The Montrose Basin Visitor Centre is now open daily again, 10:30am-5pm, just in time for spotting lots of early signs of Spring!

It’s only since properly tuning my ear into birdsong that I’ve realised what makes people say “It just feels a bit Spring-like today, doesn’t it?”. It’s hard to put your finger on what exactly makes a day in mid-February suddenly feel not so wintry, even if there’s still frost on the ground. There are a whole host of relatively unapparent signals that might make someone feel like Spring is just around the corner: increasing daylength and (slightly) warmer weather to name a couple. But birdsong is the ‘overture’ to this changing of seasons that many of us only pick up on subconsciously.

Just in the past fortnight, there’s been a definite shift towards Spring that visitors to Montrose Basin have been commenting on, and in that same period of time we’ve been hearing lots of birdsong ‘firsts’ for the year. Robins sing throughout winter to guard their feeding territories, but they’re now being accompanied by: chaffinches, song thrush, dunnocks, wrens, blackbirds, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, even goldcrests! We’ve even had reports of skylark singing over the fields by the Wigeon Hide on the reserve.

What I think is magical about birdsong being a marker for the beginning of Spring is that it’s a change that most people will unknowingly pick up on, even if they’re not particularly knowledgeable about wildlife and seasonal changes. Our brains will start to associate the sound of a singing song thrush with memories from past Springs, regardless of whether or not you even know what a song thrush is. We’re all tuned in to nature more than we realise.

Next time you get that “Wow, it really feels like Spring today” feeling, why not take a moment to explore why? Are you hearing something different? Are you noticing some snowdrops flowering? Or are you just appreciating that the sun is still up past 4pm?

Keep an eye on our social media pages for our upcoming events at Montrose Basin this year! We have a birdsong ID event planned for May that we haven’t quite published yet, and the local Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels team are delivering a free talk at the centre on 7th March.

Joanna Peaker

Visitor Centre Site Manager