Country: Early birds and sleeping beauties; Mild climate produces creature comforts.

Byline: John Dempsey

SO,last week's much-publicised Ice Age came and went and we all survived thanks largely to the mild maritime climate we enjoy in the North West.

Many creatures can sense changes in conditions long before we can although,like Michael Fish, they can sometimes get it wrong.

Flutter forward the small tortoiseshell butterfly which took things a bit too far by emerging from hibernation in a sheltered West Kirby garden on January 25.

This common butterfly frequently takes advantage of sheds,garages and cupboards to hibernate over the winter instead of using traditional spots in hollows in trees. An increase in air temperature is often enough to get individuals flying in January,but their chances of survival are slim.

Once a small tortoiseshell emerges, its first instinct is to breed, rather than feed,but I suspect that cold nights mean the ``West Kirby One'' has already gone to the great nettle patch in the sky without meeting the partner of its dreams.

If you do find hibernating small tortoiseshells -or any snoozing butterfly at this time of the year, the best thing to do is leave them well alone.

While they wake quickly enough, they find it virtually impossible to return to their winter torpor.

I'vefound several small tortoiseshells in January over the years,but worst of all was a comma,its raggedy wings in perfect condition,but not long for this world,as it shivered on a grassy bank. More robust great crested grebes have sported the tip pets (lovely word, that) of breeding plumage at several sites around the region for some time now,and will soon indulge in their bizarre weed-shaking courtship dances.

Black headed gulls and golden plovers are following suit and slipping into summer dress.

A chiffchaff seen by reader Peter Guy in his Northwich garden, when added to the two still in Liverpool's Chavasse Park,and reports of birds in Southport, suggests more are wintering this year than normal.

A male goldeneye was on Sefton Park lake this week.

Meanwhile,Phil Johnson reports up to 12 melanistic common pheasants still in cereal fields on Woodchurch Road,Wirral.

Black plumage is clearly appropriate so close to Landican Cemetery.

Still very much a winter experience, a count of grey geese on the south west Lancs moss lands between Altcar and Little Crosby revealed 3,500 pink feet at least.

A forehead blaze revealed a white fronted goose among the pinkies to Tony Duckels and Gary McLardy, who were making the count.

In the 1980s the goose armies that swarmed over the North West began to mysteriously decrease in size, so that flocks 20,000 strong became scarcer; the source of misty- eyed nostalgia amongst goose watchers.

Norfolk birders soon provided the answer to the mystery as ``our'' pinkies began to turn up there to gorge on winter wheat and anything else they could get their beaks on -like giant feathered locusts.

Down in Bernard Matthews land, mega-roosts of 60,000 birds have been recorded. ..not a spectacle you'd want to be underneath when they take flight, unless armed with the best industrial umbrella money can buy.

Pink feet tend to peak in numbers in October around here now as birds-in-transit,but non-breeders often linger at Martin Mere into May, rather than heading back to Icelandic summering haunts.

The movements of geese and wildfowl are hard to understand at the best of times,as the picture is clouded by escapes and feral populations.

For example,Martin Mere still hosts the iffy red breasted goose, which has now joined up with barnacle geese.

nIf you have an item of news for the column,contact JohnDempsey on 0151 472 2408,or e- mail him at [e-mail]

CAPTION(S):

Dahlia-free January is an unwelcoming place for small tortoiseshell butterflies