Mixed fortunes for UK wildlife from changes in the weather

CHANGEABLE WEATHER in 2019 saw an influx of migrant wildlife – but mixed fortunes for some of the UK’s native species, the National Trust said.

A slightly “stop-start” spring with intermittent warm spells of weather in the early half of the year saw migrant butterflies, moths and dragonflies from the south and east arrive in Britain.

But the changeable summer, with bouts of heavy rainfall, harmed species such as water voles in the Yorkshire Dales, which were hit by sudden flooding, while seabirds on the Farne Islands lost chicks in June downpours.

And there were knock-on consequences from last year’s drought and heatwave, ranging from devastating fire on

Marsden Moor over the Easter weekend, to a good year for orchids.

The National Trust said climate change was driving more erratic weather, and it was important to protect and expand habitats to help support wildlife under pressure and allow species to move across the landscape.

Keith Jones, climate change expert at the Trust said: “This year’s changeable weather is a symptom of the warming climate.

“The more our temperatures go up – the more erratic our weather will become. This will force changes to the lifecycles of many species as food webs are knocked out of sync.”

Among the migrants spotted were the long tailed blue butterfly, from the Mediterranean, which set new records with 50 seen along the south coast of England, mating and laying eggs. The Clifden nonpareil, a rare moth which became extinct as a resident species in the UK in the 1960s but has been trying to re-establish itself, was recorded at Killerton in Devon, with many more spotted in the south of the country.

There were also high numbers of migrant dragonflies including the red-veined darter and vagrant emperor in June, July and August.

Southern migrant hawker dragonflies, which first bred in the UK in 2010, consolidated their numbers and possibly colonised new counties, Dorset and Yorkshire.