It has been an odd Winter. Lots of rain in January – my weather station recorded 117 mm in the month – and then hardly any to date in February.

The cold snap we had a week or two ago brought more birds onto the garden feeders. Until the end of last year we had just the one Siskin turning up most days. Once the weather got colder that changed to at least 3 Siskins most days.

A few Lesser Redpoll also turned up on one day – a rare visitor to the garden.  Their nickname is a Blushing Sparrow. They are small and brown - sparrow like - with a little red above their beak and in Summer that can extend down the breast a little as well – hence the nickname. A pretty bird.

Another pretty bird I always enjoy seeing is the Brambling. One or two have been coming to the bird feeders in recent weeks – usually mixing in with the small Chaffinch flock that we have in the garden. Bramblings have beautiful markings.

Over the Winter months I have heard of a couple of reports of a Polecat being seen in the area. This raises an interesting question. Were they Polecats or Ferrets?

The Polecat is the ancestor of the domestic Ferret. Given their close relationship, it is not surprising that it is very difficult to distinguish between them. They also move quite fast, so they don’t give you much time to study them – hence no photo here of a Polecat. When I have seen them, I have never been quick enough to get a photo – very frustrating!

The Polecat has a two-tone coat, dark brown hairs cover a buff-coloured underfur. It has a distinct bandit-like appearance, with white stripes across its dark face. It has a short, dark tail and rounded ears. 

The guidebooks unhelpfully tell us that ‘you can tell the difference between a Ferret and a Polecat based on their head sizes, as Polecats have larger heads compared to Ferrets’. That’s not easy when you cannot compare them standing side by side!

Finally, Ferrets are social animals, while Polecats prefer a solitary existence – a little more helpful.

I came across two Ferrets a few weeks ago. The fact there were two adults together and the size of the head made me certain that I was looking at a Ferret.

I have seen what, I think, is a Polecat locally a few times and from one of the photos I was sent recently of a dead animal it was a good contender for a Polecat.

Polecats are spreading across the UK. They have a bad press in that they are blamed for killing poultry. They are perceived as bloodthirsty animals. Polecats were declared as vermin during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Despite their reputation as pests of poultry, polecats eat small rodents, rabbits, frogs, birds and snakes during their nocturnal hunts. They stalk their prey slowly, seizing it and killing it with a swift bite to the neck.

They are certainly here in Hampshire with a number of regular reports across the county. However just to make things more difficult a Polecat will occasionally mate with a Ferret. The resulting young, known as Polecat-Ferrets are just there to make it even more difficult for us to identify a true Polecat!!

We don’t have a great deal of open water near to us in Vernham – Anton Lakes is probably the closest decent sized area of water. I walk around the lake occasionally and am always pleasantly surprised at what I see there – for such a busy place with lots of people and dog walkers etc. Our lack of open water means we do not get many water birds here in and around the village. There are a few Moorhens around and Mallard duck.

Whilst walking past the church a few days ago I was surprised to see a Cormorant flying over.

Last year a couple of Cormorants spent some of the Winter near to the pond at Vernham Manor, presumably this one was heading in the same direction. If I go back to my childhood and first few years of bird watching it was unusual to see Cormorant this far inland – they were mostly coastal birds. When I look at the Atlas of Breeding Birds – the first edition published in 1976 – they only bred on the coast with a very small number of breeding sites inland, in Scotland.

Looking at the most recent Bird Atlas published in 2013, they are shown as breeding across the whole of the UK on the coast and inland in much of England. They winter across the whole of the UK. This brings them into conflict with fisherman and fisheries as they do have a good appetite for fresh fish! So not a common local bird, just putting in an occasional appearance.

Wildlife book of the month

I really enjoyed ‘The role of birds in World War One’ written by Nicholas Milton. There are stories about how birds did not migrate across Europe during the war due to the disturbance caused by the fighting. This is untrue and in fact the book demonstrates how birds existed side by side with the soldiers fighting the war and in many respects were undisturbed by what was going on. One bird, even building a nest on a gun emplacement in regular use!

However, a price was put on the head of sparrows, who were blamed for eating cereal crops – Rat and Sparrow clubs were formed to oversee the slaughter of Sparrows. The recently formed RSPB fought and won that battle, to stop the slaughter of Sparrows.

And if you shot a homing pigeon then the punishment was 6 months imprisonment or a £100 fine.