Still Spring!
A very pleasant morning's birding on the way home from work. The summer visitors are now clearly arriving, and I managed to see my first Wheatear, Yellow Wagtail, Chiffchaff and Whitethroat of the year. And as a bonus, whilst I was watching one of the Chiffchaffs, another little green bird darted into the same bush. A Firecrest. Not new for the year, since I saw a couple back in January, but I'm never averse to watching one of these dinky little gems. The Wheatears were smart too, or at least the male ones were.
I've read some gloomy prognostications regarding this prolonged winter and its effect on migrant birds (eg, here). There is probably some truth in that, but I'm not feeling terribly downcast. Yes, it's likely that many migrant birds have perished for want of food, but providing the insects haven't taken too great a hit, the survivors could well be in for a bumper breeding season with a higher than average chick survival rate. That is, the adults that have prematurely died this spring will be made up for with young birds that otherwise wouldn't have made it. That is, after all how natural selection works - spawn too many offspring to ensure enough get through.
Not that I don't think it's doom'n'gloom for our migrant birds, because many of them are in a very parlous state population-wise. Turtle Doves and Spotted Flycatchers have all but disappeared and others are in steep decline. But not, I suspect, because of the weather. Habitat loss is a far more likely culprit, and not something our supposedly greenest-ever-government is scrambling to prevent.
Yesterday's foray took this year's Big List past the 150 mark on what I thought was a stupidly late date, but looking back at earlier Big Lists it seems I normally reach 150 in the last week of March so I'm not that far behind. But only 87 of them are birds, which is a better indication of how little I've been bothering to get out the past three months.
I've read some gloomy prognostications regarding this prolonged winter and its effect on migrant birds (eg, here). There is probably some truth in that, but I'm not feeling terribly downcast. Yes, it's likely that many migrant birds have perished for want of food, but providing the insects haven't taken too great a hit, the survivors could well be in for a bumper breeding season with a higher than average chick survival rate. That is, the adults that have prematurely died this spring will be made up for with young birds that otherwise wouldn't have made it. That is, after all how natural selection works - spawn too many offspring to ensure enough get through.
Not that I don't think it's doom'n'gloom for our migrant birds, because many of them are in a very parlous state population-wise. Turtle Doves and Spotted Flycatchers have all but disappeared and others are in steep decline. But not, I suspect, because of the weather. Habitat loss is a far more likely culprit, and not something our supposedly greenest-ever-government is scrambling to prevent.
Yesterday's foray took this year's Big List past the 150 mark on what I thought was a stupidly late date, but looking back at earlier Big Lists it seems I normally reach 150 in the last week of March so I'm not that far behind. But only 87 of them are birds, which is a better indication of how little I've been bothering to get out the past three months.