Hurtling temperatures have Arundel wildlife baffled

EARLY January’s mild weather led to the air at the WWT Arundel Wetland Centre being alive with birdsong as great tits, song thrushes and robins sang for territory, while willows sported unseasonably early catkins, leaves sprouted on the sallow and a hawthorn tree started to flower.

However, the colder temperatures and north-easterly winds which followed could drastically affect the plants and animals lulled into their early spring behaviours, warns Paul Stevens, reserve warden at the centre.

Plants budding now could be caught out by a hard frost, damaging flower and fruit production and having a knock-on effect for insects, birds and other wildlife relying on the plants for food.

“Birds breeding now risk chilling their eggs or having their young chicks hatching out before their food sources are available,” said Paul.

The warm weather that encouraged shrubs into early bloom could also prompt butterfly eggs to hatch early. “Blue tits try to co-ordinate the hatching of their young to coincide with the peak population of caterpillars, which are the main food source for the chicks. If these events don’t align, blue tit chicks could starve,” Paul pointed out.

If other wild birds, like lapwing, breed too early, the reserve wardens are unable to manage their wet grassland habitat in time. “Once the birds are nesting we cannot risk disturbing them to cut the grasses and sedge, but lapwing, redshank and oystercatchers prefer to build their shallow nests amongst shorter vegetation so they can keep an eye on predators.”