Nature News from RSPB Scotland

EPISODE 20 Is It Spring Yet?

• RSPB Scotland

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Stephen and Kate are joined by Conservation Officer Scott Shanks  for a wander in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park. They're on the lookout for early signs of Spring and bumblebees in particular. Stephen has also been testing out his birdsong knowledge. And Kate is feeling the weight of winter lift from her shoulders.

LINKS

Beavers
Learn more about the reintroduction of beavers on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooCQniFUAd4

Follow their progress on the Loch Lomond nature reserve social feeds https://twitter.com/RSPBLochLomond

Wild Isles
Watch the trail here https://mobile.twitter.com/bbcpress/status/1628437839527411713

Birdsong
The app Kate used https://birdnet.cornell.edu/
More on birdsong here https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-songs/

Unknown:

This is Nature News from RSPB Scotland

Stephen Magee:

Hello and welcome to our podcast 'Nature News' from RSPB Scotland. I'm Steven Magee. This is where we bring you stories about nature from global news to the little things we're noticing every day.

Kate Kirkwood:

And I'm Kate Kirkland. There's never been a time when staying in touch with nature and acting to protect it has been more important.

Stephen Magee:

We're keen to hear your nature news, whether it's the little moments you've experienced or your thoughts on the big issues affecting the planet. You can contact us on Twitter at @RSPBScotland or you can email us at podcast.scotland@rspb.org.uk

Kate Kirkwood:

And please do subscribe and leave a review because it helps other folk find us in the podcast jungle.

Stephen Magee:

Hello again we are in the park.

Kate Kirkwood:

Yes and the sun is shining.

Stephen Magee:

Oh is this I mean it's so it is very lucky actually because because the theme of this episode is is it spring yet? Right?

Kate Kirkwood:

Today it certainly is

Stephen Magee:

And today is a perfect day to talk about this because if you're out of the sun, it is baltic!

Kate Kirkwood:

Yes it definitely not not warm.

Stephen Magee:

It is pretty nippy. But if you're in the sun, it is like a proper like - sit out, have your lunch in the park.

Kate Kirkwood:

Absolutely, properly. Just to give you a visual image of how things are right now. I'm sitting on a bench, basking a little bit like a lemur. Leg is crossed, hands are up to the sky. I'm enjoying the sunshine and warming up quite nicely.

Stephen Magee:

Wearing sunglasses and having taken your fleece off. We should say, we're also joined by Conservation Officer Scott Shanks, hello Scott.

Scott Shanks:

Hello!

Stephen Magee:

Hiya, now, we are kind of on your patch. Really. We should tell people that we are in Kelvingrove Park in the West - the leafy West End of Glasgow, right, and it's a perfect day to see it. It is beautiful. And it's also nice to see a lot of people

Scott Shanks:

It's gorgeous. It's a yeah a - here there's bumblebees flying today. First time - I haven't seen any bumblebees yet. So really looking forward to having a wee explore later and finding them but it's it's lovely. This was this was my lockdown daily walk kinda going past here, knowing the squirrels, passing by the same people checking out the chalk drawings on the park. It's a lovely place to come and visit enjoying it.

Kate Kirkwood:

Lovely and busy today. is good.

Stephen Magee:

Yeah, it is indeed. Now, Nature News is in the name so we will start with nature news. If if you've been across like any of RSPB Scotland's kinda social feeds over the last month, you will know that they have been dominated by one thing and that is beavers. We reintroduced a family of seven beavers to our Loch Lomond reserve, they're part of a translocation programme being run by NatureScot on behalf of the Scottish Government, which involves moving beavers from areas where there's conflict between beavers and people into areas where hopefully, there will not be conflict and those beavers can thrive. It was an incredibly exciting event, have to say tempered slightly by the fact it was a family of seven beavers, two adults, two like sub-adults, essentially, like adolescent beavers, and three kits. Now, unfortunately, since we reintroduced them, two of the kits have died. They were killed by otters, which is something which does happen - I was looking into it a bit, it is something that does happen occasionally, there's records of predation in other places. There's also when they did the beaver trial at Knapdale, there were instances of predation, actually, I think, by Pine Martin, as well as other things. So it's one of those things that can happen with relocation that obviously it's sad, but as far as we're aware, the rest of that family beavers are, you know, as we go to press right, getting on fine. And the hope is that they will continue to thrive there. And it's just very exciting.

Kate Kirkwood:

It is, it's such a good news story. And it is, as you say, tempered by the sadness of the loss of those two kits. But it is worth remembering that this has been a huge success so far. And I think it just shows to the hard work that's been put in by the teams that were involved in bringing the beavers to Loch Lomond, and hopefully is showing the right direction of movement and attitudes towards beavers and when they do come into conflict with humans.

Stephen Magee:

Another bit of exciting news is, stay glued to your television screens, folks, because there is something coming - Wild Isles, a big BBC One Natural History Series presented by Sir David Attenborough. RSPB and other wildlife organisations have been involved actually in the production of it, which is really exciting. It's going to highlight primarily, it's going to highlight a lot of things that are great about British nature and things you can see but also hopefully help people to understand some of the challenges that nature and wildlife faces. Well...

Kate Kirkwood:

Oh, honestly, I cannot wait. I'm so excited from the little clips that I've seen so far. And, yeah, it's absolutely - I'm just, I, I'm lost for words. No, I am an avid watcher of nature documentaries. I have been watching them since I was sort of before I could probably walk and have a real kind of personal affinity to them. But it's gonna be absolutely stunning. There's some amazing camerawork, amazing techniques of filming that have been used that if you're geeky, super, super cool. And but just some really exciting stories being told.

Stephen Magee:

I think one of the things that's interesting to me is I also grew up watching Natural History programmes, right? And you watch all these programmes about, you know, the Serengeti or, or like, you know, the boreal forests of British Columbia, or, you know, with grizzly bears in them and stuff. And you can sometimes forget that actually, in terms of spectacle, we're pretty well off in Scotland, right?

Scott Shanks:

Exactly. I mean, you definitely don't need to focus on polar bears. And you know, like some blue whales gorgeous as they are, like, there's this amazing kind of like, sort of a, you know, some blue planet types of shots, but focusing on like, our actual wildlife in the amazing species that we've got, yeah, really looking forward to it, it's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be so good.

Kate Kirkwood:

Definetely.

Stephen Magee:

Now, podcasts isn't just about big nature news, it's about our nature news as well. I am going to start off I have... unfortunately I got COVID, so was a bit...my ability to go further afield was a bit constrained but once I was better and testing clear, obviously, I was able to get out and about in the neighbourhood a bit. And I have been spending a bit of time going to ponds right, so there is a there's a kind of like an old boating pond near me. And also I was in the Botanics for a wee wonder and they've got like a lovely wee pond there as well. And really enjoying just what you call like normal pond type birds that you get here right? So like...

Kate Kirkwood:

You've been watching the ducks

Stephen Magee:

I've been watching ducks! And the pond near me had about 15 or 20 Tufted Ducks in it, at this time of year like the males in particular, look amazing you know they're in their smartest plumage getting ready for the breeding season, that the actual tuft that they're named after you can really see it and the black and the white and the contrast. But also just like at the Botanics we were lucky we were there there was a Kingfisher

Kate Kirkwood:

Aw you saw it? Fantastic

Stephen Magee:

at the Botanics, yeah saw the Kingfisher at the Botanics which to be fair is the most photographed Kingfisher in all of Scotland but we did still see it, and like Teal and all these kind of things, just you know, just really appreciating ponds.

Kate Kirkwood:

Yeah, awesome, ponds are good

Stephen Magee:

Ponds are awesome

Kate Kirkwood:

Underrated

Stephen Magee:

What about you, Kate?

Kate Kirkwood:

Do you know...considering the theme of this podcast, I'm really struggling to like find one particular thing and just I suppose the the sense of things beginning to reawaken that is what I have been noticing recently, nothing specific. I mean, I could list off lots of different things, which we'll talk about later. But yeah, there's been some absolutely really, really strong signs of spring. And I kind of like it when we get these beautiful sunny days, interspersed with a little bit of a reminder that we're still in winter, we're not quite there yet. So I'm enjoying that contrast at the moment.

Stephen Magee:

Cool. Scott?

Scott Shanks:

Oh, well, I get yeah, totally agree so much stuff can happen and kicking off at the moment. Spring is one of my favourite times, everything just kind of kicking off. But the thing that I've been looking forward to the most and finally saw this week was an actual dandelion, and I think a dandelion, a dandelion, what are you talking about? Like they're everywhere. I got a ...massive geek. I'm a massive geek.

Stephen Magee:

We can confirm that Scott is a massive...you will find out more in the podcast later on, yeah...

Kate Kirkwood:

We love geeks on the podcast.

Scott Shanks:

Yeah. One of the best things I got for Christmas, it was a book on dandelions, their whole 240 different species of dandelion.

Kate Kirkwood:

There's 240 species of dandelion?

Scott Shanks:

Yeah, amazing. Amazing.

Kate Kirkwood:

In the UK?

Scott Shanks:

There are, there are, and others further afield. And so I've been desperate to try out my book and find out what types of dandelions I've got next to me and I finally got one with all the features that I could like have a good look at and finally did did my first ID so yeah, dandelions, and I love them!

Kate Kirkwood:

What type of dandelion was it?

Scott Shanks:

I don't think it's got a common name but it's called Taraxacum Pseudo Hamata. It's it's super super common. Yeah, I've been massively geeking and searching everywhere for like a flowering eh, dandelion.

Kate Kirkwood:

Oh, well done.

Scott Shanks:

Finally, finally.

Stephen Magee:

So Scott, what are we gonna...what we doing!

Scott Shanks:

These are south facing slopes in Kelvingrove Park probably planted quite a few years back now with a whole range of lovely dark purple, mauve, whites, kind of goldy yellow kind of crocuses, but generally the crocuses are what I am looking for early in the spring. And it's really the first place in Glasgow where I kind of see bumblebees each year.

Stephen Magee:

So this is a slope that is kind of south facing, I guess so yeah.

Scott Shanks:

So the Clydes, Clydes...it's facing down towards the Clyde, we're in kind of north side of the river. And this is a lovely full blasting sunshine. So the heat on on the slow ones at the crocus's they get going a bit faster, but it's also it's great for those early emerged Queen Bumblebees that are coming out at this time of year so they've been hibernating somewhere fairly cold fairly kind of likes of shady for most of the winter. They don't want to wake up kind of mid to mid winter so they're either kind of in shady stuff, but once the temperature starts to... air temperature starts to stabilise and come up close to 10 degrees. Yeah, they'll come out and they'll have a little wander around and a bit basking... having a little bit of food so tonnes of pollen in crocuses, good bit of nectar as well. So that kind of carb...carb hits, bit of protein as well and plenty place where they can just sunbathe. So once once they've eaten some stuff, allowing, raising the body temperature, getting the metabolisms going and allowing them to do it. So they do this for a while and once they've kinda like replenished all that winter fat because hibernation, like, I mean, is such an energy kind of...a draining thing...

Stephen Magee:

All right so it soaks up all the...yeah, yeah yeah

Scott Shanks:

So the I mean, they spend the kind of autumn like scoffing and lying on, like thistles and eating all the amazing stuff.

Stephen Magee:

One of the things that we picked up going along from people, right is trying to think like an animal, right? Like, and I don't really know that much about bumblebees, but if I was a bumblebee that... that lovely sunkissed bank full of... that's where I would be right?

Kate Kirkwood:

Absolutely. Like it's south facing even just standing slightly in the leaves, some of the trees, it's quite warm and sunny, and it's brightly coloured as well. I think that's the thing when you're thinking about pollinators, the bright colours, because they often, they also see beyond our visible light spectrum as well...

Stephen Magee:

Yeah so there should be UV, is it UV or infrared or what they see?

Scott Shanks:

So they can see further into the UV spectrum as well. But you know what, it's not just for the pollinators because crocuses like... it's gorgeous! You see the number of people who just stop, stopping, they're standing kind of... my heart just kind of like you know, swells with kind of joy whenever I see it. And it's something that I've tried to do in little local spaces near me like try and replicate something as gorgeous as this.

Stephen Magee:

Yeah, can see why. Right, we've given it big licks, let's go and have a look and see if there's actually anything there!

Scott Shanks:

It's early, so it's gonna be fairly bumblebee queen. Yeah, it is. So little Bombus pratorum, the early bumblebee queen, living as its name, found early. But these are, this is our smallest bumblebee queen, she's probably the size of like a kinda worker of other sort of species. Super cute little red bum, a lovely, bright yellow collar and the yellow bands kind of like sort of round her waist. And she's just kind of like, sitting there in the bank and basking in the sunshine.

Stephen Magee:

Yeah, so just for folk listening like she's, she was having a bit of a fly about, and now she's busying herself in the grass. Now, as somebody who doesn't know a lot about bees, I would think, why is that bee cutting about in the grass as opposed to all these lovely flowers that are here? What is she doing?

Scott Shanks:

So actually, at the moment is it's kind of interesting. It's quite quite early on, but she actually looks like she's maybe looking for a nest site. So she's... there's little tuft of grass there with kind of bare soil behind it and possibly a little hole. So there might actually be, I don't know whether there might have been a vole, a vole hole, the art there was one of the things that they're kind of like attracted to is that smell of rotten urine.

Kate Kirkwood:

Oh really?

Scott Shanks:

And because, you know, if a little vole has lived in there, it's gonna be a nice cosy little bed and might have some bedding. Yeah, she's actually disappeared!

Stephen Magee:

She's disappeared! She's just there.

Kate Kirkwood:

It's a bit warmer.

Scott Shanks:

She is still there. You know what, she's, she's actually lying on the dry bit of grass at the moment. So It's warming up, it seems like... they are early it could just be grabbing that heat. and I mean, they're one of the species that will have two broods sort of during the year so you know, they... a lot of the others won't produce queens and new sort of drones until like July, August or something. Early bumblebees like pratorum, like maybe April they could have like new... a new generation of queens so they've got whole times of getting going early, is possibly one of the things to do. But yeah, I think she's she's feeding up on some of the crocus nectar and pollen and ohhh a nice big...

Stephen Magee:

that's murkle, what's that?

Scott Shanks:

I think, was that a red tail? I think it was a red-tailed queen

Stephen Magee:

He's looking at us, Kate!

Kate Kirkwood:

Yeah, I know, he's looking at me like I know what I'm looking at, no it was quite large.

Stephen Magee:

It was big!

Scott Shanks:

Oh, a tree bumblebee, tree bumblebee

Stephen Magee:

So what's that?

Scott Shanks:

Yes we've got a tree bumblebee queen one of a Scotland's most recent bumblebee kind of arrivals. 2012 I think was the first time that they found... were found in Scotland and I saw one for the first time, God maybe 2013 or something? Instantly got stung by a queen but she was like I was so excited to see what I tried to catch it, oh what an idiot. But these are now one of the most common bumblebees. It's a gorgeous kinda gingery-brown, sort of thorax body, black band on its abdomen and a while tail

Stephen Magee:

The thing that's really noticeable to me about that it's like how much how dark it is and how much actual genuine black there is not not like stripes but like solid black in the middle.

Kate Kirkwood:

That ginger kind of back sort of top like you're saying the thorax is kind of fuzzy ginger colour.

Scott Shanks:

But yeah they kinda sort of triple colour, that ginger, black, white is such a distinctive and easy characteristic there's not... some of the other kind of bumblebees harder to kind of see.

Stephen Magee:

So, Scott, just as she moved there... managed to pick up a wee bit of like the buzz right this is what kind of...it's the defining characteristic of a bumblebee to most people

Scott Shanks:

That kind of lovely hum a is kind of gorgeous. They're kind of like bumbling around like they've just like 'bumble' is just such a fantastic and a cute cutesie sort of name and quite often they do this time of year you know that kind of sort of crashing into sort of dandelion, they're covered in pollen into some a intersexual case and kind of like so you know just bumbling around and they're so gorgeous and it's it's just instantly Spring is here when you're seeing bumblebees. So, a buff-tailed bumblebee queen so 'Bombus terrestris', probably generally the first one that I see each year and really kind of abundant kind of in kind of urban spaces. So yeah, she's kind of likes of slowly kind of hovering above kind of a crocuses and then she just kind of plunges kind of sort of in.

Stephen Magee:

She's all like completely covered in little shiny bits of pollen!

Kate Kirkwood:

Did they have pollen baskets? Or they just...

Scott Shanks:

She does, yes.

Kate Kirkwood:

So what she's doing she's grooming it all off herself and she'll be popping it into her pollen basket.

Scott Shanks:

Well, you know what, she's... it's probably too early for her to be collecting pollen

Stephen Magee:

And she's gone!

Scott Shanks:

She's gone. Aw, what a shame. Oh, what were we saying there?

Stephen Magee:

It's just like seeing her up close. Yes, she was so...between her arriving here and her leaving. She just got completely covered in pollen.

Scott Shanks:

She totally did. So it is this time of year, it's all about them scoffing and replenishing their foodstuffs, and they won't bother generally collecting stuff on their pollen basket. So as soon as that you start seeing them with kind of pollen on the pollen baskets, that's them, I've got a nest and nesting season has begun. So there's there's baby bumblebees to be fed kind of like somewhere, but at this time of year, I think it's all about you know, their time kind of, scoffing eating delicious nectary kind of goodness, basking in the sunshine, taking a bit of a rest before the hard work begins.

Stephen Magee:

It's it's bee me-time.

Kate Kirkwood:

Amazing.

Scott Shanks:

That's good.

Stephen Magee:

Right we're going to start wandering around these crocuses now. Obviously, like it's brilliant to not just to see some bees but to see some bees in the company of somebody who knows a tonne about bees. So that is amazing. But spring is not just about invertebrates.

Kate Kirkwood:

No, there's other things

Stephen Magee:

All kinds of stuff going on. And obviously birds are starting to change their behaviour this time of year as well. So I went out for a little wander yesterday just out the back of my house in the wee lane that goes down the railway yard which is always a good place for picking up some urban birds. Just to focus on what I could hear. Morning, it's about 8 o'clock. It is the 21st of February. I thought I would come out just literally around the back of my house and have a little listen for what you can hear at this time of year. Now, it is very definitely not the full dawn chorus as yet, but there's loads about. Those of you who've watched stuff on the YouTube channel may well know that I had been trying to learn a bit more about birdsong and feel my way with it with the help of colleagues at RSPB so I am still, how shall we say, on that journey of knowledge. So we'll see how I get on but I'm gonna have a little pot around record what I can hear, pick out some things that I'll hopefully recognise and maybe pick out a couple of things to put Scott on the spot about and see if he can tell me what they are. Right, I've done a wee bit recording, let's start actually with things that are not song as such, but certainly sounds. There was quite an entertaining episode where there was a full and frank discussion between a carrion crow... and a magpie over who's going to get to sit up on the tallest chimney in the houses round the side of the wee lane I'm in That was extremely noisy, eh, carrion crow won, incidentally. Other sound I was quite pleased to get, like when a wood pigeon takes off and does the little clap clap display flight So it does that by like clapping its wings together and that's just a really... it's nice to hear it in town but that's kind of like, that's a sound that for me is like winter stubble fields or something but there it is round the back of my house. And the other one that you wouldn't really call song but there was a lot of was like house sparrows, like they are so noisy and so chatty. That's not seasonal that's just like constantly contact calling to each other I guess. It's still nice to hear. Right, let's move onto song. The one I was hoping to get today and one I did get was robin. Pretty much anyone in here to be fair could hear a robin singing around here. It's just so beautiful though, that kind of golden, kind of liquid kind of tone to it. And very very musical. Yeah just something that's great to go out and hear and see what Scott thinks. My impression is that there's there's more robin singing even although they do sing the whole year they're beginning to pickup, but that might just be me. The other song I was pleased to get was and this is one where we will need to check out is what I think is a dunnock. Dunnock song has got a slightly kind of like laser gun quality to it but then the other bird that that also has that is a wren, which also has that kind of electronic feel to it but the way that somebody described it to me was... a dunnock is like a wren but in shorter bursts and that's what I think I was It was pretty impressive anyway so here's hoping I've got that hearing. right. Whatever it was, whether it was a dunnock or a wren, it was given it full beams. That kind of pink pink kinda noise there is chaffinches doing a contact call but there's also a bit of chaffinch song this morning and they're definitely one of the early ones to sing. And then onto my mystery bird, see if Scott can help me with. Now, if I had to guess, Luke Wake who's been on the podcast before works for us at Loch Lomond who helped me with the birdsong beginner videos. He once said to me that if you hear a bird and you don't know what it is, it's probably a great tit. So on that basis, I'm gonna guess that. But yeah, be interested, see what it is whatever it is. We obviously we don't have our summer migrants here yet. We're still waiting on the willow warblers and the chiffchaffs and the blackcaps and all that stuff. But there is plenty to hear on a February morning in suburban Edinburgh. Appropriately enough, there is a great tit just very faintly in the background. Now right, so how did I do with the birdsong stuff? Scott what's the truth?

Scott Shanks:

So, mystery bird at the end there. Yeah. It's cute. It's lovely. It's adorable, fluffy, I almost said it's blue and yellow...

Stephen Magee:

Oh it's a blue tit! And it was loud!

Scott Shanks:

They can be so loud, you know? And actually, the little bit you played earlier with the dunnock, I think it wasn't a dunnock. I think it was a wren, yeah.

Stephen Magee:

It was a wren, I wasn't sure, yeah, yeah

Scott Shanks:

You totally said it right. So that kind of dunnock doing the same kind of like, you know, the same kind of sort of a style, but much shorter kind of sort of blast of it. So if you can always kind of think if you hear it, and you're kind of like listening, like do 1000 2000 3000, if it's finished, it'll be dunnock. If it carries on, like, four seconds or so much more likely to be the wren.

Stephen Magee:

I'm learning and it's one of those things it's a bit like, you know, when you learn a language at school, and you think that you're doing quite well, and then you go to the country, and everybody doesn't just come up to you and ask you in order, what's your name? Where do you live? Do you like going to the swimming pool? Right? Yeah, they just, they start speaking to you like a person, right? And then they'll ask you random things and things you don't recognise. And I think bird song is a bit like that. It's like you feel like you're beginning to get on top of it a little bit. And then, and then there are these little things were actually like wren versus dunnock, where like, it's got to do as well with experience and feel and all that kind of stuff. And it's just it takes time to develop that.

Scott Shanks:

It totally is. And I mean, I think one of the great things about spring is, is learning and reminding yourself on those calls like, like you were doing it for years, but actually going out there, having a wander, bask in the sunshine, listening to it, but then confirming, you know, looking up, try and find who's singing and just say yeah, I got that, you know, they say test test yourself. And, you know, this time of year before the migrants and things that things a sort of start arriving. It's a great time to learn. You're kinda garden...

Stephen Magee:

Yeah learn your local stuff. And tell us what you did.

Kate Kirkwood:

Yeah so, I was marking Stephen's homework. So I had a listen to the calls yesterday after you done the recording. And I was sort of listening along. And I was agreeing with him. And then there was that kind of conversation, you had that kind of question about whether it was a dunnock or a wren. And I was like, I don't actually know what a dunnock sounds like because I hadn't really thought about what they sound like and that does sound very much like a wren. And so the question was there in my head. And then when you brought in the mystery bird, I was like, I recognise what that sound is because I hear it all the time around where I am. And you know what I did, I had heard about an app that was really good for recognising birdsong. And I was just like, right, okay, this, this apps called Birdnet, there are other apps available, obviously. But I went and downloaded Birdnet, and I sat and listened to the recording that you sent me. And I used Birdnet to analyse the song. And what's really cool that I had no idea I've never used it before it literally, you press record, and then you select which bit you want to look at. But it also gives you a visual...

Stephen Magee:

Like a waveform?

Kate Kirkwood:

Yeah. But also, when you get a particular song of a bird, for example, the blue tit that you were trying to identify, you can see it almost like musical notation. So I have a music background. So I kind of have learned to read music. I can't anymore because I've not used it for a while. But you can see the patterns. And what was really helpful there was I can't necessarily visualise just by listening, I need to see something as well. And it's the patterns that I recognise there.

Stephen Magee:

And I think one of the important things about that, right, is that when you approach something like trying to learn birdsong, which feels enormous or like today, like being out with you Scott, right, and you having to hand all this information, right. As a layperson, it can feel quite intimidating and it's like you know, it's a long road and what's the point of starting out on it because, but these kinds of tools, right, are all about chipping away at it and building an understanding in a way that suits you and different people will learn different ways and have different learning styles. And that's all fine. One other thing I wanted to talk about just finally about spring is like how spring might mean different things to different people, but also like to other animals, right? Because spring is a season for us in the sense of just the calendar. There's still a feeling of unclenching I think that comes with it.

Kate Kirkwood:

I noticed definitely it's a sunny day today, and it's a bit warmer, I'm not fighting against the wind, my shoulders relaxed slightly. My jaw unclenches slightly. It's just, I think there's a relief, I think. And I was kind of thinking about this earlier. And my different experiences of spring in different countries. So I did a year abroad in Japan, and I didn't, hadn't quite fully gotten and like really fully understood the cultural thing around Sakura, the cherry blossoms

Stephen Magee:

Is that the blossoms?

Kate Kirkwood:

Yes, so cherry blossom. So blossom season is massively important. But actually, that's not the first

Stephen Magee:

More like frosty cosy thing that happens in the Japanese kind of seasonal calendar, it's plum blossom. So plum blossom happens just before

Kate Kirkwood:

Exactly quite a different experience. And then I went to my first Plum Blossom Festival. And I was just plum blossoms are much more delicate, in my opinion. And I absolutely enraptured, this grey landscape had just turned into these beautiful pink, delicate, amazing smell, smell of kind of love them more because they're really fragrant as well. But just a warmth and the sunlight was beginning to change. And it was just that relief from the monotony and the tension that what you go from is you go from just grey, a very, very grey you build up over being cooled over the winter. And I definitely feel it today with the crocuses and the birds singing and the bumblebees

Stephen Magee:

The bees!

Kate Kirkwood:

And I was getting there! And the bumblebees, is winter. And it's colder, it's a bit windy, but it's just very, that feeling of just release of that kind of tension, like you're saying, the unclenching, the tension has been released. And there's change happening. It's quite tentative. It could very stable grey. There's no kind of it didn't really feel be pouring with rain tomorrow and howling a gale. But today's been that kind of beginning of it. So you can kind of feel that transition. And I think when you take that into yourself, you're like winter that you get here where you're going to get more rain just like, actually, no, we'll get through this. It's been cold. It's been tough this winter, I think for a lot of people, but just those little glimmers of sunlight. And that feeling of warmth makes a huge difference.

Stephen Magee:

It does. Right, good note to end on.

Scott Shanks:

That was nice, really good.

Stephen Magee:

As ever, you know, do let us know what you think about the podcast if there's things that you want us to cover. If there's things that spring mean to you. You can get us on Twitter at @RSPBScotland or you can email us at podcast.scotland@rspb.org.uk.

Kate Kirkwood:

And please do like and subscribe as it helps other people find us in the podcast jungle. And we'll see you next time.

Stephen Magee:

Yeah, so next time I think if all goes to plan, I'm going to be doing a little bit of a special about the rainforest about Scotland's rainforest, because I'm going out there to do a bit of filming. So looking forward to that. But Scott, thank you so much for showing us about.

Scott Shanks:

Aw, it was amazing today. Thanks for bringing this on and the bumblebees!

Stephen Magee:

Yeah, no, I don't I'm not in control of the weather.

Kate Kirkwood:

Or the bumblebees

Stephen Magee:

Yeah or the bumblebees. Yeah, it's been a great day. But anyway, see you next time. Goodbye.

Kate Kirkwood:

Bye!