December 2023: Quick Roundup
A mild, often dull-grey month.
Sub-singing birds and snowdrop shoots are welcome reminders of spring, but winter is again unseasonably mild: a disturbing pattern of seasons starting to shift in recent years.
Frost starts the month, but relentless mild-weather cold fronts and winter storms define it.
Saltmarsh, Brancaster
Large flocks of Waxwings are reported regularly early in the month. On one drive home, I glimpse a Waxwing drinking from a roadside puddle.
A mid-month rush of Christmas meals, shopping, orders, commissions.
A dead tree at Blickling, nicknamed the Cormorant tree (a favourite perch to dry their wings), succumbed to the relentless winds and fell on the night of the 9th.
A Great-crested Grebe pair turn their heads, a brief courtship display. Blue Tits prospecting in the garden: looking in the nest boxes. Egyptian Geese honk and rasp from a dead tree. It's rarely quiet in winter.
Just about heard amidst the white noise of a jet on maneouvres and a helicopter passing north for rigs, a Song Thrush practising his tunes from within a holly bush.
Sub-singing Song Thrush
Whilst in the garden, a Blackbird tries out his tunes from within the shelter of a conifer.
Sub-singing Blackbird
A commotion at the lake-walk gate, led by the plucking alarm calls of Long-tailed Tits. The cause of the tit flock's displeasure is soon sighted: a kestrel perched above the path.
Long-tailed, Blue and Great Tits, Nuthatch in response to a Kestrel
Later, the same Kestrel watches from the garden wall.
Christmas at Blickling
A rarely-heard call leads to a scarcely-seen Bullfinch, a gorgeous pink male glimpsed in an overgrown hedge.
Lunch: unseasonable picnic of quiche and salad
With mild weather and multiple cold fronts passing over the UK, days are often dull and grey.
Sometimes the monotony is relieved by a red sunrise or set, a welcome treat.
Three maiden pear trees arrive on the 18th: Concorde, Doyenne du Comice and Catillac.
Potted up for now, and some Golden Raspberry canes also.
Bright Saturn and the moon are winter friends this month. On some nights, misty views of favourite constellations: Orion, the Plough, Cassiopeia.
Christmas morning opens with Pinkfeet skeins calling and a glimpse of the sun ahead of an overcast day.
Boxing day brings a bright-skies reprieve.
A Mistle Thrush sings briefly, a Raven calls from a tall tree.
Birds calling at dusk
A full moon rises as dusk falls at the coast. Pink-footed Geese chatter, Wigeon whistle, Teal and Lapwings call in the dark.
A one-day fine weather reprieve is soon ended by heavy rain overnight, a blowy grey day following.
Sleepy birds that'd been feeding under moonlight overnight roost on the marshes, a vast majority of Wigeon, with some menaced by passing raptors.
Unsettled, mild weather continues to the end of the month. Some night's sleep broken by loud gusts outside. The waning moon sinks into the west in the morning and Black-headed Gulls fly over, leaving their roosts in the east.
Some people take down their Christmas lights, which seemed later to appear this year and sooner to leave than the Covid years when some lights were still on through mid-January.
The garden beckons during any quiet spell.
Scouting out shoots, I find Snowdrop, Crocus, Wild Daffodil.
Green buds on Honeysuckle and some of the saplings.
Seeds are sown, including two from one of the Wisteria's pods.
Making plans and looking ahead, but thinking more so on the year that has gone.
