IF you've been suffering from The Glooms, or SAD or whatever you call that awful mid winter feeling of "Will, the longer days never come?", it's not a lot of consolation that some wild animals, at least, seem to feel the same. Hedgehogs just hibernate. Others, like badgers, don't roam far from their homes. If they've eaten enough to put on some layers of fat, that might explain. Why range far and wide when you're comfortable in yourself?
One of our badger watcher friends says that at this time her attendance rate has dropped from an average five badgers, once or twice rising to six, to one, occasionally two. Nor are the urban foxes so regularly seen. Some of this has to do with the breeding season, but the white stripey faces are missed on her lawn. Come the spring!
When Tom McCaughren is not on the TV telling us about the latest Garda hunt, he is busy persuading our young to take an interest in the wonders and vagaries of nature. Relentlessly, year in and year out. First there is his series of books on the foxes and other animals of the country, one of which was described as the Watership Down of the fox world. There is a new one: Run to the Wild Wood.
But, even more practically, as both fun and education, there is the Wildlife Diary, with introductory chapters for each month and then spaces for each day in which the young person - or indeed anyone interested can fill in with - well anything he or she likes. For February, now, the animal for the month is the dolphin, with a few details given. But his introduction for the month also mentions the wolf, some seals that a young correspondent has watched in Castlecove, County Kerry; then the story of a young, orphaned badger that was nurtured by a family in Kells until it was fit to be set free. Also some lore about urban foxes. Like a good teacher, he sets the example for the potential diary keepers. And with the introduction for each month, many little anecdotes with the names of his correspondents. The diary is from Wolfhound Press, is pocket sized and has a vivid front cover by Aileen Caffrey. Price £4.