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Its been a mild and wet winter so far and this has had a noticeable effects on our local flora and fauna. In the Glasgow area December temperatures were 2 to 3c warmer than average making it the 5th warmest month on record since 1910. Local rainfall was a staggering 200% above average levels and officially the wettest month on record. January was also milder and wetter than average although - at least in our region - not to the same extent as December. Further north and east, however, it was the second wettest month on record, second only to December 2015.
Ellen and I did the RSPB bird watch first thing on Saturday 30th January. Snow lay on the ground and it was good to be tucked up indoors watching the birds feed. We saw a good range of birds and healthy numbers too. It is too early to compare national results with other years as not all results are in yet, and results just from our garden are probably not that meaningful. However, its worth mentioning the absence of Siskins in our garden which were reasonably common last year, and this observation echos comments made on Winterwatch that some birds such as Siskins that come down from colder climes just havn't felt the need to travel so far south this year due to the mild weather. Dunnocks were also absent as were house sparrows, despite a healthy local population. On the subject of birds, both of our bluetit boxes are now back up. Today I saw bluetits taking a distinct interest in one of them. So if you havn't put yours up yet, it would be good to get round to it soon.
As well as the mild weather likely to be behind the absence of Siskins from our Milngavie garden, our flora seems to be getting to be getting off to an early Spring with new leaves sprouting on young Hawthorns and also on dog roses and I suspect also on honeysuckle. Rhubarb is also shooting up earlier than usual.