DONAL HICKEY: Birdsong helps lift the spirits

Every year around this time, a blackbird sings in the evenings from the top of a tall tree within earshot of home. We look forward to this visitor immensely, more especially this year given the long, harsh winter that’s, hopefully, behind us.

Our friend’s song is all part of the business of attracting a mate, or staking out territory. This is a musical creature and little wonder a favourite tune of the renowned traditional fiddler from the Cork/Kerry border area of Sliabh Luachra, Denis Murphy, was called ‘The Blackbird’.

With nesting, mating and all the accompanying rituals going on, it’s probably the best time of the year to observe our avian friends.

For several weeks past, I’ve seen blackbirds and thrushes active around the lawn, scratching, picking and digging out worms and making off with beaks full of moss to line their nests in nearby trees and hedgerows.

As school children in days long gone, we would look for nests, which we would then claim as our own, watch out for eggs and, eventually, hungry, chirpy chicks being fed by their mothers. Always a source of youthful delight.

We were told by our elders to keep a respectful distance and not to frighten the birds in any way. And we daren’t touch the eggs. Indeed, there were superstitions that bad luck would come to anyone who harmed a nest or its contents. Happily nowadays, children are taught about nature’s ways in schools, many of which have nesting boxes literally outside their doors.

More people than ever are feeding birds in their backyards or back gardens. Another way of helping birds is by planting native hedges, trees, and climbers for nest sites. Birds need the help as there has been a reduction of almost 50% in their range in Ireland in the past half-century. Species such as wrens, robins, blackbirds, tits and chaffinches seem to be thriving, not to mention the crow family.

The other side of the coin is that the corncrake, barn owl and red grouse are at dangerously low levels: All red-listed, meaning urgent action is needed to save them. Even the once-common snipe seems to have disappeared, some farming friends with so-called marginal land that was once home to snipe tell us.

A Birdwatch Ireland 2010-2020 action plan stresses we’re at a “pivotal stage” regarding birdlife and the environment generally. The state of birdlife can be an indicator of how well the environment is faring. Loss of habitat and poisoning leads to a decline in various species. And there are more species on the endangered list than ever before.

Around 70% of species in Europe are found here and we have, of course, thousands of immigrant geese and waders wintering here. All of which, says Birdwatch Ireland, is important for the long-term future of birdlife.