A survey taken last week by Shaun McCullagh, a local ornithologist, registered 33 species of birds on the Reserve in a single assessment. Shaun does bird counts for the British Trust for Ornithology and has run the BTO bird census on the Isle of Mull for several years now, so we are delighted to have his help and his findings have exceeded our hopes, confirming the presence here of nuthatches, fieldfares, redwings and many other birds which we have not had the time or skill to spot. It is encouraging evidence that our little haven can support a good range of wildlife, even through a harsh winter.
Here we are rapidly running out of dry wood for the Rayburn. Michael seems to spend half the day sawing up old fence posts and dead branches and we have running battles over which items belong to the beetles and woodpeckers and which are fit to burn. Some sticky pine the other day gave us a chimney fire at supper time. An ominous crackling in the Rayburn flu alerted me and I called for assistance. Michael, a veteran fireman of 33 years service, looked at it quizzically and pronounced that it was only soot burning and would probably do the chimney good. "Shut everything down and see what happens", he said. My efforts to continue cooking were hampered by falling sparks and molten cinders and when the chimney plate began to glow I made a larger fuss: "You know, this really is on fire!" Michael considered the matter. Pottered outside to inspect the state of the chimney pot, rummaged briefly in his veterinary box and handed me a water pistol. "You could try squirting that up there if you like. There are no flames coming out of the top." The water pistol produced an angry sputtering and dribbles of tar, but gradually did the job. Apart from a few smuts in the risotto no real harm done. Of course we should get the chimney swept more often. 'Grandmother's Household Hints', an old American manual recommends dropping a live hen down once a year. The fluttering descent will dislodge soot most effectively! No mention of chicken's rights! More prosaically, Sussex lore advocates a holly branch. I might simply settle for calling in the sweep!
This week we open to the public once more and everyone is trying their hand at the new self-service drinks machine to see whether the filter coffee really lives up to its name. Verdicts are good so far, so we are hoping this will add an extra pleasure to the end of a walk round the park for visitors.
One sad note. We lost dear old Charlie the donkey. Heaven knows how old he was,as he was already elderly when he came to us and that was over 16 years ago. This winter he became slower and slower at eating his food and Michael spent many long hours standing over him in the snowy weather, to fend off the cows who gobbled their rations so quickly and came foraging for more. We find ourselves still looking for his pale shadow and quiet welcome at the gate.
No more news for now, other than to put it on record that the sun shone yesterday and it felt, at last, like spring!
New for 2-5 year olds!
'Forest School style 'Adventure Tuesdays at Stoneywish Nature Reserve during term time from 9am-2pm.
Today, a slimy-brown,
relentlessly rainy day, is Twelfth Night, the traditional end of Christmas and the day when we should be wassailing the apple trees to sing in a good harvest and frighten away malicious spirits by banging trays and firing off the odd shot gun. Though we have done it in fun in other years, there seems small chance of it in this downpour, so perhaps we shall have to toast them from the comfort of our fireside instead. I did, however, go out and inspect them. New buds are still tightly clamped to their branches, but there is a different air already about all the trees in the reserve. Hazel catkins are almost in flower.
The birches 
are alive with robins in full voice and at dawn, their warning cries mingle with those of the blackbirds and late-hunting owls, while the mistle thrush tries out his spring song. The green spears of the flag iris shoots are up like a fringe of little teeth along the margins of the ponds, and winter aconites, always the first flowers of spring, are breaking through the leaf mould, uncurling their yellow heads in defiance of the weather and creating their own sunshine.
Contrary to good orchard practice, we failed to pick up the fallen Bramleys and the snow has now covered them twice. But I notice that since their first frosting they seem to have become more palatable to the birds and they have helped sustain them through the last few weeks. Moreover, more birds foraging should mean fewer bugs left for the spring, I hope, and fewer maggots in the apples. It has seemed to work in other years.
Meanwhile, back to the rain. My wellies have sprung another leak so feeding the chickens is rather like hopscotch, dodging the puddles! Traditionally, it is February that earns the epithet 'fill-dyke'. Well, all our ditches are full a month early and passing Canada geese stop off to investigate the new ponds that have appeared out in the meadows. Michael says he has never seen the fields so flooded and the drive to the Car Park is honeycombed with potholes. 
Compared with the vast floods happening elsewhere in the world, we have nothing to complain of, but you get a sense of the incredible power of water when even our gentle English rain washes out a road overnight. The news from Brazil, Australia, Indonesia gives a sobering glimpse of true global warming in action and makes our local perspective seem rather trivial. But it also brings home the awareness that we are all connected. Perhaps it is good to get your feet wet and remember that the weather is not just an amenity, or an inconvenience, but, like part of our skin, a medium for life and breath. We always want to insulate ourselves, but the old wassailers sensed, with a wisdom long pre-dating scientific knowledge, that one had to stay close to Nature if one wanted to keep it benign. The water birds here live immersed in their element and for them the thaw is a welcome relief. After all, it is exhausting work breaking ice with your chest when the ponds freeze over!