Last year March was warm and very spring like, but turned out to be the only good month of the year. This year we have started the season with cool winds, some nights a frost and even snow flurries, but spring is still knocking on the door, with more hours of daylight and plants emerging from the ground. Daffodils are pushing up , as well as crocus we planted last year in our new Bee Garden.
Last year we dredged the stream-fed pond by the bridge, and already we have frog spawn, the earliest we have recorded at Silvertrees.
March and April are traditionally difficult months for birds to find food, and because of the poor growing conditions last year, this spring is particularly bad. Many of the home owners have bird tables and feeders, and they are providing a much needed food source to a larger than normal number of birds. There are a great many flocks of Chaffinch with one or two Bramblings amoungst them. A record number of Siskins are with us this year, with up to forty birds feeding. A careful look at the flock has also revealed a Redpoll or two. Smaller numbers of Green, Gold and Bullfinches are also attracted to feeders. Blue, Great and Coal Tits are around in good numbers with the occaisional flock of Long-tailed Tits. Nuthatches are often to be seen on peanut and sunflower feeders. We even have Treecreepers that are attracted to fat blocks attached to tree trunks. Stock Doves are prospecting some of our larger nestboxes, and Collared Doves already have young.
As a number of home owners have bird tables and feeders, we attract good numbers of many different species. but very occaisionaly a bird will fly into a caravan window. This can be fatal, but most are just stunned and quickly recover. This year we have a large number of Siskins on the park, and one bird did collide when the flock was disturbed by a Sparrowhawk. One of our owners always has a shoe box lined with kitchen roll at the ready, and he was able to quickly put the bird in it and kept it for a few hours in a warm place. It made a full recovery and was soon back feeding with the other birds.
Since last year we have been working closely with the West Midlands Hedgehog Rescue Centre. Each year they provide shelter for a great many Hedgehogs who are either injured, orphaned or just displaced. A number of Silvertrees home owners adopted and cared for several animals until they could be released to where they were found. In some cases it was not possible to return them to where they were found, and they were released here at Silvertrees. We have a Wildlife Spy Camera that we set up around the park during the summer, and we were able to capture nightime video footage of some of them settling into their new home. We are hopeful that they were able to hibernate successfully, and we will be keeping an eye out for their emergence.
The deer are here in good numbers, and as usual we have a number of very small fawns. The Rut in October can last over a longer period some years due to the weather, colder usually means a shorter period. In March we always seem to have a few very small animals which must have been born late or have not developed as quickly as the other fawns. They quite often form small groups and appear to enjoy each others company. Many of the Does are showing signs they are carrying this years fawns. and we look forward to having the bambies around the caravans in June.