Snowdrops Winning,

WAXWING

SOME 130 million birds have been counted during the last 40 years of Big Garden Birdwatch, giving the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds an astonishing amount of insight into how our wildlife is faring. Since it began, the survey – which invites the public to spend an hour watching and recording the birds in their garden or local green space, then send their results to the RSPB – has highlighted the winners and losers among garden birds. The RSPB says we should look out for these three.

These starling-sized short-legged birds, with an upstanding, pointed crest, have black throats and wings, with white yellow and red markings and yellow-tipped tails. They don’t breed here but are winter visitors, appearing between October and March on the east coast of Scotland before spreading as far as Ireland. In some winters, larger numbers arrive in search of their favourite food, red berries. These events are known as irruptions and occur when the abundance of berries is too low.

As waxwings will travel long distances in search of food, when they find a suitable tree or bush they gorge themselves on the fruit. Our native rowan tree is their favourite but they will happily feast on other red berries such as hawthorn, pyracantha, cotoneaster or rosehips. This means they can often be found in supermarket car parks.

Waxwings are generally not shy and you can get incredible views up close as they’re feeding. They can also be tempted into your garden by cutting apples in half and sticking them onto tree branches or even planting some berry-laden shrubs.

REDWING

From the thrush family, the redwing is a winter visitor and enjoys feasting on the seasonal berries the UK’s hedgerows, SNOWDROPS are the first sign of hope for the coming year. Rain, snow or ice, these little toughies never let us down.

Originating in southern Europe and western Asia, snowdrops have readily colonised deciduous woodland in Scotland for centuries.

And they continue to do so in woods and estates throughout the country.

So, with or without a garden, we can all enjoy their spectacle. The annual Scottish Snowdrop Festival started yesterday and runs until March 11. With 60 events planned, there should be a participating garden for you to visit nearby.

Most of the snowdrops these gardens grow belong to three species: Galanthus plicatus; G elwesii; and G nivalis. Plicatus means folded and describes how the leaves have folds to each side of a silver centre.

Elwesii has broad, sometimes twisted glaucus leaves. It copes especially well with dry conditions so lives happily beneath thirsty trees.

But nivalis, once wrongly thought to be native to Scotland, is the most commonly grown species here.

As they paint a bank white, these dainty little bulbs are undoubtedly at their most captivating.

But small clumps beneath a couple of trees or in a piece of rough grass at the bottom of the garden are also winners.

Over time they spread, and it pays to lift and divide clumps every three or four years. They’ll steadily spread again, giving you another harvest.

Gardeners are often advised to lift and replant snowdrops “in the green”, immediately after flowering.

Because these bulbs won’t tolerate drying out, it is safer to lift them while they’re fully hydrated and haven’t had a chance to dry out.

But there’s a drawback in doing this. The roots are, inevitably, slightly damaged and this stimulates premature dormancy, before bulbs have built up enough starches.

Although snowdrops, especially G nivalis, find this treatment less damaging than other bulbs, it’s probably safest to mark a clump you want and dig up in the autumn in the usual way.

Alternatively you could save seed from some of your favourite specimens. But this is a fiddly process that takes three years for a plantable bulb to form.

Perhaps the solution is to let the local ant colony do the job for you. They regard the seeds as a delicacy and fortunately drop some while carting them off to their nests.

If you don’t have a suitable place in the garden or simply want to get up close and enjoy a fragrant whiff of honey, why not