Extreme weather affects UK wildlife

Many species emerged or bred earlier because of warm weather in the first few months of the year, while the heavy rain and low temperatures caused problems for insects, birds and bats in the summer.

The National Trust's nature conservation advisor Matthew Oates said he believed wildlife was going to be increasingly affected by unpredictable variations caused by climate change.

A male goldeneye duck was seen displaying months earlier than usual at the Bann Estuary in Northern Ireland in January, while the first bats were on the wing in late March, much earlier than normal.

Ladybirds, bumblebees, peacock butterflies and frogspawn all had an early start in February, and the good weather in April saw adonis blue and marsh fritillary butterflies on the wing "radically" early.

Migratory birds such as redwings arrived early in the south of England this autumn, because of cold weather further north.

And in October, basking sharks were spotted for the first time off the Farne Islands - an unusual sight as plankton is not normally found in the North Sea at that time of year.

Mr Oates said: "This year's massive weather fluctuations pulled wildlife all over the place. It was an utterly unique year, full of extremes.

"Someone switched the tap on in early May and left it running until August, by which time it was actually too late for many species.

"Our wildlife has never been stable, it has always been in flux, but we're now entering a radical period of flux which is possibly unprecedented in human history."