What to spot in February
February can be the most brutal of
winter months, with prolonged freezing and snow coming just when you’d started to breathe a sigh of relief and look ahead to spring. Continue leaving food out for birds, which are trying to get into shape for breeding, and start leaving cat biscuits and water for hedgehogs, too. Don’t’ worry about frogspawn freezing in your pond – any below the water’s surface should survive an icy spell. Spring bulbs are hardy enough to cope with late cold snaps, but keep some horticultural fleece ready to protect spring blossom from hard frosts. Bees and other pollinators rely on nectar-rich blossom and will suffer without it.
You may spot…
Red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris
A UK native, the red squirrel has a red-brown coat and pale underside, with a bushy tail and gorgeous tufty ears. Smaller than its American grey cousin, which was brought to Britain by the Victorians, it’s usually found in coniferous woodland, where it eats seeds and nuts.
Breeding takes place from late winter, when males can be seen chasing females in the tree tops. The nest or ‘drey’ is made high up in trees out of twigs, leaves and strips of bark. The female gives birth to up to three ‘pups’ and can have up to two broods per year. Confined to small habitats in Anglesey, Moray, Aberdeenshire and Angus, northern England and the Isle of Wight, it’s estimated there are just 140,000 red squirrels left in the British Isles, compared to 2.5m grey squirrels. Our recent garden wildlife questionnaire (see page 76) also revealed that just four per cent of GW readers have red squirrels visiting their gardens.
The grey is a carrier of squirrel pox, which red squirrels are susceptible to. The Red Squirrel Survival Trust projects that the red squirrel could be extinct within 10 years. A glimmer of hope is if numbers of pine martens, which predate squirrels, increase, greys will suffer first, paving the way for the reds to expand their range.
Also be on the lookout for…
Hoverflies. You may see the first of them, including the drone fly Episyrphus balteatus.
Blackbirds. A sign of spring, they may start to sing if it’s mild this month.
Yellow brimstone butterflies may appear on sunny days.
The red squirrel is usually found in coniferous woodland, where it eats seeds and nuts