As described (a little) here, this December (and this whole year in fact) has been a particularly wet – so wet in fact that if we get the anticipated rain before January 1^st 2013, we will have just been through the wettest calendar year on record.

Even if we don’t get the predicted rainfall in the last few days of the year, 2012 will go down in history as one of the top five wettest years recorded in the UK.

I tend to find this time of year (in any year) pretty miserable for more than a couple of reasons which I won’t detail here.

I certainly am a “boy of summer” – I massively look forward to the spring and summer each year - and when my beloved swifts leave us during August, my mercurial nature (it often seems to be either 100% with me or 1%) nose-dives as I ummmm “look forward” to another dark 6 months.

December is a dark month – often cold, wet and bare. One leaves for work in the dark and returns home in the dark and me… well I hardly even have the time (or light) to check on my girls (the hens) during the “working week”.

This year in particular though, we had no summer (nor spring really).

This winter has therefore hit me quite hard.

March was beautiful (and quite warm) and August wasn’t terrible, but that was that as far as warm(ish), sunny(ish) long(ish) days were concerned – we’ve seemingly been stuck in the worst October or November day all year.

Unlike bears and hedgehogs though, I can’t hibernate through these dark months so it’s important (for me and possibly many others I feel) to try and think of at least one silver lining if all that seems obvious is a gurt big black cloud though (a metaphorical black cloud or an actual black cloud).

So as December’s late full (or “cold” or “wolf”) moon appears today…. what are my personal winter (wildlife) silver linings to get me through this December?

1. It’s not cold. We’ve barely had a series of hard frosts as I type. (Bound to change I know, but 14c in late December is pretty darned balmy (if not barmy)).
2. We’ve had no lying snow, nor frozen pipes and cars. (Ditto).
3. All the water butts are nice and full.
4. We’ve had a lovely arrival of lots of birds - large numbers of fieldfares, redwings, jays, goldeneye, bitterns and, best of all again, (so soon after 2010) waxwings.
5. The barn owl that takes its repose in a hollow Oak a few miles from our house has returned – always nice to see.
6. The little owls had a successful breeding season on the nearby farm and will soon be back to reclaim their rights to the owl box (a matter of weeks if not days now).
7. The Mediterranean spiders that hide in their tube-webs inside our side passage (outside our back or “side” door) have stubbornly refused to hide for any period of time (unlike most cold winters when they’d disappear for weeks if not months). Even though my wife might not agree - a glimpse of their iridescent green fangs is a reminder of sunnier, warmer days for me.
8. The bird bath hasn’t needed topping up at all (just cleaning).
9. Our squirrels have (mysteriously?!) left – leaving the bird feeders to their intended recipients (I’ve not seen a squirrel in weeks now).
10. This year’s winter skies are pretty spectacular. Skudding purple clouds with the odd low shaft of brilliant sunshine spotlighting a kite or an egret ‘gainst a brooding background, double (if not triple) rainbows, and regular “moon-bows”  make for more interesting viewing and photographs than gin clear blue skies devoid of skeins of geese or rattling winter thrushes and tinkling waxwings…
11. Any local bird species at the northern edge of their usual range (think barn owls and Dartford warblers) may well have a more “survivable” winter than recent years – I hope that balances out their dreadful breeding season earlier in the year.
12. The daffodils in our back garden have already peeped their heads out of the ground. A constant reminder that spring will come sooner than I think.
13. We have a hibernating hedgehog in the garden – I’ve never had that before.
14. We have our first (lovely rigid) pond to dig into the garden this winter so that we can look forward to a wildlife bonanza in the years ahead.
15. The clearing of the temple, sorry, garden, happened this year despite my ill health and my wife’s pregnancy, so we are free to get planting and landscaping in earnest during the first few months of 2013, if all goes “swimmingly”.
16. The girls (hens) have had a super, large, roofed run kindly built around their old coop by our old (Reading) neighbour – so there’s little chance of them getting wet, frozen, snaffled by the local fox or diseased this winter.
17. My health does seem to be improving (I say that very tentatively) so I am actually considering wildlife at present (for the first time in 9 months) and projects for the season and new year. I am genuinely ecstatic (and very thankful and relieved) that I am NOT waking up wondering when the crippling nausea and constant aches would strike as they have done for the vast majority of the year. I hope it lasts…
18. My gorgeous and thoughtful wife has very kindly bought me a super cedar swift box made by my friends at “Handykam” (DO take a look at their products – they’re the best in their field) and I am champing at the bit to get it (the swift box) installed under our eaves this winter – in the hope that my favourite birds of all take up residence in their des-res in May. Not long now before the devil birds are back!
19. My in-laws (two generations) have very kindly bought me a veritable plethora of wildlife gardening books, a replacement macro lens (for my moffs) and a blue tit box (Anna’s favourite bird) which I can’t wait to use.
20. Finally…. Last but CERTAINLY not least…. We have (as you know I’m sure) a new son born this winter. I can’t wait to introduce him to the garden and local wildlife, in the genuine hope that he will love being outside as much as I do (or he won’t see me much as he grows up!) … and if that is the case, then with his eyes (as well as mine and my wife’s eagle eyes) we’ll ALL get to enjoy even more of the great outdoors in years to come.

So.

Just the twenty December silver linings then …

You know what?

This “miserable December of 2012” really isn’t that miserable at all is it?

Quite the opposite in fact.

TBR