Holly berries – Lucy Hodson
...three winter stoats...
Winter is no issue for the stoats here at Coombes Valley!
They carry on hunting throughout the winter. Although their usual prey is rabbits, they’re not too fussy, checking out every burrow and crevice for potential dinner! Once they’ve killed a rabbit or another small rodent, it will take its burrow. Sometimes it will use the fur of its prey as insulation. Because of this, one stoat might have several homes within their range.
Some stoats at higher altitudes turn completely white over the winter (apart from the black tip of their tail). The stoats here at Coombes will stay their usual colours; brown on top and creamy white underneath. Remember a weasel is smaller and doesn’t have the long tail with a black tip unlike the stoat. It’s stoat-aly different!
Peeking stoat – David Kjaer (RSPB-images)
...two cosy creepy crawlies...
The floor of the woodlands here at Coombes is awash with leaves, bark, twigs and other plant litter. These get broken down by decomposers such as woodlice and millipedes. These helpful creepy crawlies eat the litter, breaking it down into different nutrients, which are then realised into the soil, before being taken up again by the trees.
But this leaf litter not only provides a food source for our wondrous mini-beasts. It also provide them with a home! With a roof of vegetation insulating them, there are no real seasons in the litter layer; every day is dark, cool and damp - just how they like it!
If the weather gets so bad that it’s getting too cold to hang out in the litter, no problem. A lot of mini-beasts just dig down a bit further into the soil until the temperature is just right for them.
And of course, having bugs scurrying around is great news for other wildlife too! Animals like shrews and small birds can find them a great food resource through the winter months.
Leaf litter home - Sue Kennedy (RSPB-images)
...and a barn owl seen in a tree!
This ones something we’re all very excited about! Despite no known breeding pairs at Coombes Valley this year, over the last few weeks there’s been a few sightings of barn owls on the reserve!
We think this must be at least one juvenile that was born nearby and has decided Coombes Valley will be its new home. This is great news! Who knows. Next year we might even be as lucky as we were two years ago, when barn owls nested and raised young in our owl box. Here is some of nest-cam footage and blog about the chicks:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/coombeschurnet/b/coombeschurnet-blog/archive/2012/07/11/come-and-meet-our-night-loving-neighbours-read-owl-about-it-here.aspx
Beautiful barn owl on a post – John Bridges (RSPB-images)