Wildlife making a ‘song and dance’ with Spring arrival
BRITS aren’t known for making a song and dance about things, but that’s not so for our wildlife, which is emerging from the chilly winter this month to be at its loudest and most flamboyant
Male birds are at their most colourful right now, the way they moult and the brighter spring days mean their plumage appears more vivid and their patterns and markings are more obvious.
Many male songbirds – robins, blackbirds and song thrushes among them - are competing to sing the loudest and longest, all in an effort to attract a mate for the start of the breeding season. Common frogs and toads are joining the cacophony too, croaking to attract a partner.
Ian Hayward,
RSPB
Wildlife Advisor, said: “It’s a fever of activity in our gardens and parks at the moment. Birds are displaying brighter plumage, we’ve already received reports of frogspawn in some garden ponds and a few warm days will bring more colourful flashes of bees and butterflies zipping through the air.
This chorus of singing, buzzing and croaking is almost a sensory overload, but of course there’s real purpose behind it; it’s all geared towards pairing up and mating.”
Away from
gardens, hares are active and indulging in their classic spring ‘boxing’ behaviour.
Once thought to be males boxing each other to win a female, it’s now known that boxing is actually the female hare fighting off the male’s attentions.
The best time to see hares is at dawn and dusk, out in open fields, farmland and woodland edges. You are much more likely to see them during early spring, as this is the breeding season.
Hares need cover to hide from predators, so can often be found near hedgerows. As hares have excellent hearing, they are good at detecting potential danger through sound, so it’s worth using a pair of binoculars to observe this mammal without causing disturbance.
It’s also worth being wary of where you step if you know you are in the presence of hares – some leverets (baby hares) are born as early as March and often appear in fields looking as though they have been abandoned.
It’s vital that you don’t touch them - it’s actually fairly common for leverets to be left alone for long periods of time (their mother will come back and check on them intermittently) - and touching them will leave your scent on them, which may lead to abandonment.
Your car can also double as a great ‘hare hide’.
Park up by a field and any nearby hares are far less likely to head for cover.
Meanwhile, paired-up great crested grebes are performing their elegant spring mating ‘dance’ mirroring each other’s movements on the water to help them bond ahead of breeding. Ian continues; “The males of the wildlife world will be pulling out all the stops this month to bag a partner to breed with.
It’s a fascinating time to be outdoors experiencing these often shy creatures dancing and singing for all they’re worth, showing off their best moves.
Other species like hedgehogs, grass snakes, and even some bat species are popping out of hibernation right now too.”
To help make a home for nature in your garden this spring, visit www. rspb.org.uk/hfw or get close to spring wildlife at one of the RSPB’s Date with Nature events www. rspb.org.uk/datewithnature