Much excitement has been caused by the first ever confirmed breeding of Cetti’s warblers at our Leighton Moss nature reserve in Silverdale, north Lancashire.
This little brown bird is only started to breeding in Britain in the 1970’s. Their numbers have been increasing mainly in areas of southern England with milder temperatures such as Kent, Norfolk and Dorset.
As a southern bird from warmer climes, is the Leighton Moss appearance a sign of climate change? Just as one swallow does not make a summer, one northerly record does not prove a causal link. Nevertheless Cetti’s warblers - named after naturalist and Jesuit priest Francesco Cetti from birds collected in hot, dry Sardinia – are expected to move north with climate change. Scientific projections in the Climatic Atlas of European Breeding Birds suggest that north Lancashire might be within the northern edge of suitable climate conditions for Cetti’s warblers with a 3°C rise in average global temperature. Thankfully, that extent of climate change is a horror that we may still - just - have time to avert. Cetti’s warblers also overwinter here, unlike many warblers, so perhaps this is just a hardy pair with a bit of extra north England grit. Yet, with a few other sporadic pairs having previously bred elsewhere in Lancashire, maybe milder winters, possibly with other, more subtle climatic shifts, are helping these noisey little birds move further north.
Certainly we can expect to see a range of birds in more northerly places than we’ve been used to, as climate change progresses. But these will only prosper if there is good habitat in the new locations, as at Leighton Moss, where the RSPB has provided 5 star conditions for our new arrivals. And of course with what we may gain in the north, we can expect losses from warming climates at the southern end of the range, so it’s not all good news.
Do you have examples of seeing birds – and other wildlife – in new and different places, which might be linked to climate change ? We’d love to hear from you.