Quantock Hills Blog
Making tracks under the duvet
- Small mammals find protection under the snow from wind chill of minus 21 on Cothelstone Hill
Posted by Andy Harris on 20 December 2010
The cold weather and snow has been good for seeing many animals especially birds that gather together in flocks but also picking out the tracks of mammals more often than not missed during the normal working day.
Flocks of blue tits, great tits, coal tits, long tailed tits and even marsh tits are a common sight in the woods especially around Cothelstone Hill at the moment. Numbers of thrushes such as redwings and fieldfares are bountiful and the gregarious linnet seems to have bolstered it numbers. However if the cold weather persists it could mean that some of these species continue to move south to the continent in the hope of warmer and less frozen conditions. In the mean time a positive is some of these more “wild” species are moving into our gardens and if you can provide food and water it will help their survival enormously.
Arriving early on Cothelstone Hill to check on the ponies I’m amazed how many tracks of foxes, roe deer and even stoat there are on show in the snow. I wonder how these animals manage to survive the cold especially as yesterday the wind chill was minus 21oC up by the Seven Sisters. For the small mammals such as mice and voles the blanket of snow can be a blessing protecting them from predators and the worst of the cold weather. Using a thermometer I was able to see just how four inches of snow manages to act as a duvet insulating the ground from the -21oC wind keeping it a relatively warm 0oC which must make a tremendous difference to survival.
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