Tradition has it that Saints Brigid, Patrick and Colmcille met in Heaven and - as is the wont of Irish people - fell to discussing the weather. Even though they were no longer on this earth they could not resist influencing what went on down below. "The weather will be fine every third day from my day on", declared Brigid. "It will be fine every second day from my day on", promised Patrick. "And it will be fine every day from my day on" boasted Colmcille (as well he might, seeing as his day is on the 9thJune). Well, St Brigid is more or less delivering the goods this February. We wait to see what St. Patrick will produce from the 17th of March onwards.
The world of nature seems quite satisfied with the weather so far. Spring is here all right; the lengthening day has turned male birds thought to love. While tradition has it that birds choose their partners on St.Valentine's Day, it seems that they have been throwing shapes for the last month already.They are in full song in the early morning, declaring their single and available status and staking territory in the face of potential interlopers.
Spring advances across Europe at four miles an hour. Looked at from space, a green wave can be seen advancing up across the continent from Southern Spain – moving at the same speed as a person walks i.e. four miles an hour. Trees burst into leaf and this greening can be seen from space and recorded. This recording of when plants and indeed animals react to the warming and lengthening days is called phenology. An official definition might be: Phenology is the science dealing with relationships between climate and periodic biological phenomena.
By keeping such records from year to year scientists have been able to measure accurately the onset of spring. They tend to measure naturally occurring wild plants and animals, not pampered garden flowers, so records of early garden daffodils for example cannot actually be included. Bud burst in trees has been recorded in Ireland for the past few years and results are showing that Horse Chestnut trees (the earliest trees in Ireland to come into leaf) are now opening their leaves twelve days earlier than they did in the 1980’s. Oak leaves are ten days earlier now and Ash are six days earlier.
Does Spring march across Ireland from south to north at four miles an hour? Or does it move inland from the coast arriving last in such places as Birr and Athlone? Data from the green wave project, which has been co-ordinated by Forfas since 2005, shows that it takes roughly 3 weeks for the green wave of opening leaves to spread right across Ireland. It begins in early March on the Cork and Kerry coasts. It then spreads all along the south coast, then around the whole coastline and up the middle from the south. The last place in Ireland for spring to arrive every year is Monaghan and Cavan.
The birds are earlier than the trees however, with certain groups of birds being first off the blocks. The mountains are resounding with the croaks of ravens at the moment and the males are busy showing off what a fine catch they’d be, by indulging in very dramatic aeronautics to impress any watching female. They build their nests on craggy outcrops and have their young hatch in time to feed them on eggs they can purloin from other birds’ nests as well as afterbirths from sheep out lambing on the hillsides in April.
Grey crows, magpies and rooks are also members of the crow family and share this early nesting trait. They can be seen at the moment inspecting last year’s nests to see how they have survived the winter and to ascertain how much repair work will have to be carried out. They are well in situ, laying eggs, before ever the nests are hidden by new spring foliage.
A walk in any deciduous woodland in February will be rewarded with sights of dangling male catkins on hazel, willow and poplar. The pollen from these is windblown to the female catkins so it must happen before the pesky leaves come along and get in the way. Glances at the ground reveal lots of spiky green shoots poking up their little heads. It will be a few more weeks before any flowers appear but every third good since St Brigid’s day is enough to waken the dormant bulbs in the soil and get them going.
So for my money Spring begins in February – Mother Nature agrees.