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The very cold weather (-100C)
here put us in mind of how different creatures adapt to survive the extreme cold.
We still see the occasional fox, out in the fields or just disappearing into a hedge bottom
in the car headlights but they have a thick coat for protection. The deer likewise have a winter
coat on but have not been in the garden for a while. Knowing how bitter the recent months have
been I would think they have found a (comparatively) warmer spot in the woodlands away from
the river valley where it is decidedly colder. I know this from having scraped some of the frost
off the car to be able to see and motoring up a hill away from the cold air of the valley. Once
the car reached warmer air temperature the remaining frost on the car would thaw out.
The birds are taking every opportunity to eat, the seed feeders and the food on the bird table
being very popular. Somewhere I have seen it written that the small birds need to eat nearly
twice their own weight in food every day to survive.
One of the problems of being a farmer or a horse owner and keeping live stock, horses or any
other domestic animal is that you are never off duty. They need feeding and watering every day;
if the farmer has a dairy herd they will need milking twice a day as well and the water trough
needing to be free of ice (a problem when it is icy and the lumps of ice have to be removed
from the water tank). One of our horses had a positive way of dealing with iced up water and
would hit it hard with her front hoof to break it. The horses didn't mind the cold but would
always find a spot in the field that was sheltered from the wind.
Hibernation
Some animals hibernate, that is to say they find a cosy
spot to over winter. They can do this by gorging themselves in autumn to build up fat reserves
before their body functions slow down and they sleep the time away. The best example of this
is The Dormouse, other mammals not in quite such a state of deep sleep are hedgehogs, bats and
squirrels. Squirrels will only emerge from cosy drays when the weather is milder, looking
for hidden nuts which I understand they often forget where they put in the ground.
Reptiles being cold blooded start this process in October when the daylight hours start to shorten,
e.g. snakes , lizards, frogs, toads etc. They need light and warmth to get moving.
Snails
Find a dry spot out of the wind and seal up the shell entrance
with mucus until warmer times arrive. Now is the ideal time to hunt them out as they tend to
congregate under pots, ledges, bricks, stones and in small wall crevices etc.
Bugs have their own way of surviving, but more of them next time.
Richard and Diana Terry.
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