Springing a surprise

Spring is fickle, and each year the season works out differently. This spring, the weather has been extraordinarily dry, with long periods of wonderfully clear blue skies. Ospreys are a sure sign of spring in Denmark. These fish-catching birds of prey arrive in early April, timing their migration with the melting of ice further north. Early this spring, Ospreys trickled by in smaller numbers than expected. Maybe, they passed unnoticed at great height, or maybe, more worryingly, their population had declined. Later in April, however, more observations were made. Inclement weather further south may have simply delayed them by a few days. Ospreys are cosmopolitan birds. They know a thing or two about migration.

The Pallid Harrier is one of the species that has surely increased. This elegant harrier used to be very rare in Denmark, but now upwards of 10 individuals may be spotted on a good day. The Pallid Harrier is a bird of the Central Asian steppes, but it has expanded its range westwards. A few pairs breed in Sweden and Finland. Many Pallid Harriers spend the winter in India. The Blackbuck National Park at Velavadar in Gujarat and the Little Rann of Kutch are famous for their nighttime harrier roosts. Some Pallid Harriers are seen around Delhi, but they should also be visiting Punjab in the winter.

Whereas the Pallid Harriers have reached Denmark from the east, other raptor species have come from the south. A century ago, the Red Kite had been exterminated in Denmark, but in the 1970s, it came back, and now several hundred pairs breed here.

Red Kites were also persecuted in Sweden, but now thousands of pairs grace the open landscape.

The resurgence of the Red Kite does not stand alone. In recent years, another kite, the Black Kite, has made its entry. The Red Kite is largely a European species, but the Black Kite is found all the way from Japan and Australia to southern Africa. Known as cheel in Hindi, it is a familiar bird in urban India. The film ‘All That Breathes’ movingly tells the story of a small bird hospital that treats kites living off the Delhi rubbish heaps.

A third kite, the Black-winged Kite, has also made an appearance. It, too, is widely distributed. In India, one may see single individuals of this dainty bird in villages and even in cities. In Europe, it is a new bird that reached Spain and Portugal from North Africa. It started to breed in France about 25 years back. It is now seen yearly in Denmark, thus following in the footsteps of the Black and the Red Kite in their northward expansion.

If the story of raptors in Denmark is one about the persecution that led to their drastic decline in the 19th century and to their slow recovery in recent decades, it is also the story about climate change. Since the 1980s, temperatures in Europe have increased at twice the global rate. Europe used to be characterised by a wet Atlantic climate, but now long spells of extreme heat are more frequent. This makes it feasible for birds from warmer climates to extend their range northwards as the kites have done.

Milder springtime temperatures also mean that raptors may advance their arrival by a week or two. People seem to follow suit. In Copenhagen, it is now common for people to wear summer shorts in March and April!

Altogether, spring continues to spring surprises.

— The writer is a Danish sociologist, who used to frequent Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka

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