Nature in February
There is a lot of activity going on with wildlife in February.
Snowdrops are usually the first flowers appearing in the year, followed by other early spring plants.
Plants and flowers inevitably bring the start of insect activity, which also leads to some birds, including rooks, herons and owls, are starting to build their nests so they can breed.
Badgers give birth to their young in January and February so that their first explorations outside are in the spring when insect and grub will be easier for them to find and learn to forage.
Squirrels have two breeding seasons and February is the first season where they give birth to their young in their drey (nest).
With around 250,000 Roe deer in the UK you would expect to see herds of them grazing. However Roe deer prefer to be solitary animals and you may spot individual or small groups grazing at the edge of fields or woods at dawn or dusk.
As he weather starts to warm up, more frogs and other amphibians start to wake up from hibernation and become more active. More activity in the frog population also means there will be frogspawn in ponds.
If it is a particular sunny or warm day you might see early butterflies moving around.
Weasels are on the look out for mates. As they only have an average lifespan of 18 months, they tend to burn a lot of energy and needs to consume about a third of their body weight to survive.
February is when you have the best chance of not only hearing, but due to the trees still being bare, actually seeing woodpeckers as they start to peck at trees as a territorial warning to other woodpeckers.
Humans that enjoy gardening can be spotted at this time as they start to prepare their gardens for this year’s flowers or vegetables. They also start cleaning out their greenhouses and sheds in preparation of the year’s gardening schedule. The most famous February animal appearance is from Punxsutawney Phil is a groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for the annual Groundhog Day celebration. On February 2 each year his role is to predict if there is to be six more weeks of winter or an early spring.
