Ingham’s W RLD
HARD though it may be to believe, but summer, that fabled, golden season so dim in the nation’s memory, is on its way. I know the Met Office is addicted to snow and ice warnings while huge numbers of Britons are sick of flood alerts. But the day is not too distant when that great yellow ball in the sky, (remember that?), will actually warm our bones once more.
I know this thanks to our feathered friends or, more specifically, the volunteers and experts of the British Trust for Ornithology. In the rainforests of the
Congo cuckoos are just beginning to migrate north while in Britain blackcaps – small, tuneful warblers
– are preparing to head south.
Paradoxically both movements are proof positive that winter’s days are running out and we may all be able to enjoy the great outdoors once again, especially if the vaccines work their magic.
The trail to normality is being blazed by three East Anglian cuckoos tagged by the BTO.
They have begun the long trek back to Blighty where their calls will herald spring.
One, PJ, is a veteran. Tagged in 2016 as a two-year-old, he is set for his seventh return trip.
By my reckoning he’ll soon have clocked up 60,000 air miles and 14 crossings of the most dangerous barrier facing our summer migrants, the Sahara.
He, Valentine and Carlton II, who returned last spring to the Suffolk marshes via a South London golf club, have started heading north from the lush insectrich jungles of the Congo Basin, timing their arrival for when reed warblers are laying their eggs.
Meanwhile, our wintering blackcaps are appearing in gardens, as they prepare to head south to their breeding grounds in central Europe. Since the 1950s some blackcaps from Germany, Austria and Poland have wintered here while others have taken the conventional route to the Med.
Milder winters – and the provision of fatballs – have helped the rebels survive here. They also get back to their breeding grounds 10 days earlier than the sun-worshippers in the Med and grab the best territories. So I can’t promise a quick end to the snow, ice and floods. But the birds are on the move. Relief is in sight.
LAST weekend I joined an army of more than 500,000 in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch – and my highlight was spotting a treecreeper.
It looks like a record BGBW year. So far sightings of 13.1 million birds have been sent in, compared to 7.8m last year.
Covid has made us all appreciate nature so much more – a rare silver lining in that grim, black cloud.
MY labrador is very cunning. I took her out for a wee yesterday just as my wife was scraping the plates.
Inca was so desperate to get back in that she faked a wee.
I had to drag her back out and make her perform for real. I’m not being outwitted by a pooch.
GREEN TIP: Turn the rain to your advantage: Install a water butt.
THE Mollusc of the Year is the Greater Argonaut, says a German contest. Females of this oceanic octopus have arms like oars and a frail porcelain shell which serves as a boat.
But there’s a sting in the tail – they kill their prey with poison.
REGULAR readers will know that I am always happy to help the environment by drinking. So I like Brewdog’s plan to plant one million trees with the Eden Project.
It will plant one tree for each multipack of headliner beers sold.
It’s a case of buy one get one tree. www.brewdog.com