"January sees the early starters in the breeding race begin to sing. In my garden, robins lead the way: sometimes uttering their sweet deliberate and tuneful song on New Year's Day itself. During mild winters, robins are joined by a chorus of other garden birds, each determined to get a head start on their rivals. So great tits sing their brash 'tea-cher, tea-cher' from the bare branches of the apple trees, while goldfinches twitter in the hawthorn hedge.
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| Winter robin Charles Tunnicliffe |
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| Finches Charles Tunnicliffe |
Later in the year, as spring finally takes hold, these early birds will be joined by new arrivals: the migrants currently spending our winter thousands of miles away in Africa. And day by day, week by week and month by month, other creatures will emerge: insects and mammals, reptiles and amphibians, and the panoply of wild flowers that will grace the parish fields and byways all summer long."
Wild Hares and Hummingbirds Stephen Moss
[and see the Charles Tunnicliffe Society]
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