It’s nice to be talking about spring after the winter we’ve just had.
The World Health Organisation tells us that: “Exposure to natural environments has been linked to numerous physical and mental health benefits, including reduced stress, improved mood, enhanced cognitive function and lower risk of chronic diseases.”
After a cold, wet and windy winter, thinking about spring and knowing it’s going to happen, is one of those things that certainly adds to my wellbeing.
I eagerly anticipate the first daffodils and crocuses, the first bumblebee, the first swallow and for naturalists across the Outer Hebrides there are some other things that we’d like you to look out for as part of our annual ‘Signs of Spring’ survey.
There are nine species to look for. Three are common flowers, Lesser Celandine, Lady’s Smock (also known as Cuckoo Flower) and Yellow Iris. Three are birds, Wheatear, Swallow and Corncrake. And three are insects, White-tailed Bumblebee, Green-veined White Butterfly and Large Red Damselfly.
All you need to do is make a note of the first date you see any of these. In the case of Corncrake it’s more likely to be the first date you hear one. The average of all these dates gives us an idea of how early, or late, spring is in comparison to other years.
If you visit either Curracag or OHBR on Facebook, you can download a sheet to record your sightings. You can also submit any sightings directly to Facebook. For each species you’ll need to provide a date and a location. Either a grid reference or a ‘what3words’ reference is best but a postcode would do.
This survey is one of the ways we monitor the effect climate change is having on our wildlife.
The Met Office data for Stornoway shows that 2025 had the highest average annual temperature (9.7°C) recorded over the 150 years or so in which accurate records have been collected. But what does that feel like in comparison to an average of 8.8°C in 2021, one of our coldest recent years?
Recording natural events gives me a better feel for what’s really happening than the raw numerical data. The average spring temperature in 2025 was about 2.0°C warmer than in 2021. Our results for the ‘Signs of Spring’ survey in 2025 showed that this translated into a spring that was about two weeks earlier than in 2021. I know exactly what that means, what that feels like.
Most of our wildlife records in the past came from naturalists who spent a week or two on holiday in the islands looking for various plants, birds and insects. Like most of our visitors, they mainly came between the end of May and the end of August, which meant that things that come out in early spring or autumn and winter were likely to be missed.
One of the insect groups I’m interested in is the Caddisflies. I started recording them here in 2017 and found large numbers, early in that year, of a big conspicuous one called Limnephilus elegans. Most caddisflies don’t have common names!
Before I found them here the last previous record was from 1901. The reason was that most visiting naturalists weren’t coming here at the right time of year to find them. The species hadn’t suddenly arrived but had been here all the time. In recent years most of our natural history sightings have come from people who live here all year round and your records have added an enormous amount to our understanding of our wildlife.
Every record, even of common things, that you send in to Curracag or OHBR is useful to us and will help build our understanding of how our changing climate is affecting the plants and animals that we treasure and which help make our islands such a wonderful place to live, or visit.
