This a beautiful, but sobering book about the UK's Spring migrants, which make up about a quarter of all our bird species.
"If we could see it as a whole, if they all arrived in a single flood, say, and they came in the day instead of the night, we would be truly amazed." From this opening onwards, this is a celebration of the wonders of the birds who visit our shores to breed and who then leave again to escape our winters. It's also a call for us all (not just birdwatchers) to notice these birds again and to conserve them before they disappear from our skies.
The book looks at not only the natural history of several of our migrant songbirds, but also considers their cultural impact, from the immortalisation of Nightingales in poetry and song, to our contradictory feelings about Cuckoos being both the harbingers of Spring (due to their song) and their being symbols of deception (for laying their eggs in other birds' nests).
The author travels throughout England and visits Gibraltar (a crossing point for many species migrating from Africa to Europe), in search of migrant songbirds, meeting scientists, conservation workers and gardeners. He also outlines some of the biology involved in migration and some of the history of how scientists learned about migration from Aristotle's early observations, to Gilbert White, the first person to really record detailed notes about the arrivals of local birds in his Natural History of Selbourne, published in 1789 and coming up to date with a brief history of bird ringing (banding in the US) and how that has helped work out migration routes.
The largest part of the book focuses in detail on selected species of the UK Spring migrants, including Swallow, Wood Warbler and Turtle Dove. His writing is full of enthusiasm and wonder, the joy of listening to the songs of these migrants, because their songs are such a part of our experience of the natural world in Spring. I love the description of listening to the Sedge Warbler as he mimics a variety of other species of birds, so well that at one point McCarthy looks around for the passing Greenshank and has to be reminded that the sound is coming from the Sedge Warbler.
There are stories of conservation efforts throughout the book, including Edward Mayer, who spends most of his time campaigning to conserve Swifts, including installing swift nest boxes on buildings across London; and the villagers in Worcestershire who got together to record and conserve the Spotted Flycatchers in their area.
The final two chapters look in more detail at the threats facing out Spring migrants, from loss of nesting sites here, through the lack of insects and other food sources to the degradation of the habitat in the birds' wintering grounds and the effect of climate change on the timing of natural events (many caterpillars no appear earlier than they used to, but the migrants aren't able to alter their journey times to keep up with the peak supply of their food sources). Bird surveying is highlighted as being vital if we are to understand what is happening to bird populations.
"Over thosands of years [these birds] have inspired us to poetry and prompted us to proverbs, they have been the source of a vast treasury of European folklore, legends and literature, and they have been so woven into the fabric of our culture as to become part of the continent's idea of itself. A Europe without its Spring-bringers is almost as unthinkable as a Europe without its cathedrals."
Yet, with the numbers of so many of these migrant birds plummeting as they are, are we actually approaching a time when we will find ourselves saying goodbye to the cuckoo?
Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo by Michael McCarthy published (2009) by John Murray Press.
