What effects will the Big Freeze of 2010 have on our wildlife?
So what effects - in the short and long term - will the Big Freeze of 2010 have on our birds and other wildlife? That partly depends on how long it lasts - a rapid thaw now and the majority of birds and other creatures will survive; but if the freezing weather continues into February or even March then it spells disaster for many.
By looking at what happened in previous big freezes, ornithologists have identified five factors which will influence how bad it is for Britain's birds. Starting with the most important, they are:
1. Prolonged low temperatures and severe frosts, without breaks
2. Ice on trees and the ground
3. Freezing of rivers, lakes and shorelines
4. How much of Britain is under ice and snow
5. The timing of the freeze: the later it comes, the more birds die
So far, we can say that this winter ranks pretty highly on factors 1 and 4 - the cold spell has gone on for several weeks, and covered most of Britain. The other factors are less critical at the moment - though of course if the cold weather continues things may change.
And what about the coming spring? Are we likely to see numbers down for many of our common and familiar birds? In spring 1963 some species bred in much lower numbers than before: especially waterbirds such as the heron and kingfisher, and smaller birds such as the wren, goldcrest and long-tailed tit.
Things may be different this year - garden bird feeding will certainly help long-tailed tits, for example. It will certainly be interesting to see how the birds got on when we return for Springwatch.
Most importantly, how will bird populations be affected in the longer term?
Surprisingly, perhaps, the evidence here is that many species will recover very quickly - especially those that have several broods. Species such as the wren, robin and blue tit are very short-lived, and die off in huge numbers each winter anyway - so in three or four years time numbers should have returned to normal.
In fact what has been abnormal is the unprecedented run of very mild winters we have experienced over the past 20 years or so. From 1986 to 2008 Britain (and especially the south) experienced an unprecedented run of very mild winters, which has led to changes in our wildlife patterns:
- Early emergence of flowers and insects (see Springwatch surveys.)
- Early breeding of many birds (sometimes before Christmas).
- 'Summer visitors' overwintering (eg chiffchaff)
- A major fall in numbers of winter visitors (eg Bewick's swan and white-fronted goose), as birds stay further east of the UK.
Cold winters are also valuable for what some people see as restoring the balance of nature. For example:
- Hibernating creatures (bats, butterflies, bumblebees etc) are less likely to emerge and then get killed off by a cold snap, as has happened in the past few mild winters
- Birds are unlikely to start nesting too early (again, as happens in mild winters)
- Flowers are less likely to emerge and then get killed off by late frosts
- Viruses, parasites etc are killed off, which will benefit their hosts. (Again, mild winters tend to allow disease vectors to multiply)
Please tell us about your experiences of our wildlife in the Big Freeze
Stephen Moss is a series producer at the BBC Natural History Unit, with a special interest in British wildlife. He is author of the book Birds and Weather (Hamlyn, 1995).
Comments
Sounds as if Springwatch is going to be interesting already.
(Patience is a virtue,they seem to say- I see I'm going to have to have some,as can't wait as is).
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After watching the programme last night I didn't hear any mention on what effect cats are having on the wildlife during this cold snap.If birds are exhausted looking for food, surely they are more vulnerable to them,especially ground feeders.It would surely help if owners kept the cats in while the weather is so bad.
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I was watching snow watch last night (13 Jan 10 )brilliant show,but was a bit upset that wildlife could and will be dieing and how to combat this problem,i saw the piece on the extraordinary garden or not garden birds that might visit your garden, loved the footage with the fieldfare, i have never seen one in all my years of watching wildlife,until today after putting some seed mix and red skin peanuts out in my garden i looked up and noticed a fieldfare in some privets at the foot of my garden it was indeed a fieldfare i cant believe it, ive tried to film it so lets see whats turned out.
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Chris Packham (article in the Guardian april 2009 re Song bird survival)
What a lot of nonsense he writes.
A few days before the snow for the second time I watched from my kitchen window Magpies fly down and kill a Field Fare from a large flock feeding on apples in my orchard.
The Field Fares did not return for several days.
We leave all the wind fall apples for their benefit and look forward to their arrival each year normally about 200-300 birds.
Please do your home work
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we have seen two not so unusual birds in our garden in the last couple of weeks but they are ones we have never seen before. One is a greater spoted woodpecker who likes the fat from the coconut shell and the other is a dunnock. so while we know that both birds do frequent gardens it is still exitng for us
Ruth
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Hi this is for Simon King i am Ron Ballantyne and i am 10 yrs old and i am that little girl who gave you a picture of an owl which you had took as a picture! i hope you liked the picture and just a few days ago intrestingly my dad and i (we live in perth,scotland!) were walking along by the tay and saw two lovely otters. i absolutely adored them and loved watching them spin and swirl in the water!
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i mean rona!
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hi Simon King , my name is Rona and i am 10 yrs old i gave you a picture of a barn owl that i had drawn at the edinburgh book festival at the signing book table! hope you still like that pic i did for u and the other day i saw two lovely otters down at the river tay i loved it.
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Can't believe what I saw this morning - 2 x Fieldfare! After watching Snow Watch last night and seeing Fieldfare for the first time, there I am this morning, sitting in the traffic in Coulsdon, Surrey, and I see Fieldfare on the grass by the side of the road! Really beautiful birds.
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The last week I have seen an unusual bird in the garden feeding of the cottoneaster bush. Since watching Snow Watch I now know the bird is a fieldfare. The bird made two visits to the garden yesterday and was back again this morning. I think it is very unusual to see this bird in South Wales I have taken some photographs to show to my friends.
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Enjoyed Snow Watch, breathtaking pictures.
Weekend 9/10th January I spotted my first fieldfare, it was in the garden. Seems to scare off all the other birds.
Grab the bird book, the one in there has no black collar which is quite stiking on this bird. Also had visit by spotted woodpecker a rare visitor to my garden, at the bid table and on the fat block. Had 11 blackirds m&f in close proximtiy to table. Not usually seen in back garden Thrush, Pied wagtail has started coming a lot. .
16/Jan large greyish bird of prey, 12-14" long has here left a pile of feathers only but sat around on the fence, not for long enough to be identified
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Like others I confirm garden sightings of a fieldfare and redwing. A first in my garden. Also a grey wagtail had a bathe in my little pond which is very very unusual. Dunnocks appearing in great numbers too.
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To stop cats hiding in the undergrowth and catching birds under feeders I have found the most successful means is to buy small willow fences (the ones that concertina up to a small fence but stretch out to 6 feet or so - big DIY shops have them) and put them around border of garden. It looks good and stops the cats well!
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I really enjoyed the snowatch programme and loved seeing how the wildlife were coping with the snow. I work on an old airfield and noticed how the hare stood out against the snow and I managed to count over 20 in one hit. I loved it all, that is, except, for the 'new' information on garden ponds. We had been away for a week over New Year returning to find our pond with a thick layer of ice on it. Your programme said that the new theory is, that this is ok and to leave the ice, why then where my koi floating on their sides at the top of the pond gasping for air? with a lot of effort I managed to clear a good third of the pond surface ice and only then did the fish return to the depths of the pond. I'm afraid this 'new' idea is not working in my pond, any idea why? Still love the programme though!!
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After listening to the advice about ponds being OK if frozen over, this wasn't the case for ours. When the pond finally thawed, we found our three large golden orfs dead, and I have since found four more dead fish, also two frogs. This is such a shame as usually we have kept the pump running but we had had problems with it just days before the freeze and had to switch it off.
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hello to you all , i would just like to let all the bird lovers out there , that in the freezing we had i had at least 7 differant species of birds on my bird table, every day i went out to feed them , i made a mixture of feeds, apple nuts, fresh fruit, wild bird seed, even had birds hanging around all day just sat there as if they were going to miss the next feed , it was lovely to watch, kev.
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