Let me introduce you to nature’s latest blockbuster: coming with an all-star cast, featuring breathtaking aerial stunts and the best musical numbers you will ever hear in your life. Yes, once again it’s time for another revival of… Spring Actually.
Did you watch an old favourite film over Christmas? Perhaps you even watched the 2003 classic Love Actually and saw Keira Knightley trying to sound surprised that she looked quite pretty; Lúcia Moniz learning English “just in cases”; Emma Thompson’s heartbreak; and, of course, Hugh Grant performing the prime ministerial boogie.
Spring is just the same, only different: a great welcoming back of old friends. The birds that live here all year are spectacular enough, but the whole show gets its edge from those that fly in to join us for the spring. We’re a country made richer by those who join us from overseas.
It helps if you learn to listen. My springs are twice as good since I learned birdsong; now I can welcome the arrival of the first migrant birds even when I can’t see them. Chiffchaffs says their own name in steady, even syllables – you can Google it: write the name of any species of UK bird, add ‘RSPB’ and you’ll go straight to a page that will play you its sound.
Listen to the Chiffchaff’s song
Audio: Patrik Åberg (xeno-canto)
It’s not a great song, but the Chiffchaffs put their hearts and their souls into it, and they’re always the first new arrivals to sing. But listen out for the Blackcap, the back-garden superstar: a fruity and flutey song that seems almost too lovely for our damaged world.
One Swallow doesn’t make a summer, they say, but it’s a good start. Does a Swallow ever fly in a straight line? Every movement seems to trace an ‘S’ or an ‘O’ or a ‘C’: a flight full of curves and jinks as if they were doing it all for joy rather than survival.
‘Let’s resolve to make the most of the spring; so long in coming, so glorious once established, and so soon gone’
It’s worth going to the seaside just to celebrate the birds that leave the high seas to join us for spring and summer. You can’t lay an egg on the ocean, so they grudgingly make use of a piece of land as close to the sea as they can get. The seabird cities, especially those with Puffins at the top, are as dramatic a sight as you’ll see anywhere in the world. Make a pilgrimage to RSPB Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire to see for yourself.
The great achievement of the spring is the song of the Nightingale, and yes, they sing throughout the day as well as through the night, apparently immune to fatigue. You find them in special places in the south of England: a quick search online will lead you to the nearest.
Listen to the Nightingale’s song
Audio: Andre Eden (xeno-canto)
Let’s resolve to make the most of this spring; so long in coming, so glorious once established, and so soon gone. Back in 1954, everyone was thrilled when a single pair of Ospreys returned to Scotland to nest. Now there are around 400, flying in from Africa to enrich our spring.
As we celebrate the triumph of the Ospreys we must also thrill to the glorious flying displays of the Swifts. They are the greatest fliers of them all; the young birds won’t breed this year, and in fact they won’t even touch the ground. They will spend all their time in the air, because for them the sky is nothing less than home.
Hear the Swift’s screaming call
Audio: Patrik Åberg (xeno-canto)
Savour every one you see, because Swifts are in very steep decline. A world without Swifts? Scarcely worth living in. That’s nature in the 21st century: every joy must be coloured with a little sadness. Spring Actually, like Love Actually, has its sad bits.
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