February 2025

Lots of bright, dry, sunny and cold days for the first half of this month, rain and some harsh southerly winds followed bringing down trees between St Austell and Truro on the train tracks. Dry and sunny at the close of the month. Described by the MET Office as 'uneventful', which sounds dull but I'm fine with that.

Dogwoods, Daffodils and Celandine provided the colour for this month, with lots of green appearing everywhere on this fertile peninsula. It is the time of year when the change in the land is first felt, everyday brings more growth and many different shades of greens present themselves in a range of new leaves forcing themselves up from the ground.

Birds were also making their presence felt.  I made three recordings in the last week, one at 5am and the second at 7am and one at 8am all on the same day. I'm trying to work out the busiest time for birdsong.  At 5am the sounds came from a Magpie, Jackdaw, Robin, Song Thrush, Goldcrest and Skylark.  I'm not convinced about the Skylark.  At 7am the birds listed were as follows: Canada Goose, Rook, Ring necked Pheasant (what other kind exists?), Robin, Wood Pigeon, Nuthatch, Skylark, (or not)  and at 8am a Wren, Bluetit, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Dunnock and Robin.  The 7am session was the busiest but only by 1 more bird in its group. The main learning surprise for me was that each hour had a different set of birds.  I had expected it to be more uniform than that with a new species added on to the main chorus rather than a completely new team. I will now need to do this each month to see if this is the general trend.

The RSPB informs me that this is the month when all the birds are out trying to attract a mate, hence the morning choir sessions. Ravens are known to add air displays as part of their courtship and once they have formed a pair they stick together for life. No Ravens have ever come up on the birdsong App and I have not, to date, noticed any spectacular air displays from any black birds, but I will now  be keeping a sharper lookout in the coming weeks. I'm not sure if we get Ravens around here.

If I had to choose a plant that sums up the promise of change and brighter things to come, it would have to be the Lesser Celandine. Every year that we have been here they have increased the size of their colonies and given birth to many new ones. Out of dreary clumps of dead grasses and brambles, these juicy green heart shaped leaves burst forth, and soon after the warm deep yellow flower makes its appearance.  Apart from my delight in seeing them scattered across the field they are worthy inhabitants for they bring an early supply of pollen and nectar for the hungry pollinating insects that have started to emerge.  Contrary to what you might think, these flowers are not related to the Greater Celandine plant which is part of the Poppy family, the Lesser belongs to the Buttercup family.  They are 'heliotropic', which means the flowers respond to the weather - they turn their faces to the sun and close their petals in the rain or the cold, hence their reputation as weather forecasters.

According to the naturalist Gilbert White, the 21st of February is Celandine day, (and Imbolc), and therefore the best day to look for these flowers. One of the common references to them is the 'Spring Messenger', which is a rather lovely harbinger of things to come.  Less poetic is the name of 'Pilewort', referring to the traditional use of the Celandine root as a haemorrhoid treatment.  Other treatments include using the leaves, (which are full of vitamin C), for scurvy, varicose veins, ulcers, and warts. And if that wasn't enough, they were also hung in cow byres because they were said to bring good yields of milk.(www.heroutdoorz.co.uk)

Although William Wordsworth has been long been associated with the Daffodil, he wrote a poem called, 'The lesser Celandine' and it's clear that this was really his preferred flower, as it is mine.

There is a Flower, the Lesser Celandine,

That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain;

And, the first moment that the sun may shine,

Bright as the sun himself, 'tis out again!

When hailstones have been falling, swarm on swarm,

Or blasts the green field and the trees distressed,

Oft have I seen it muffled up from harm,

In close self-shelter, like a Thing at rest."

More verses follow but you get the gist of his delight.