Climate Change in England, Phenology

Contents

Pushing the Boundaries of Life: England

England's long history of nature observation makes it a center of phenology, the study of when natural events such as flower blooming and bird nesting occur.

There and all across Europe, detailed records show rising average temperatures are affecting natural processes. David Walker of the Dungeness Bird Observatory holds a chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita, a warbler whose yearly migration and nesting are much earlier now than in the mid-20th century.

Ornithologist Andrew Gosler of Oxford University records the date of egg laying of great tits Parus major, in Wytham Wood.

Monitoring 900 nestboxes since the 1960s, this project, run by the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, has documented a three week advance in date of first laying, which is "entirely consistent with the weather." British Trust for Ornithology records confirm similar advances for many other birds.

One of the most dramatic changes to the British countryside is the earlier budding of the famous English oaks, Quercus robur. These trees are monitored on a canopy walkway at Wytham Environmental Change Network. Across Europe, 30 years of records from botanical gardens show that the growing season is almost 11 days longer due to earlier spring and later fall events.