The Beast from the East brings wonderful wildlife to the Watches team!

Well what a week we’ve had and for some it’s set to continue! Most of us might of thought: It’s the end of February, we’ve made our way through the two slowest and darkest months of the year- surely spring is just around the corner? We were wrong. In fact we were set for a double whammy of weird and wacky weather bought in by the Beast from the East and Storm Emma and were left completely stunned when temperatures of -12 and heavy snowfall were forecast.

Most of us were forced to leave work early and retreat to the warm, safe haven of home. These total white out conditions did wreak havoc for many of us across the country and our wildlife certainly took a battering too. But it’s times like these that we all learn to help each other out, lend an extra hand and ultimately slow down! It’s an opportunity for many of us to just stop, forget about our emails, jobs, chores and meetings and take the time to enjoy doing ‘nothing’. Ah, the joys of pottering around the house and garden, eating at least 5 meals a day because, you know, desperate times right!

This extreme weather was a real worry for our wildlife, especially when it came to food and water availability. Many of you however really came up trumps and put out a plethora of food and defrosted the water you provided for the birds. The rewards for doing so came flocking in, with a huge amount of redwing and fieldfare recorded feeding in your gardens. We also had lapwing, woodcock, jack snipe and even a water rail making themselves comfortable in your back yards!

These starlings were spotted in their hundreds, flocking in the middle of a road in Norfolk. 

For us that work on the Watches, things were especially exciting too!

Hi, I’m Lily and I work on the digital team for the Watches. Last Thursday, I must admit, I didn’t realise quite how bad the snow conditions were as I peered out the office window. The clock struck 3:45 and I thought it was about time to abandon ship and begin my commute home. Lucky for me, I left just in time to grab the first train out of Bristol to a station near (ish) to where I live.

Even though I was about 4 miles from home, I thought a lift would still be possible even if it was blowing a hooley outside. I was wrong- my only hope of a lift was currently snowed in, so I knew I had to make the long trek home through the countryside on my own (thankfully I’d worn two pairs of socks that day!).

Though it was rather chilly, it was one of the most beautiful walks I’d ever done. Everything had come to a stand still and each road, field, garden and woodland was covered by a thick blanket of fresh, powdery snow- I even had snowflakes, every one of them different, landing on my coat as I plodded along! The silence was comforting, like Mother Nature had forced us to stand still and embrace the beauty of the changing landscape and wildlife around us. The only sounds that whipped through the heavy snow were that of hungry birds, longing for a scrap of food and the shrieks and laughs of children, bombing down the hills on their toboggans. It was one of those times, quite rare to encounter nowadays I think, when every person you walk past smiles and says ‘hello’.

My walk home took me through the woods and immediately my eyes gravitated to the woodland floor, where I saw dozens of animal tracks; deer, squirrel, rabbit and birds. It was a reminder that nature really is everywhere and though sometimes we cannot see our beautiful wildlife, it may be just around the corner- the snow tracks certainly proved it! I could hear mistle thrush and blackbird around an old oak tree that was hugged by a mass of ivy- the berries were proving very popular for these hungry birds!

Through the woods I walked and the more the snow fell, the more the woodland seemed to open up. The white blanket was as if someone had hoovered all the leaf litter and undergrowth up- I could see right through this well known patch of woodland, depressions in the ground were obviously a new badger sett that I hadn’t before come across. On I walked, still my trusty boots were holding up as my feet were still bone dry, but I must admit, my hands were a little chilly! I passed along the road and what flew overhead left me standing in awe- it was a golden plover! Though normally seen in flocks- this one was on its own, probably scrounging for some bird food that someone had left out in their garden.

I was on the last leg of my wintery walk home, where I had reached the field where the River Frome runs through- it’s one of my favourite walking spots. A band of trees that run along the river line were dotted with hungry cormorants and a pair of goosanders that I normally see this time of year were floating along the river too. The wildlife certainly wasn’t disappointing me!

Out of the field, over the stile and up the drive. Home. I checked my bird feeders immediately and they were running seriously low, even though they were all brimming with peanuts, sunflower hearts and my special home-made fat balls just 6 hours earlier! I topped them up and defrosted the frozen water-bath and popped a few apples out too. To my amazement, two fieldfare and a redwing found the banquet I’d provided for my birds within an hour of topping up the feeders. What a surprise- I’d never even seen these winter thrushes, let alone had them on my garden feeders!

Snow may have caused havoc for many, but for me, it brought the most perfect impromptu wildlife adventure. 

For others that work on the Watches team, these were a few things that they enjoyed most about the unusually cold white-out weather!

Series and Digital producers Chris and Laura Howard recorded a huge variety of birds in their garden, including redwing and fieldfare- they even flushed a jack snipe too!

Producer Nikki Waldron popped 5 bird boxes up the week before the big freeze, so hoped that they provided a little warmth and protection from the outside elements. Though she didn’t see many birds in her garden whilst the Beast from the East was in town, the blanket of silence was especially noticeable and of course her puppy Biscuit loved his first encounter with snow!

Billy Clarke who is a researcher on the team headed home to Oxford, where he had his best ever barn owl experience! Billy visited an area where he had previously seen a barn owl and at dusk ventured up the path in the snow. Suddenly, out the corner of his eye he spotted a white movement in the distance, immediately he crouched down in anticipation. Amazingly this mass blob of white made its way down the path towards him - it was his barn owl! This majestic bird landed and perched on a branch less that 2 metres away from him. It sat for about 50 seconds, until it flew off into the distance.

Dom Davies, who also works as a researcher on the show stocked his garden full of food: apples and winter seed mix- he was hoping for a redwing visit. To his surprise... nothing. Not one bird came to visit this mass banquet of food he'd left out adoringly for the birds, not even a greedy wood pigeon! Feeling a little disheartened, it wasn't until the dead of night that he peered out of his video. A fresh blanket of snow had covered the food he'd earlier left down for the birds, but this didn't shun a hungry urban fox that was digging down into the snow to find the frozen treats. Jackpot!

Some of the production team share their snowy experiences

Sophie Taylor lives in the heart of Bristol and especially enjoyed the snowy tracks that were left behind by at least one of the known local urban foxes in the area.

Fran Maxwell braved the cold and noticed a huge number of robins around (her favourite bird). She also spotted a glimpse of spring poking through the snow with the lilac-purple and orange of the crocus.

John Cox loved seeing a variety of birds at his feeders. Fieldfare and redwing were the newbies to his garden, where they were joined by his regulars; long-tailed tit, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, blackbird, wood pigeon and mistle thrush.