Wild
weather leads to the ‘Year of the Slug'
January
2013. Unsettled, unpredictable and at times chaotic weather has meant that this
year has been hugely challenging for wildlife, according to experts at the
National Trust. Whilst birds and insects have struggled, slugs and orchids have
done well throughout Britain in our special places.
Matthew
Oates, wildlife adviser at the National Trust, said: "This has been a
highly polarised year, with wildlife in the places we look after doing either
remarkably well or incredibly badly. In general, plants and slugs were the big
winners and insects the big losers. But even in this wet summer some insects
did surprisingly well, at least in a few places. Our wildlife, farmers,
horticulturalists and rural tourism and recreation industries are all long
overdue a good summer, having suffered poor ones since 2006. Surely we are due
a good one next year?"
Drought
and floods
It was a spring of two halves with the warmest March since 1910 and the implementation of drought orders across England followed by the wettest April on record.
It was a spring of two halves with the warmest March since 1910 and the implementation of drought orders across England followed by the wettest April on record.
The
April downpour had a detrimental impact on fruit harvests in the autumn as the
spring rains washed away the blossom resulting in a very bad year for English
apples across the board and autumn fruits and berries such as sloes and holly
berries.
Wet
summer
Another poor summer has hit British wildlife hard as it struggled to cope with the very wet conditions and a distinct lack of long dry summer days though some species have gone against the flow and thrived.
Another poor summer has hit British wildlife hard as it struggled to cope with the very wet conditions and a distinct lack of long dry summer days though some species have gone against the flow and thrived.
It
was a bad summer for the insect pollinators and even those flowers that were
pollinated have struggled to set fruit in the ongoing we weather with a knock
on affect for birds and animals that depends on these crucial food sources.
Bees,
butterflies and hoverflies also suffered a set back this year because of the
mixed weather becoming generally very scarce, though there were welcome
exceptions in some places where the Chalkhill blue and dark-green fritillary
did spectacularly well.
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