How do you define spring?
Post categories: The Curious Owl
| 15:48 UK time, Friday, 18 February 2011
Spring is coming early yells . Oh no it isn't, it's coming late say , and .
All these pieces report the results of surveys. The Ö÷²¥´óÐã, Guardian and The Telegraph report the Woodland Trust's ; the Mirror reports the National Trust's annual Valentine's Day count. So who's right? The answer is a bit of both.
We all have an intuitive idea of what spring means – flowers blooming, warmer weather, more rain, birdsong and so on. If you think spring is signalled by the song thrushes singing then . If garden bloom is your sign then it’s early. Bluebells? Could be right on time.
But you can’t define spring by looking at one animal or plant. Spring’s arrival is a series of many events – flowerings, buddings, animal arrivals etc – over the space of a few months. That's why Nature’s Calendar measures spring in tranches. At the moment, it’s elder budburst, frog spawn, hazel/snowdrop flowering and song thrush singing. Next it's wood anemone, blackthorn, brimstone butterflies.
In the grand scheme of things, it's not even that important that this year’s spring is earlier/later than last year. These fluctuations can largely be written off by changes in short-term weather. That this year's snowdrops are later than last year's is probably due to a freak December (and if we’re being strict, the snowdrop isn’t a sign of spring, it’s a sign of winter).
What is important is the trend over decades and the long term affects of any changes. And this doesn’t look great. Dr Stephen Thackeray’s concluded that:
During this period [30 years], the seasonal timing of biological events in all major taxonomic groups in UK terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments advanced, on average, by 0.39 d yr−1 (equivalent to 11.7 days over the whole period).
Looking out for signs of spring is a great British tradition (as we're showing right here on this blog) and long may it continue. Let's just not be too hasty in reading too much into what we see.
PS: News just in from Nature's Calendar is that it's in desperate need of 'expert' or 'frequent' recorders (those who submit at least 50 observations per year). So if you're interested or know anyone else who might be have a look at its .
Comment number 1.
At 21st Feb 2011, ashleyhr wrote:It's going to be one of the mildest Februarys on record.
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Comment number 2.
At 22nd Feb 2011, signonymous wrote:Dr. Thackeray's paper really has been doing the rounds in media circles this year.
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Comment number 3.
At 22nd Feb 2011, thomasmossy wrote:it has came very early because spring starts on march and i saw daffodils on the beginning of february.
thomasmossy2
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Comment number 4.
At 22nd Feb 2011, Jonathan Hateley wrote:I'm desperate for Spring! I'm doing a nature based sculpture project where I make a small sculpt a day for 365 days. I started in Autumn last year, have been through the Winter and so I'm craving new growth for inspiration! I record my latest sculpture and a comment everyday on my blog, so any ideas for subject matter and where it can be found gratefully received. It feels like Spring is here already!
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Comment number 5.
At 25th Feb 2011, wendyjo wrote:The frogs in our tiny garden pond are croaking away and two have coupled. Sadly there are far fewer this year. In previous years we have seen 9 - 15 frogs. This year we have seen only 3 so far. I wonder why?
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Comment number 6.
At 27th Feb 2011, gary stallard wrote:Looked out of the conservetary window this morning and saw that the brown husk covering the daffodil buds had split,blue tits investigating the bird boxes and dunnocks doing there spring thing on the fence.
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Comment number 7.
At 28th Feb 2011, SUNNYLITTLEBEAR wrote:Not seen much sign of spring where I am upto now, mind you it could be covered up by all the mud in my local patch, any more & we will be paddling knee deep!
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Comment number 8.
At 1st Mar 2011, jeztorrance wrote:@wendyjo It looks like the harsh December has hit amphibian numbers pretty hard:
/blogs/natureuk/2011/01/another-bad-winter-for-amphibi.shtml
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Comment number 9.
At 4th Mar 2011, ashleyhr wrote:Ninth mildest February in around 100 years of Met Office records, mean temperature of around 5.3 C, mildest since February 2002. My guess is that snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils etc are flowering a little earlier than in 2010 (when the late winter period and much of the early spring remained unusually cold notably in Scotland and unlike this year so far).
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Comment number 10.
At 28th Apr 2011, Crazy fling wrote:Hi,
Early signs of spring. Does the fact that four out of five ponies refused to be caught to come in and have their feet trimmed on Tuesday morning? My farrier laughed and replied that he'd seen that several times in the last few days. Spring grass is SOO! SCRUMMY.
I also saw our resident buzzards mating and now only see them singly. Does any one know wether male or female sits in the nest or do that share duties?
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Comment number 11.
At 29th Apr 2011, Crazy fling wrote:Hi,
Our swallows arrived this evening. I do hope that none of them repeat the annual mistake of nesting in the main building where some nearly always fall victim to the esident rodent control officers. Our cats, Niki,Charlotte, Sylvester and J.K.
We do regret their attitude to ornothology (eat first question after) but we have very little trouble with ratsand mice in the feed room.
Does any one know why cats always seem to eat rabbits ears first?
Crazy Fling
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