December | TheHedge.org

BIRDS

Our summer visitors such as Warblers, Swallows and the Cuckoo have migrated from the hedges heading for Africa, using the stars and earth’s magnetic field to guide them at night when they usually travel. Before leaving, they feed a lot to build up reserves of up to twice their body weight to carry them through.

Birds who stay must use the reduced daylight hours to search for food. Blue Tits feed for 85% of the daylight hours. Coal Tits have stored away aphids, beech mast and slugs, and rooks bury acorns. Great Tits and Blue Tits rob the stores of other birds. If it snows, they fluff up their feathers for extra insulation and don’t waste energy seeking food. Flocks of Sparrows and Wrens gather together for warmth – this also helps the young to learn where the best winter food sources are, and many eyes are better than one pair for spying predators.

Flocks of Curlews land on the fields. Look out for abandoned bird nests which are now easy to see. Pigeon tracks are easy to spot this month – they walk with their toes turned in. Small birds hop along, leaving parallel footprints. Back to top

HEDGE TREES AND BUSHES

Many roadside hedges here in Fingal were cut in early September so the supply of elderberries, Blackthorn sloes and Hawthorn haws is reduced. Holly berries, which the Mistle Thrush loves, are plentiful. This bird gets its name from Mistletoe (Viscum album) which does not grow here – it is a parasite found in England in apple trees and the Mistle Thrush propagates it by spreading its berry seeds in their droppings.

Rose hips, sloes and haws can be seen on the hedges. Mild winters can mean that the hips are still too hard to eat, if there was no heavy frost to soften them – this can affect the birds who are dependent on them.

December is a good month for pruning trees and shrubs. One way of maintaining lots of the leaves of native shrubs and trees in a small garden is to grow several of them as coppiced shrubs, if you do not have enough room for full grown specimens of larger trees. This way, you will get lots of caterpillars, leaf eaters and other resident creatures who need a supply of tender leaves later on. Cut them down to the ground in December, then they shoot up again the next spring. Back to top

HEDGE PLANTING

It is good to plant new hedges now while the topsoil still retains some heat. It’s good to put in some bone meal with the bare-rooted bushes. If you are planting a hedge, try to include Spindle in the mix – it makes a great nesting place and is the food plant of the brimstone butterfly and moths. Robins, thrushes, blackcaps, redwings and finches love its bright pink fruits in Autumn. Back to top

MAMMALS

All hedge mammals get sleepy and spend much time in their nests and burrows but the hedgehog, bat and dormouse get torpid so that heart and pulse are so low that they need minimal energy to stay alive. Their temperature matches that outside, their fur and nest is insulation.

Only the dormouse truly hibernates from October to April – bats and hedgehogs wake up occasionally to seek food. Bats are fragile, if they do not find enough insects during the search to replace the energy they have wasted, they may die.

Look out for mammal paths along hedges for badgers earthworks and slides, for disgorged owl pellets (spat out fur from a meal) by a roosting owl. Back to top

AMPHIBIANS, INSECTS AND BUTTERFLIES

Frogs bury themselves away from the frost but do not freeze as some sugar in their blood is converted to glycerol, which works like antifreeze.

Invertebrates such as butterflies (Peacock and Brimstone), some moths, bees, wasps and ladybirds that live more than a few months as adults also make antifreeze. Most invertebrate adults, however, have short life spans and have probably spent winter earlier on as an egg or chrysalis. Back to top

FUNGI

On a grass verge beside a bottoms (meadow along a river) recently drained we found lots of button mushrooms, unfortunately too old to eat. The meadow has survived on the road verge! Fungus mycelium is in the soil all year but waits for the right temperature and moisture content to appear. In the leaf litter beside the hedge you may still find the Shaggy Ink Cap (Coprinus comatus) which feeds on decaying plant matter. Back to top