Wednesday Wanderings

January's grip has been tight so far this new year, with ice rinks forming in our car parks, livestock tackling the hard frozen vegetation, and even a couple of snow days up on the hills!

Winter can be a hard time for animals and plants, and it might be easy to believe that life across the Hills and Commons has ground to a halt for many species. Conserving resources for the coming spring, hunkering down, hibernating, rationing energy to only the most essential tasks... and yet life is stirring if you look closely!

Winter Highlights

Migrating and over-wintering birds such as Redwing Turdus iliacus, Fieldfare T. pilaris, Ring Ouzel T. torquatus, Snow Bunting Plectrophenax nivalis. 

Winter-flowering plants such as lesser celandine, snowdrop and primrose.

Great opportunities to practice winter twig identification!

Our new Community and Conservation Officer, Marie, has been getting up to speed with the work of MHT, and starting some exciting new projects. "It's been fantastic to learn about the landscape of the Hills and Commons, and how much more there is to it than the places I have always visited! The diversity of wildlife we have here is really special and I'm excited to celebrate this as much as I can in my role, whether through engagement events, social media, or direct conservation. I feel very lucky to have this place as my office!"

Marie has been conducting site visits to British camp with its iron age hillfort, spotting cloud inversions from Worcestershire Beacon, tree planting, helping volunteers with scrub clearance and hunting for winter flowering plants such as snowdrops (not found them yet!) Check out some of her photos below, including some cool coral spot fungus (grows on decaying wood).