Icy weather conditions may have you thinking that spring is late but there are already signs that nature's annual rebirth is under way
WE SHOULD never underestimate the power of nature, particularly its determination to ensure that the season of new life and rebirth forces its way past the icy blasts of winter. Human beings aren't the only ones that feel there's a pep in their step at the first signs that winter is passing and the days are growing longer again.
In the coming weeks early risers will hear a cacophony of birdsong, otherwise known as the dawn chorus, when birds start the day putting their all into their singing.
Whether it's to defend their territory or attract a new mate for breeding, the sound is so magnificent that people get up in the dark and travel to dawn chorus events around Ireland every year.
Spring, or Earrach in Irish, must have given a magnificent sense of relief to our ancestors, who must sometimes have felt that the cold candlelit winter nights, when the fertile land slept, would never end.
Pagans, who were far more in tune with nature than we are today, celebrated the festival of Imbolc, held in February, and dedicated to the Celtic goddess Brighid, who is said to have been the goddess of fertility and healing.
As Christianity took hold, Brighid's festival day at the start of February was adopted as the Feast of Saint Brighid (circa 439-524AD), who is
second only to Patrick in Ireland's hierarchy of saints. Celebrations honouring both figures marked the passing of winter and the beginning of the farming year, ie food, life and survival.
I was wondering if the recent snow, sleet and icy temperatures had stalled the arrival of spring, which appears to have been emerging earlier and earlier in recent years, with climate change thought to be the main culprit.
However, the Woodland Trust tells me that records received from members of the public do suggest "some fairly early spring activities" in Northern Ireland despite the continuing need for winter woollies.
The earliest flowering snowdrop was recorded on January 2 in Newtownards, Co Down while a trust staff member observed blackthorn flowering in early February at Glasswater Wood in Crossgar, Co Down. "Cold snaps could, of course, prove problematic for those species that have been 'fooled' into flowering or emerging early. For example, early frogspawn could in fact freeze," a spokeswoman says.
The Woodland Trust and the British Science Association are now asking people to observe how fast spring unfolds, with nature lovers across Northern Ireland asked to record the first sightings of five different species over the coming weeks. The trust's Nature's Calendar survey has been recording nature for 15 years to see how species respond to the changing climate from one year to the next.
Now the charity, with support from the British Science Association as part of British Science Week on March 13-22, will focus on the progression of spring.
They want you to particularly focus on five species, the hawthorn first leaf and first flower (two separate events), frogspawn, the seven-spot ladybird, first Oak leaves and the orange-tip butterfly.
The records will be analysed by Professor Tim Sparks from Coventry University, a co-founder of Nature's Calendar, to see how each species makes its appearance. "In the past a modest amount of work was done to see how fast spring progressed. But I don't know of any work on this in the UK during the last 70 years and an update and re-evaluation is long overdue,'' says Professor Sparks.
The data will enable the organisations to learn the direction of spring's progress, whether species react in different ways and even if its arrival speeds up or slows down as it moves up the UK.
* For more information on what to look for, how to record and downloadable resources go to naturescalendar.org.uk/bsw.