Migrants in peril?

By Paul Sterry

At this time of year, I normally spend a fair amount of time in my garden and expect to see at least a scattering of migrant birds. Typically, these include Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps that breed in the garden, and a scattering of fly-overs such as Swallow, House Martin and Hobby, plus one-day stop-overs that in previous years have included the likes of Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Redstart and Cuckoo. So, with lockdown in place and more time being spent the garden, I had anticipated a bigger and better list than usual. But so far, the observations have been dismally poor and I'm wondering where are all the migrants? Unless I am very much mistaken, and my garden and the airspace above it is unique, something's not quite right in the avian world.

Willow Warblers spend the winters mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and usually reach Britain in early- to late-April. Their breeding range extends well into the Arctic. Copyright Paul Sterry/NPL

We may be having glorious weather in the UK but I assumed there were weather systems further south in Europe slowing up the migrants’ progress. Either that, or they had died off in vast numbers during the winter months spent in Africa, which doesn’t bear thinking about. In support of the adverse weather theory, a friend pointed me to an article in The Guardian telling a sad story – the progress of migrant birds had indeed been halted and they had been killed in their tracks by unprecedented weather conditions. The article was an account of thousands of migrant Swifts, Swallows and other species being killed on migration in Greece by a weather event on the night of April 5-6; it was disastrous for migrating birds with strong winds, low temperatures and torrential rain. This was eastern Europe of course and might explain the lack of migrants such as Lesser Whitethroats that have an easterly bias to their spring migration. But similar weather events will no doubt have taken place elsewhere across the Mediterranean, affecting species that, by late April, I normally see in good numbers in and around my garden.

As it happens, I have encountered this sort of thing first hand before; I recall a period of four or five days in mid-April 2009 when foul and inclement weather had a terrible impact on migrant birds while I was staying on a Greek island. The island in question was Lesvos and there is an irony to the fact that it is now the setting for a human version of these avian events.

This image shows huddled, sheltering House Martins, 'downed' by torrential rain and hail storms in mid-April on Lesvos. Sadly, most of the birds died overnight. Copyright Paul Sterry/NPL

Science warns us unequivocally that Global Warming and Climate Change will lead to more frequent, more extreme and increasingly unseasonal weather events. These will undoubtedly have an increasingly profound effect on our resident wildlife but will almost certainly have a greater impact on migrant species. And that’s on top of all the other manmade problems they have to face in the 21st Century: being shot and trapped on migration: returning to find breeding habitats degraded or destroyed: a virtual absence of invertebrates and weed seeds in many farmed areas; industrially destructive land management practises; the list goes on.

Swifts spend the winter months in Africa, battling increasingly unpredictable weather conditions to return to the UK in spring. On arrival, they face disastrously depleted food supplies (there’s been a catastrophic decline in flying insect numbers in the airspace over intensively farmed land, for example) and increasingly sanitised house roof spaces that limits their breeding options. Copyright Paul Sterry/NPL

In these times of Covid-lockdown, thousands have joined garden birdwatch schemes and follow wildlife-orientated social media groups. Perhaps we should all spare a thought for the trials and tribulations that migrant birds have had to endure for our pleasure - and consider what we might do individually and as a society to improve things. With a virtual absence of ‘contrails’ in the sky, and far less car exhaust pollution to inhale, let's wake up and recognise that in the absence of global and regional travel, society has not come to an end. If anything, it has been strengthened. So, let's use this time of introspection to expand our horizons and emerge from Covid 19 a better-informed and more compassionate society. Perhaps, even a better species.