The beginning of the month was unseasonably mild. A red admiral butterfly was seen feeding on a mahonia bush in the garden, many ladybirds were still active and the dahlias remained unblackened by frost.
Whilst helping with conservation work on Burham Down during December I came across hundreds of nut shells under the trees of a hazel coppice. Mammals had gnawed holes in many of the shells, through which the kernels had been extracted. Most of the holes had been made by bank voles and wood (or long tailed field) mice, but some showed the characteristic signs of dormice. Hazelnut shells discarded by dormice have holes which are round, neatly chiselled and smooth edged. In contrast, holes gnawed by bank voles and wood mice show clearly visible teeth marks.
Dormice are nocturnal and hibernate from October to April. The North and South Downs appear to have the highest density in Britain of the animals. They are probably fairly plentiful in most wooded parts of the Downs. Apart from Burham Down, dormice also live in Ambley Wood and certain other local, species-rich woods. Dormice are like miniature squirrels and Victorian children often kept them as pets. These days, thankfully, it is a criminal offence even to handle a dormouse, unless licensed by English Nature to do so.
Tennyson described the fruit of the spindle tree as one which, in winter woodland, looks like a flower. It consists of pink lobes surrounding an orange seed. The wood of the tree is hard and non-splintering and was once used for making spindles. It was also used by gypsies for making skewers, pegs and knitting needles. A small spindle tree at the main car park for Queendown Warren (near to the entrance to Warren House) was in glorious colour in December.
A gap has recently appeared in the roadside hedge of a busy Rainham street revealing a mass of mistletoe growing on an old apple tree. The druids treated any oak tree on which mistletoe was growing as a sacred tree and sprigs of the plant were cut down with a golden knife in a magic ritual. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe at Christmas may be linked with a fertility rite although it may equally be connected with the custom of hanging mistletoe in a porch to denote peace and hospitality.
In next door’r garden are two English (or Common) holly trees. One is a male and so never produces berries. No matter how prolific the female tree is, the wood pigeons, starlings, blackbirds and thrushes usually strip the berries before Christmas. (The birds do not appear to like those on a cultivated holly down the road!) The leaves of the holly tree are thick, with waxy surfaces, to enable them to reduce water loss through evaporation when the soil is frozen in Winter. This explains why holly does not wither quickly when used as a Christmas decoration. Legends link the holly’s blood-red berries and spiky leaves with Christ’s crucifixion and crown of thorns, which reinforces its use as a church decoration.