Nature Notes - December 2025

Sickleholme Nature Notes

Recent notes have included members’ comments about the glorious colours that can be so much part of Sickleholme in the autumn months. The mix of season and weather made December look very differently.  Indeed, I am reminded of some words from a Max Boyce song. A young lad is crayoning an image in his colouring book and asks, “how shall I colour the valley, Dah?” “Colour it grey son, colour it grey” is the reply.

Our fungi and berries provided a little relief but otherwise, the main interest was in the birdlife. Six species of thrush (my favourite genus) are seen every year in Derbyshire. All have been recorded on the course, three of which (Blackbird, Mistle Thrush and Song Thrush) are breeding residents. A fourth species, the handsome Ring Ouzel, is a summer visitor breeding on local moorland and there has been one record, possibly two, of birds seen feeding on the course. The remaining two species are winter visitors (Redwing and Fieldfare) driven southwards from Scandinavia and western Europe to seek food supplies and milder weather. The month saw an abundance of Blackbirds, numbers supplemented by birds from the Continent, small flocks of Mistle Thrush (this month’s photo choice), only one record of Song Thrush, quite a few Redwing but less Fieldfare than usual. All benefit from berries and other food provided by the course.

Smaller birds have also been well in evidence particularly Blue Tits, many of which will be birds fledged from our nest boxes, and our population of Nuthatch have been gathering food and taking it to cache for harder weather. Cormorants fly over the course daily and I have twice seen birds in the Upper Hurst Brook over the years. It seems strange, when the species is basically a seabird, but they have bred in the county since 1998 and are now a familiar sight in most parts, albeit not to the pleasure of our anglers.

Having featured fungi over the last three months, I have been reminded that earlier in the year Royal Mail issued a set of stamps featuring fungi as a way of “raising awareness of their importance as a vital part of the fascinating biodiversity in the UK”. Let us value all of the latter.

Bryan Barnacle