December 2022

Have blackbirds suffered in the summer drought, I wonder? At this time of year, I would normally have several male blackbirds disputing ownership of the fruit on the Ivy that climbs up the trees at the bottom of my garden, but there are none to be seen as I write this on the 28th. I did the monthly bird count in the park on the 15th and saw just one blackbird, the lowest December count ever in my 35-year study. Blackbird numbers are boosted in winter by birds from the near continent coming to find milder weather, but the near continent also suffered drought, so that remains a possible explanation. A greater complication is that numbers have been declining over the years, as the graph shows. So, it might not be the drought, but whatever caused the decline in the 90s and the resumed decline in the last four years. Blackbirds are not doing well in our area, but the cause remains speculative.

My count coincided with the cold snap and ice covered most of the lake. Those water birds left were mainly concentrated in an area of open water in the southern arm of the lake, where they were difficult to count. So, the data this month weren’t useful for monitoring change. Observations at other times in the month, however, showed that most species weren’t hit badly by the cold.

Those Little egrets continue to use feed in the shallows around the southern arm of the lake and perch up to digest their food in the dead branches of a waterside Crack willow tree. The All England proposals for intensive lawn tennis development plan to remove all the trees in this area as part of their claimed “biodiversity net gain”. Look below the deceptive headline, I say.

The usual bunch of Cormorants have come to the lake, attracted by a good number of young fish. Clearly, the bad algal bloom in the summer hasn’t had much adverse effect on those hardy fish species, just as experience elsewhere would predict. Again, the anglers should be celebrating the Cormorants, as they are a visual indicator of the health of the fish stocks.