Quote:
why are these little varmints not hibernating.
He has woken up too early.
It is common for the various mammals that hibernate to awaken in mid winter and go foraging for food. They are prone to hardship through frost and finding a lack of food (since they will have wasted valuable energy reserves), though.
A sudden rise in temperature (a quick thaw of snow for instance) can fool them into think spring has arrived.
Similarly I have seen frogspawn during February in mountainside pools. There is almost no chance of the tadpoles surviving (if they hatch) the frosts still to come, but tadpoles born early have a longer time to build up their reserves for their first hibernation, so it is quite a balancing act!
The cold weather is continuing with us, rain last night onto very hard frost, black ice everywhere.
Various wintering birds here, lapwing, golden plover, redwing, fieldfare, robin, whooper swan, various geese, widgeon, teal, goldeneye having a struggle with the ice today.
The lapwings, plovers and curlews will try the foreshore if the ground becomes very frozen. Their huge flocks are an impressive sight.