April's foreshadowing migratory birds return to the UK – unless the weather gets cruel

Despite TS Eliot's famous rework on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales' opening remarks, April is usually not the most Curellest month. For birdwatchers, it saw most long-distance immigrants return from their welcome dormitories in sub-Saharan Africa – including warblers, flycatchers and chats, as well as those in the air masters: Swallows, Martins and Swiftes.

We and birds want clear skies and gentle south winds that allow these global travelers to safely cross the UK’s access.

But from time to time, April weather is more like a harsh airflow in February or March, north or east than in the south. April 1989 was one of the coldest on record, with the continued north winds causing extensive snowfall, preventing those returning immigrants from on their tracks.

Just five years later, the weather was not good in April 1994, but this time it was in a completely different direction. That year, a series of Atlantic sanks brought cool, unstable weather, rain and westerly winds. Again, this creates a huge obstacle for returning immigrants and delays their arrival.

In April 1981, some birds had the worst spring conditions, and Easterlies brought huge snowfall. By the end of that month, strong winds in the north caused a large pile of seabirds in the North Sea, many of which swept the inland in the strong winds.