February

By Peter Conway

February is spring’s tedious waiting room - a frustrating, inbetween kind of month that seems much longer than just 28 days. There are early signs of returning life – snowdrops, crocuses, cherry blossom, increased birdsong – and the weather can sometimes have hints of spring too: but equally February can be as cold as at any time in the whole winter.

All traces of cosy midwinter cheer or pleasure in crisp winter days have faded by now – winter is no longer fun, just an irritation. Meanwhile the countryside is still drab and muddy: when you go for a walk, you wish you could be doing the same walk in a month or two.

WEATHER

There is nearly always a period in February when hats and gloves come off and spring seems to be around the corner. On the other hand, the month can contain some of the coldest weather of the winter – at times including snow.

The milder weather is often - but not always - due to Atlantic westerly winds, which bring wet, changeable weather. Sunny intervals between the rain fronts can seem very warm and springlike, with the sun now packing a real punch compared to the low thin sun of early January.

But high pressure can also bring warm sunshine, depending on where it is situated. Generally, continental highs are good news, for example, drawing in warm air from the south. However, if high pressure sits to the west or south west of the UK, it can freezing winds, grey cloud and even snow down from the north. Scandinavian highs can also bring easterly winds and snow from Russia.

It was a Scandinavian high that brought the worst snow to south of the UK in 18 years in the first week of February 2009. There was heavy snowfall overnight on 1-2 February, with 12-15 centimetres in London, and 20-30 centimetres on the North Downs. Monday 2 February was the first day since 1991 when snow settled and remained on the ground in central London, and throughout the south east trains did not run and schools and offices were closed.

The snow lasted on the ground until 9 February, with further falls (later produced by westerly winds over freezing air), but the bulk of these were beyond the western and north western edges of London. Thursday 5 and Friday 6 February saw 15 centimetres fall on the Chilterns, allowing a wonderfully snowy Saturday Walk on the 7th. Monday 9 saw a thaw, but London only escaped more heavy snow in the next 24 hours by a whisker: there was snow further north and west across a wide swathe of the country, but in London it fell as nearly 3 centimetres of rain.

Another February with particularly cold wintry weather was 2005, a prime example of a stubborn high to the west of the UK producing bitter northerly and then north easterly winds. These set in on the 13th of the month, and lasted for the next four weeks. In the last week of February they brought regular snow flurries, which produced quite deep snow further north, but in the south east only settled overnight as dustings or a centimetre of snow, melting by day.

2006 also saw northerly winds set in on 20 February, lasting into March, but though in some ways this was a repeat of 2005, and brought lots of snow to the north of the country, in the south the winds were much lighter than the previous year, and the skies much clearer. From 24 February onward, indeed, it was mainly sunny, and it felt postively warm and springlike out of the wind. Ponds and canals remained frozen, however, and nights were bitter.

2007 also saw snow, as sunny but cold high pressure gave way on 8 February to westerly winds. The transition caused 10-12 centimetres to fall on London and the south east, but it melted within 48 hours.

Westerlies then prevailed for the rest of February 2007, and despite the Atlantic weather, there were many mild sunny days and temperatures of up to 13 degrees. By contrast, in 2003, 2005 and 2006 it was the first half of the month that saw the westerlies. In 2006, the rain at this time brought to an end a very dry winter, with as little as 60 percent of normal rainfall, which had left south east reservoirs at historic low levels.

Examples of mild weather coming from high pressure include 2008, which saw high pressure in control from the 8th to the 20th, bringing many days of cloudless blue skies: at first, the temperature also reached a relatively mild 14 degrees by day, but later it sunk back to around 9-10 degrees, the usual average. Nights were cold and frosty. Even when westerlies predominated in February 2008 – that is before the 8th and after the 20th – the weather remained remarkably sunny, however, and there was as little as 5mm of rain the entire month.

2003 also saw benign dry high pressure from 16 February onwards bringing warm and relatively sunny weather, which more or less lasted for the whole of March too, and was the start of that year’s famous long hot summer. 2001 and 2002 saw shorter sunny highs around the third week.

The second half of February 2009 saw high pressure bringing milder weather too, with temperatures up to 12 degrees, but with the high situated to the south west of the UK the air it fed in off the Atlantic was relentlessly cloudy. Two exceptions were the 21st and 27th, both sunny days that felt positively springlike.

The dry weather in 2008 caused mud to dry on country paths and fields by mid month, and it was even possible to sit on the grass. By the end of 2009 the mud also dried somewhat. But usually February is the most trying month for mud, with relatively little evapouration and the ground saturated with a whole winter’s rain.

More cheerful signs in February include the fact that the evenings are also rapidly lengthening. Bad weather means one often does not notice, but it is in fact getting darker 12-13 minutes later each week. Lighting up time goes from before 5pm at the start of the month to 5.35pm at the end of it, meaning one can walk in the countryside till an amazing 6pm. As the evenings lengthen, so do one's mental horizons, and one starts to venture a little further afield for walks or days out - but only a little. By the end of the month, you can almost leave work in the light.

On the downside, this is the month when the immune system seems to flag. It seems impossible that one should get through February without getting a cold, flu, or some strange stomach bug.

NATURE NOTES

• Snowdrops and crocuses, and a green fuzz on woodland floors
• the first blossom appears on trees, as do catkins
• a good month to observe birds and identify their song

Flower and tree names in blue are links to photos. You can also put your cursor over any photo to the right of the page to see its caption, or click on it to see it larger or view the whole February photostream. In addition, Wikipedia is a great source for photos and further information.

Crocuses are the star attraction this month. Around the end of the first week, they suddenly decide to pop their heads out of the ground and grow frantically upwards (This happened in the last week of January, in 2007 and 2008, but not really till the second week in colder 2009). When a sunny day tempts their blooms to open into delicate stars, it feels as if spring has arrived.

Snowdrops also continue in full flower in their demure little clusters, though some are going over as the month ends, the first poignant die back of the year. In certain places, aconites – gorgeous yellow flowers with a ruff of narrow green leaves – can also be seen: these are more usually garden plants, but can be seen growing wild, for example in churchyards.

As February progresses, you might also see some celandines, primroses or daffodils, but these are mostly isolated examples in sheltered spots. (2007 and 2008 saw quite a lot of daffodils out by the end of the month, however: in 2008, they seemed to be full out in many places by the last week: by contrast in cold 2009 almost no daffodils appeared and few were even in bud by the end of the month). Likewise, some daisies and even the odd dandelion also appear, but they are by no means flowering en masse yet, and as the old adage says, spring has not come until you can cover nine daisies with your foot (something that doesn’t happen till April).

Towards the end of the month tiny purple violets may start to bloom along the banks in lanes and at the side of paths. Other flowers you might also see in mild Februaries include red deadnettle, chickweed (a very insignificant flower of field margins) and maybe even some adventurous speedwell. In gardens the purple periwinkle can flower, as can rosemary, which puts out lovely blue flowers.

Green shoots on the woodland floor

On the woodland floor there is plenty of evidence of other blooms to come later in the spring. The most obvious is cow parsley, whose leaves can be seen in clumps everywhere ( At this time of year, the plant really does look like parsley, though it is not: its name means “fool’s parsley”).

Tiny shoots of goosegrass, and the curving waxy leaves of cuckoo pint (Lords and Ladies) are also very common, and from early in the month the the leaves of bluebells start to be seen everywhere in the woods where they will bloom.

Other signs of the spring to come in the woods include shoots of dogs mercury, which though unexciting in themselves can give woodland floors a pleasant green fuzz by the end of the month. By that time you can also see ransom (ie wild garlic) leaves and the tiniest shoots of wood anemone. Less cheerfully, the shoots of young stinging nettles (still thankfully very small) are starting to push up on verges and waste ground.

The first blossom

The other star attraction in February is cherry blossom (actually cherry plum blossom). By the middle of the month pink flowers appear on trees in city parks and streets, and you can also see its wild equivalent – a bushy tree with white flowers – in the countryside. (In 2005, the cherry blossom was brought to a sudden halt by fierce cold, however: flowering did not resume until mid March when the cold abated. 2006 followed suit, and the same happened in 2009, when February started with substantial snowfall)

If you have ever wondered why the blossom starts to fall almost as soon as it comes out, incidentally, it is not necessarily the wind that is to blame: pigeons and other birds also try to eat the blossom (or buds), causing it to fall to the ground. You can also see birds on other trees, nibbling away at the new buds.

The hazel catkins that started to come out at the end of January proliferate, their bushy “lambs tails” giving a welcome splash of yellow to the countryside, but by the second or third week they are going brown and falling in many places (not in 2009, when they mostly lasted to the end of the month). Alder catkins – easily recognisable because they are the only catkins to appear on trees also bearing cones - also lengthen from their short tight red winter appearance into long busy red-yellow tassels from around mid month (some at the start of the month in 2008, but en masse by mid month).

Scattered gorse flowers continue to be seen, and the tiny experimental leaves on elder bushes slowly proliferate, but seem not to get any bigger. On other trees, the buds become more prominent, turning their crisp winter outlines somewhat fuzzier: note the prominent black buds of ash, for example (whose seeds from the previous year are still slowly falling). Weeping willows even start to put forward leaves and catkins (at the same time) at the very end of the month: the fronds of the tree suddenly seem pale green from a distance, and stand out sharply in the landscape as a result. And right at the end of the month, you may see the white or yellow blobs of goat and pussy willow catkins too.

Privet hedges cease to shed leaves and quietly start growing new ones. Arable fields can gain a new fuzz of green from the new season crops: wheat looks like grass, rape like tiny cabage plants. The climbing plant you might see in leaf in woods or on fences by railway lines is, surprisingly enough, that quintessential summer bloom, honeysuckle. On cherry laurel, a rubbery-leaved evergreen bush which is often mistaken for rhododendrum, you can see the tall spikes that will become its flowers right from the start of the month (from late January indeed), but they do not flower yet.

A good month to observe birds

For pictures, more information and sound clips of the birds mentioned here, see the RSPB website. The RSPB sound file does not really portray the characteristic sound of the great tit, however: for this try this BBC site.

February is a great month to observe birds. With no foliage, the birds are (in theory, at least) easier to see, and there are relatively few species about to confuse the novice. Yet, as the month progresses, the male birds start to establish their territories, and birdsong increases.

Robins are particularly prominent, and their song can be heard everywhere right from the start of the month. Great tits, with their piercing see-saw song are also very evident. Other birds you can see are twittering blue tits (generally two or three together, though they also start their mating song in February), flocks of sparrows (usually around farm houses), and goldfinches with their cheerful twittering. Greenfinches also continue their sociable chirruping, and you can also hear males giving out a call like a pronounced “squeeeeezh”. Thorn scrub is a particularly good place to see all these birds.

As the month progresses, other birds start their mating calls. From the second week in the month you can hear song thrushes – easily recognisable because they repeat each phrase several times, but produce a great variety of sounds – and chaffinches, whose song is a cascade of notes a bit like a bowler making his run-up. The most exciting bird of all to hear is the blackbird, which can be heard at dusk and dawn singing its beautifully slow and melifluous song from high perches (such as chimney pots) from about mid month. This is a true sound of spring. The rest of the day they spend searching for worms and bugs on the ground – one of the few birds to do this. But if you see a small flock of ground feeding birds in February look closely, as they might just be redwings – a thrush-like bird with a red belly and a pale strip above the eye which normally lives further north but can come down south in search of food at the end of the winter.

Other birds to listen out for in February (you almost never actually see them) are green woodpeckers, whose call is a kind of manic laugh, and greater spotted woodpeckers, who drum on trees to show off to females. On alder trees you might see a quiet flock of siskins, which look a bit like greenfinches.

In arable fields, you get large flocks of rooks or starlings feeding, and the latter also can be seen wheeling in formation in huge flocks (many thousands strong) at dusk. Brighton pier is ironically a wonderful place to see this. In rough grassland or fallow fields, you might be surprised to hear a lark singing – an incongrous summer sound

Smaller creatures

One doesn’t associate February with insects, but there are some around. You might catch sight of a cloud of tinier insects, and around crocuses or violets look out for early bumble bees, which hibernate over winter and can emerge at this time (if it gets too cold again, they go back to bed!). Queen bees of other species are also out looking for nesting spots.

A glimpse of global warming?

In the very warm February 2008 smaller hawthorn bushes were putting out tentative leaves from around the middle of the month, something one would not normally expect till early April: this was seen in widely scattered locations, but only on certain hedges, and larger hawthorn scrub gave no signs of life. In addition, forsythia bushes, whose vivid yellow blossoms normally come out in mid March, started to flower in the last week of February 2008 and were full out by the month’s end

© Peter Conway 2006 - updated 2007, 2008, 2009 • All Rights Reserved • From his South East of England Almanac