How our ‘ blurred’ seasons baff le the birds and the bees

THE four seasons merged into one in 2017 – confusing birds, bees and plants, according to scientists.

The mild start to winter and a damp summer were the talking points of the year’s weather, according to a review by the National Trust, and this ‘blurring’ of the seasons was a mixed blessing for wildlife.

Bumblebees appeared in January due to mild conditions, spring flowers bloomed early, and storms and warm seas brought venomous Portuguese man o’ war, bluefin tuna and minke whales to British waters.

The trust said its plans to reverse declines in nature – including creating 62,000 acres of wildlife areas on its land by 2025 – were more urgent than ever in the face of changes to the climate.

And with year-round ‘ thuggish vegetation’ growth becoming a trend as a result of mild winters and damp summers, experts warn they will have to find new ways of managing special habitats. The trust’s dry to arrive start review early, prompted revealed including many that wild flowers a mild, daffodils blooming in the Teign valley in Devon in February, and elder and dog rose, usually June blooms, flowering in April. Balmy weather in May led to a good nesting season for birds, with little terns doing well at Blakeney Point in Norfolk, and spring insects also thriving. The elusive purple emperor butterfly made its earliest appearance in 120 years – at Bookham Common in Surrey on June 11.

Then it was the ‘summer that nearly was’, nature expert Matthew Oates said, with clouds assembling just as the schools broke up leading to another in a string of wet Augusts – followed by a damp September. Winged insects were hit, but it was a prolific year for fungi, including the rare powdercap strangler, which was found at Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire.

‘ Certain species are good at adapting, which is great, whereas others are struggling – some of them badly,’ Mr Oates said.

‘We need to give wildlife the space, time and where necessary, the support it needs, not only to survive, but to thrive.’ The fine spring resulted in a good apple harvest and a bumper autumn for nuts and seeds, attracting an influx of elusive hawfinches from the continent, with flocks of up to 50 reported.

Mr Oates said the year ‘was a bit all over the place yet again’, adding: ‘There’s this issue of the blurring of the seasons, particularly through mild winters and damp summers.’

New measures, such as working closely with farmers to increase grazing, were needed to help these habitats and their wildlife to cope with climate change, he said.

Mr Oates added: ‘It’s hard to put any single event down to climate change but (its) overall impact is quite staggering.

‘It’s not just on land, it’s sea, it’s the ocean warming and what turns up here on our shores – Portuguese man o’ war, jellyfish, bluefin tuna, minke whales... which also suggests it’s not just a terrestrial issue.’

Mr Oates urged people to sign up to citizen science projects monitoring nature, to help inform experts about what was happening in the countryside. He added: ‘Wildlife needs to be able to break out of its nature reserves prison – you can’t keep these guys in small, pocket-handkerchief reserves.’