The first and last of January
Despite the wind and the rain, the days are lengthening. Is this rhythmic pattern the same, is it fluctuating, or is it changing? Plants and birds are responding to the warmer days and here are some of the ones you may have seen in January.First recorded in the wild in the 18th century, snowdrops may have been introduced into gardens as early as the 16th century. Their beautiful white flowers are a symbol of hope, yet in folklore seeing a single flower, was a sign of impending death. Despite having poisonous bulbs, snowdrops were used to make painkillers and a bulb compound is now being used to develop a treatment for dementia.
Associated with the Christian festival of Candlemas churches were decorated with snowdrops in February and they are also known as Candlemas bells. They’ve started flowering earlier and this year and have been recorded as far apart as London, Belfast and Manchester, as well as in Devon.The cheerful, sunshine face of lesser celandine makes you want to smile as their star-shaped flowers brighten up the countryside. You’ll be able to find them flowering in shady hedgerows and damp conditions between January and April. They close their petals when it rains and people believed they predicted the weather, or at least one aspect of it! Also known as figwort, which comes from ‘fig’, an old name for piles. An ointment made from the roots was used as a cure for piles, worts and corns. Their early flowering makes them a valuable food source for queen bumblebees, pollinators and early insects.
Time to migrate
Two of the migratory birds that have started to leave are the fieldfare and the redwing. They’ll continue to depart until April, so there’s still time to see them. Often seen in large groups, flocks of up to a 1,000 fieldfare have been recorded on Dartmoor, where they have the local name of ‘blue bird’, due to the bluish tinge on their feathers. 
Redwings, which are often seen in mixed flocks with fieldfares are nomadic, and evidence from birds that have been ringed, shows they take different migratory routes. So, a bird you see in Devon this year, could have been wintering in a different country the year before. 
Singing and nest building
January also triggered changes among our resident birds.Also known as the mavis or throstle, the song thrush used to be a common bird. Now it is a red-listed species as numbers have declined since 1970, mainly due to the loss of the habitats they rely on. With a reputation for being wise, the song thrush repeats its distinctive song twice, and eats snails when the ground is too hard to get at earthworms. The familiar habit of song thrushes repeatedly banging a snail shell against a stone ‘anvil’ until it cracks open is unique to these birds.
With a million breeding pairs, large, loud, social rooks build their nests in communal groups or rookeries. In folklore they are linked to misfortune. If you live near an established rookery it is good luck, but if an established rookery is abandoned it brings bad fortune for the people who live there and for the area they move to.During January you may have seen rooks starting to build and repair nests with twigs and branches they’ve broken off trees or stolen. One of the popular collective names for rooks is a parliament, because people believed ‘rook parliaments' were held to hear the complaints about twig thieving during nesting. Last year nestbuilding started 13 days earlier than the 2001 benchmark year.
Flowers and budburst
It’s not just flowers and birds that are starting a new cycle; during January, elder and hazel also started a fresh round of life.Last year hazel started flowering an incredible 38 days earlier than the benchmark year. It is easy to spot the male catkins, but the red female flowers can be easily mistaken for small buds. Whilst hazel is wind-pollinated, the flowers provide an important source of food for bees.
Elder is always one of the first shrubs to come into leaf and last year, the budburst was nearly a month earlier than the benchmark year (29 days). While it’s lovely to see these first leaves scientists don’t know what impact it will have on the wide range of moth caterpillars that feed on them including the white-spotted pug, swallowtail, dot moth and buff ermine. Click on the link below to watch the elder budburst.[embed]https://youtu.be/oY0z2wtiEbs[/embed] Can you spare some time to take part in Nature's Calendar (a citizen science project run by the Woodland Trust and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology)? If you can, you’ll be helping scientists monitor the effects of climate change on plants and animals. Let’s put Devon’s wildlife on the map.You can find all the information you need to start recording on the Nature’s Calendar website.By Jane HallidayYou can also find more information about the birds, folklore and shrubs in these links.Referenceshttps://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/https://www.eatweeds.co.uk/lesser-celandine-ficaria-vernahttp://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/field_fare.htmhttps://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/redwing/https://uk.whatbird.com/obj/1218/_/Song_Thrush.aspxhttps://www.beautyofbirds.com/rooks.html
