Wildlife calendar December

Life can be hard for wildlife in the winter. For many small birds and mammals, finding enough food to survive takes up almost every hour of daylight. The winter solstice, sometimes called Midwinter Day, occurs on 21 or 22 December: this is the shortest day in the calendar, when the sun rises latest and sets earliest.  

Even in winter there is much to see and hear in the New Forest. The foxes’ mating season is beginning, and you might hear the eerie screams and wails of the vixens (females) and the barking ‘wow-wow-wow’ calls of the dogs (males).

Robins continue to sing throughout the cold wintry months, and at the end of December they begin to look for a mate. Tawny owls are approaching their noisiest period too: listen out for their hoots as they begin their courtship displays. The tawny owl is the New Forest’s commonest bird of prey.

Many birds roost together for warmth and safety. These include starlings, rooks, jackdaws, carrion crows, pied wagtails and even wrens. The best time to track down bird roosts is from an hour before sunset, when you can see numerous birds all flying in the same direction towards their communal sites.

Even in midwinter, you can still find a few flowers on the heathland gorse bushes and on butcher’s broom in the woodlands. Most fungi have been killed off by the cold but birch bracket fungus and ganoderma can still be seen in wooded areas.

Broad-leaved trees are now leafless and the shape of their trunks and branches is more clear.  See if you can identify them without their leaves: many species, particularly oak, ash and silver birch, have a very specific shape and bark texture.

Conifers and evergreens provide a welcome splash of green in winter – look for pines, holly, ivy and mistletoe. Only the female holly tree has red berries. Ivy is important for wildlife and you might spot woodpigeons or other birds feeding on the black berries.

Very few insects fly around in December. The exception may be clouds of male gnats dancing in the hope of attracting a passing female.  

During mild winter weather (10+°C), bats and hedgehogs will break their hibernation to forage for food. Unfortunately it is believed that between 30 and 60 percent of bats and hedgehogs do not make it through to spring.