Nature Notes:December 2022

LOVE LETTER TO FATHER CHRISTMAS

As the moon turned blood red, before slipping into the Earth's shadow, to create the last total lunar eclipse for 3 years, the COP 27 negotiations in Egypt, around climate change, were already under way. November's 'Beaver Moon' is apparently so called because the normal dip in temperatures, when it occurs, typically see beavers building up food supplies in their 'lodges' for winter. Yet when our own Beaver 'scouts' laid poppies on our war memorial just a week later, it was the warmest Remembrance Sunday on record! This followed our wettest start to the month which flooded many of our fields and footpaths with temperatures well above the seasonal average both by day and by night. As I write, many of our trees are still dressed in many of their green-gold and burnished copper leaves, wild honeysuckle is flowering in our uncut hedgerows, bees and the odd Red Admiral are still on the wing, early primroses are coming up and the birds are singing as if it's spring!

It's certainly NOT 'Beginning to feel a lot like Christmas', or at least in the more nostalgic or traditional season, with a warmer season that's been gradually slipping later over the years, but maybe it will, by the time that you read this. Perhaps you'll step outside with frozen breath, beneath silent, starlit, twinkling skies as December's moon shines down brightly through now leafless, frost-trimmed trees, casting long, dark shadows on chilled solid ground. Maybe our landscape will be bedecked in the more traditional colours of red, green and white with holly, mistletoe berries and even snow, caught by the sun as it rises, and refracted into thousands and millions of ice sparkles shining like diamonds - a real 'winter wonderland'. Or not? In this time of climate instability, it's hard to tell. For the first time known by scientists, it rained at the summit of Greenland's enormous ice sheet this year and rain, rather than snow, also fell on east Antarctica.

With startling heatwaves at both poles (with temperatures 40C/72F above normal) the melting of vast areas of ice means less reflected heat, more intense heatwaves in the summer and more extreme winters when they do arrive. As the polar jet stream is destabilized, it will dip south, bringing bitter cold and plunging temperatures. Currently, the vanishing ice packs at the poles are leading to the loss of all those that depend on them for survival - polar bears, walruses, arctic foxes, snowy owls, and many other species, even reindeer. One wonders, is even Father Christmas safe?

Let's pray that both COP 27 and the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP 15, taking place in Montreal, Canada, between 7th-19th December 2022, lead to the necessary agreement of governments on goals guiding global action to halt and reverse nature loss, stop extinctions and save all life on earth. In this rather topsy-turvy season of good cheer, in our topsy-turvy world, may we all continue to be lucky enough to be charmed by unexpected sights and sounds around us, particularly as the days gather darkness as they wind up to their shortest on 21st December. The gales currently sweeping in, with accompanying squalls of rain, should speed up the trees slow striptease and reveal more of our native wildlife as well as our migrant visitors. Apparently, the berry crops in Scandinavia and Siberia are very low this year, so we may have a 'waxwing winter' and start noticing flocks of these colourful punk-crested birds (known collectively as 'museums') with their yellow and red 'sealing wax' trimmed wingtips and lemon-yellow paint dunked tails, munching on our rowan, hawthorn and holly berries and other berry varieties that grow on the shrubs and bushes in our gardens. Listen out for their high-pitched trills and whistles. Also, when the temperatures do start to dip, our own delightful, native long-tailed tits should become more visible, as they swoop in and out of view with their excitable 'See-see-sees'. Rather partial to seeds and suet on garden feeders, these wonderful, pink-tinged fluff-balls, much like us, spend Christmas with their families, as the youngsters who hatched earlier in the spring gather with their parents, cousins, aunties and uncles to roost snugly together. And isn't relationship - and gathering together with all - what life's about?

We've been so blessed to live here, in a wonderful village, amongst many marvels of nature and awe-inspiring and uplifting life-forms in myriads of shapes, colours and textures, that it's been easy to take these 'gifts' for granted. We've enjoyed seasons of plenty and 'the fat' of the land, celebrated our own achievements and shared our human family's sorrows and heartaches, but in doing so have become somewhat 'detached' from our wider brethren and the 'free' elements of life that support us in so many ways. So, my 'love' letter to Father Christmas this is year has to be, that the warmth of the fire that grows into a Christmas flame in all our hearts, with love, kindness, extravagant and often unexpected generosity this season, may continue to burn each and every day of the year; that the peace of Christ, the gentleness of the lambs in our fields, and the wonder of angels touch each and every one of us; that we individually and collectively, and especially those in authority in our community, county and country may be blessed with the wisdom of the Three Wise Men. May the only 'frozen hush' of the land be a temporary and holy 'silent night', broken outside with the sounds and songs of nature and the peal of the church bells, whilst inside by laughter and carol singing; that the pine scents of living Christmas trees, and oranges and cinnamon and cloves, may linger for years and generations to come; that we may truly feel and respond to nature's teardrops in the gentle rain, listen to the earth's sighs in the rustle of the leaves, experience it's warm embrace through the touch of the sun and tender kisses through any snowflakes that do fall; may we learn to look inside and outside of ourselves, take and use only that which we truly need and that we balance the whole of the earth again so we can continue to enjoy the seasons, the birds, the flowers, the rivers, the trees, family, neighbours, friends, each other, every-thing we have come to know and love. These are the gifts I'm asking Santa for this Christmas, and may they also be gifts that you all receive this season and evermore.

Wishing you and those you love, a happy and healthy Christmas and a life-giving, nature-inspiring and hope-filled New Year.

(P.S If you'd like some ideas to help you and your family actively connect to the natural world this holiday season, why not take part in '12 Days Wild' - a festive nature challenge that runs from 25th December 2022 - 5th January 2023? Details are on the Wildlife Trust's website.