Birds will defy wet weather to herald arrival of spring
THE mistle thrush is a bird known for its tendency to sing in foul weather, something that has earned it the nickname stormcock.
I heard one a few days ago. The bird, identifiable by its creamy white speckled breast, was singing at the top of a conifer, seemingly oblivious to the lashing rain and 50mph winds barrelling around it.
Sometimes the tune of a mistle thrush is described as melancholy, but I regard it as the very opposite. For no matter how much winter attempts to cling on – and this one is proving particularly stubborn to shift – the thrush is at the vanguard of a rising barricade of birdsong driving it back.
Mistle thrushes are especially eager to get on with things and often construct their cup-shaped nests in February – and robins, blackbirds, wrens and dunnocks are pitching in at dawn and dusk with their own songs.
New voices will join the chorus in the coming days. My favourite will strike up any moment now. Usually I do not hear the unmistakable call of chiffchaffs until mid to late March.
The belting refrain that gives it its name is the ultimate song of defiance. After all, these tiny birds – which weigh around nine grammes – undertake a mammoth migration from Africa only to be greeted by the chilling embrace of England’s late winter. Yet still they sing.
The dawn chorus is changing across Britain. Researchers at the University of East Anglia who analysed morning birdsong in 3,000 locations around the UK over 25 years have found that, overall, it has become quieter and less diverse as bird species dwindle because of climate change and habitat loss.
But even if the notes are more subdued, this rousing polyphony continues to fill us with a primal glee.
Listen out for snatches of it this weekend, in between the heavy late winter rains lashing the country. No matter the weather, spring is in the ascendancy. *