The orchards and fields around Hartlip are hosts to hundreds of fieldfares and redwings. They are members of the thrush family and are Winter visitors from Scandinavia. They are feeding mainly on the fallen apples but will also eat rose hips and hawthorn berries.
Fieldfares resemble missel thrushes in build and flight. They have pale grey heads and rumps, rich chestnut backs and black tails. They are extremely wary birds and have a rather harsh ‘chack-chack-chack' call.
Redwings are like small dark song thrushes. They have rich russet flanks and wings. They give a thin squeak – ‘Seeep'- in flight.
Once the leaves have fallen from the trees, bushes and hedgerows last year’s nests can be easily spotted. Many blackbirds and thrushes favour the forks of the poplar trees used as windbreaks round the orchards. There is an old nest every few yards in most stretches of hedgerow alongside the country roads and lanes. Frequently found nests are those of the hedge sparrow (a neatly built nest supported by a small platform of twigs), the greenfinch (a rather loose structure of small twigs and roots, grass and moss), the goldfinch (a neat and small-nest of grass and fine roots) and the bullfinch (a flat platform of twigs with a shallow cup of roots). Sheep’s wool can be found in the nests of all these birds but the bullfinch.
Until fairly recently I usually came across one or two dormice nests in a couple of stretches of mixed hedge between Meresborough and Hartlip. But the dormice no longer appear to be there.
In the woods and hedgerows around Queendown Warren can be found members of the tit family – great tit, blue tit, coal tit and long tailed tit. Flocks of the latter follow each other from beech tree to beech tree as they feed.
Even in the dark days immediately after Christmas there are signs of Spring. The hazel catkins are out and fresh green leaves are appearing on the honeysuckle.