January is well underway and first off I would like to wish all my readers and their families a very Happy New Year! Hopefully 2012 will be a good, perhaps wild, one for you.   Now, if -- like me -- you are in the habit of making resolutions at the start of the New Year, you may be trying to work out what you can do to improve your life for the coming year.   My suggestion: get out and experience the amazing spectacles and species that Nature has to offer. Forget the gym. If you feel you need the exercise, perhaps volunteer with your local wildlife conservation group and help with some of their chores. A day of clearing scrub from a nature reserve will leave you feeling just as exhausted as a session in the gym, but at the end you’ll be safe in the knowledge that you’ve done something eminently worthwhile and will more than likely have made some new friends in the process.   If this takes your fancy contact The Wildlife Trusts, the Forestry Commission, the National Trust, the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers or your local Natural History society/group.   If you have already decided that you want to get out and experience Nature this year, you have probably started drawing up a list of the places you want to visit and the species you want to see.   With that in mind, here are a few species to look out for this month.

January is a good month for mammal spotting, not because they are particularly active (indeed many species hibernate or substantially reduce their activity during winter), but because the lack of foliage makes it easier to spot them.   Rodents are very active at the moment; with insect prey still relatively scarce (although it is still very mild and I’ve noticed quite a few flying insects still on the wing) it is not unusual to see mice and voles feeding on seed spilt from bird feeders.   Similarly, squirrels are busy recovering caches that they made during the autumn and this can be fascinating to watch, especially if there are corvids in the vicinity, which will often sidle up to squirrels and harass them while they’re feeding.   One mammal that is particularly active at the moment is the Red fox – we’re in the height of the breeding season now and many people will now be hearing much calling, although the foxes themselves are seldom seen during daylight.   Come the end of February, many vixens will be excavating a natal earth in which to give birth to cubs.   If you’re hoping to get some views of your local foxes, early mornings are the best times and, when conditions are cold and there has been a hard frost voles become more diurnal (i.e. active during the daytime); as a consequence, so do foxes.   Badgers are also breeding at this time of year, although they spend more time underground during periods of cold weather, which can make them difficult to spot.   Despite being ‘indoors’ for longer, they don't hibernate.   Hedgehogs (dormice and bats, too), on the other hand, do hibernate.   Despite the mild conditions, my local hedgehogs have disappeared (although I know some people still have them visiting their feeders) and I take this to mean that they’re now deep in hibernation and will hopefully stay there until Spring arrives.   It should, however, be emphasised that hibernation is not a continuous process and, if it gets very cold, hedgehogs will rouse from hibernation to search for food (if the temperature in the hibernaculum drops below 1^oC, the hedgehogs are in danger of freezing to death).   Consequently, it is not unusual to find hedgehogs out and about on very cold nights. Finding a hedgehog active during the day, however, is usually a sign that it needs veterinary attention.   See Natasha Harper’s article on Caring for Hedgehogs, for more information. Given that many hedgehogs will now be in hibernation, if you're planning on having a winter bonfire, PLEASE take a moment to CHECK ALL GARDEN RUBBISH PILES FOR HEDGEHOGS BEFORE LIGHTING THEM.   Piles of lopped branches, leaves and other plant matter are a mighty tempting spot for hedgehogs to 'snooze' away these winter months and every year many -- probably well into the thousands -- are killed when people light their bonfires without checking first. It may sound simple, but a couple of minutes of your time could save a hedgehog's life!   Finally, January is a good time to look for deer.   Chinese Water deer are still rutting at the moment, which can make it easier to track down this otherwise elusive species.   Other deer species have completed their ruts, although the males of most (Red, Fallow and Sika) will still be in antler and large groups may be encountered.   Roe bucks are in the process of shedding and re-growing their antlers in time for their rut in the late summer.

January is a good birding month, with many predatory birds in evidence in our woodlands, marshes and heaths.   Hen Harrier (right) and Marsh Harriers are particularly evident at this time of year and I have recently had the pleasure of watching a male Hen harrier hunting over a patch of heather on the New Forest.   There are also some Great Grey shrikes about at the moment, as well as a bumper crop of Short-eared owls, which are beautiful to watch but -- owing largely to their lack of contrast against the reeds over which they hunt -- can be the nemesis of the photographer (as I experienced just before Christmas!).   There are also plenty of waterfowl around at the moment, with wigeon, teal, shelducks, numerous species of geese, avocets, sandpipers and shovelers being among those on my ‘to see’ list this month.   There also appear to be quite a few Great Crested grebes around; some are still in summer plumage, although most seem now to be in their winter regalia (top).   It can often be worth taking a trip to your local pond, lake or reservoir just to see what’s about.   I’ve been to Southampton Common plenty of times in the past, but never really gave the lakes much thought, naively thinking that ponds in the middle of a large city would just support the usual mallards, coots, moorhens and seagulls.   Over Christmas, however, I decided to take a closer look and, although there were plenty of the aforementioned, I was also treated to a heron, tufted ducks, pochards and a stunning male mandarin duck (below).   There were also various small birds (Long-tailed tits, robins, even a bullfinch), a sparrowhawk and mammals (mainly Brown rats) around the pond, which were interesting to watch.   So, however mundane you expect the wildlife on your local pond, or in your local park to be, it is always worth taking a walk to check it out.   Better still, try visiting on different days and at different times to improve your chances of seeing something interesting.   Keeping a note of what you see and when you see it each year can make an interesting record of the wildlife on your local patch – such records are often highly prized by local Natural History groups.

If you prefer something a little more sedate to get you started for the year, the mild winter has meant that there are still some fungi about and several plant species, particularly snowdrops it would seem, are in bloom already.   January is also a good month to seek out the often overlooked fungi-algae collaboration, more commonly known as lichen.

Website-wise, things are now getting back on track after something of a hiatus over Christmas.   The penultimate section of the Red fox article is nearing completion and I have now had confirmation from a couple of people (including the eminent mammalogist Professor David Macdonald) that I can use some of their photos to accompany the article, so I’m confident it will be worth all the time and effort.   One of the Q/As that is waiting in the wings to go online discusses the phenomenon of Samson foxes.   The Samson condition is a rare genetic defect that causes the fox to fail to grow guard hairs, giving it an almost 'woolly' appearance with just the underfur.   Earlier this month, WLOL reader Staci Wood got in touch and sent me a photo of a Samson fox that has been visiting her garden in North Carolina since Christmas.   Fascinating to get a glimpse of such a rare animal - thank you, Staci.   Some more of her trailcam photos will accompany the Q/A when it goes live shortly.   The redesign is also progressing and I’m in the process of converting all the existing pages into the new format.   The Wildlife Online gallery on Flickr has been updated with some photos taken over the festive break and will continue to be updated regularly with photos I have taken when I should actually have been indoors working on the fox article!   At the moment the galleries only contain my attempts at wildlife photography, many quite poor, but I am looking at expanding it to include contributed photos too.   As always, I love hearing from readers; any queries or comments regarding the information on the site can be sent in using the addresses on the Contact page (Note: Some website questions are answered on the FAQ, while many animal-related questions are covered in the Q/A).   Photos can be e-mailed to a dedicated e-mail address - please keep them coming and don't forget to check out my Photos Needed page.   I'm also interested in hearing any reports of unusual behaviour in any of the animals featured on this site, or interactions between humans and wildlife.

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