Spring has sprung and don’t the animals know it. There are all kinds of comings and goings as the weather warms up. Here are seven of the most notable signs from the animal kingdom that spring is upon us:
1. Hello again, birds from afar
It starts with the wheatears, sand martins and chiff chaffs, but for many people, it’s the arrival of swallows any time from late March through to May, that really heralds the arrival of spring. Other birds to look and listen for include the cuckoo, which has travelled from the forests of Congo and the darting playful swifts, which amazingly seem to have plenty of energy following their 3,400 mile migration. In fact, they sleep, eat and even mate on the wind.
2. And hello again, hedgehogs, dormice and bats
Amazingly, only three species of mammal hibernate in the UK, hedgehogs, dormice and bats. They are all nocturnal too, so you will have to go for an evening walk if you want to spot them. You may see bats flitting around silently at twilight, particularly near trees and you may hear hedgehogs snuffling in the hedges but your chances of seeing a dormouse are pretty slim, particularly as their numbers have sadly dwindled.
3. Aw, gambolling lambs
Who doesn’t love to see these freshly minted bundles of fun gambolling around in the fields? The start of the year is busy for farmers with lambing beginning as early as January. It’s all because ewes (that’s female sheep, just in case you weren’t sure) are fertile only once a year, in the autumn. With a gestation period of 142-152 days, the busy time for lambing is late winter, so by early spring we get to see them doing their springtime thing in the fields.
4. Stick-em-up, hares in a boxing match
It’s getting rare to spot a hare these days as their habitats are disappearing and they are also pretty swift movers. In fact, hares are the UK’s fastest land mammals, reaching speeds of up to 45mph. In the spring, if you are really lucky, you might see two hares standing on their hind legs and ‘boxing.’ In fact, what you are witnessing, more than likely, is a female hare batting away the amorous attentions of a male.
5. Ew, frogspawn
Do you remember pond dipping in the spring as a kid? The appearance of frogspawn in the water was a highlight. When it’s part of your childhood, you don’t perhaps stop to think how amazing it is that these clusters of translucent jelly eggs hatch into tadpoles which in turn grow legs and become fully grown frogs. This transformation happens throughout the spring and is a great way to show your own children or nieces and nephews how nature works.
6. Welcome to the world, baby chicks
Perhaps, along with lambs, easter chicks are our first childhood understanding of how new life occurs in the spring. The fluffy yellow chicks of easter cards are cute, but it’s worth getting out to rivers, lakes and ponds to see all the other chicks. The sight of a mother duck with her babies scooting along in her wake is enough to melt the hardest of hearts.