DESPITE the muddy ground and cold winds, we can be reassured that spring is happening. How do we know? The birds are telling us.
Everyone is aware of the proverbial ‘first cuckoo of spring’, but we don’t hear that until mid-April. March sees the arrival of birds that herald the changing of the seasons.
The spring migration sees some birds fly thousands of miles over seas, mountains and deserts to be with us, in what is one of nature’s most incredible shows of stamina. But which birds arrive here first, who travels the longest and who takes their time?
Sand martins, chiffchaffs and wheatears are already here. The chiffchaff, a member of the warbler family, can be recognised by its familiar call of ‘chiff-chaff’. The wheatear (or ‘white rear’ as it was known in Old English’) does indeed have a white behind, but the male also has a glowing orange chest and black and white eye stripes.
Pink-footed geese have been seen flying over Bradford on their journey north. Soon to arrive will be the familiar swallows, soaring overhead looking for somewhere to nest. Originally cave dwellers, they now are more commonly found in barns, stables or sheds with access to fly in and out.
There are as many as 12 different species of warbler (including the aforementioned chiffchaff) that will arrive in our area throughout April and May. Many of them are difficult to distinguish visually and are more easily identified by listening carefully to their song. One of the most obvious is that of the Cetti’s warbler’s ‘Chee! Chewee! Chewechewechewe!’ (Think of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik!).
While many of our spring arrivals fly thousands of miles from Sub-Saharan Africa, not all of them do. Some head to countries around the Mediterranean and only return when the weather warms. One example is the blackcap, with the majority spending our winter in Southern Europe and North Africa, although they can now be seen in the UK all year round.
The longest trip is taken by the Arctic tern - which literally travels from the other side of the world to be with us. It travels up from the Antarctic in late April, May and June, mainly to the north and west coasts of the UK. It then breeds before leaving between late July and early October, heading in the opposite direction - a round trip of around 22,000 miles. As a coastal bird, we are unlikely to see one in the Bradford area. The Swallow, which travels from as far away as South Africa will be the most travelled of the Bradford visitors.
The briefest visitor is the cuckoo, with the male sometimes spending as little as six weeks here before heading back to tropical Africa. Both the male and the female have little reason to hang around once they have mated and the female has dropped their egg into someone else’s nest.
*rspb.org.uk/airedaleandbradford/
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