The thrushes are singing in the trees, frogs are spawning in the pond, bees are buzzing round the garden and daffodils are opening their trumpets in the flowerbed. Scottish winters are not what they used to be.
The authors of a new report that claims the country now has a similar climate to that on the south coast of England a decade ago have calculated that spring is now arriving in Scotland significantly earlier.
The seven-year study, compiled by the Woodland Trust, proves that the season began four weeks earlier in 2004 than it did in 1920. Spring 2005 could be the earliest yet.
A series of sightings support the claim that the country is experiencing warmer winters, including the discovery of bumblebees and ladybirds in December, four months before they would usually be expected.
Frogspawn was found in Inverness-shire on January 16, the earliest date ever recorded in that part of the country, and several peacock butterflies were spotted in Edinburgh 12 weeks ahead of schedule.
Several species of birds, including swallows, song thrushes and housemartins, have also appeared well before they were expected.
The findings will be presented to the intergovernmental panel on climate change next month.
“The Scottish climate is getting warmer and is starting to mirror the climate in the rest of the UK,” said Nick Collinson, a policy adviser with the trust. “Judging on the basis of insects, spring now occurs in central Scotland when it did on the south coast of England 10 years ago.
“Just like the rest of the Britain, Scotland is having a very mild start to 2005 and this is the sort of early spring we can expect in the future and is confirmed in climate change scenarios.”
Scientists are concerned that, with global warming disrupting the natural progression of the seasons, species will start to die out. Dutch scientists have found evidence that great tits are hatching their young early, once the glut of winter month caterpillars has passed.
There are also fears that, as ladybirds are coming out of hibernation earlier, the aphids they eat will not be around to sustain them, leaving them facing starvation.
David Mitchell, the curator at the Royal Botanic gardens in Edinburgh, said that exotic plants are now surviving the Scottish winter out of doors. The chusan palm, usually found in south China, is thriving on the edge of the Highlands at the Explorer’s Garden in Pitlochry.
A tree fern that grows in the South Pacific has survived this winter out of doors at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.
“Our winters are milder, wetter and we do not get the long periods of frost. As a result the soil is warmer, triggering plant growth sooner. Gardeners are taking advantage of these climate changes and are now contemplating plants they would not have tried five years ago,” said Mitchell.
John Coll, a climate impact researcher at the University of the Highlands and Islands, believes that plants are also growing at higher altitudes and could threaten the Cairngorms’ arctic environment.
“My own figures show that in 2050 the treeline will rise from its current 300m to 450m,” said Coll.
“Less snow also means that vegetation in the snowbed could be under threat.”
The climatic changes are affecting the Scottish skiing industry, with less snow resulting in a slump in the number of skiers visiting the Highlands. From a high of 650,000 in 1980, the number of skiers plummeted to an all time low of 200,000 last year.
It has also been proposed that mountain hares, water voles, snow bunting and crossbills could be relocated to Iceland and Scandinavia to prevent them becoming extinct.

for further information:
John.coll@thurso.uhi.ac.uk