Big freeze hits hard for animals and birds across the region

While weathermen peer at computer predictions of how long the 2010 freeze-up will last, professionals in the world of nature are looking at how it might affect birds, animals, insects and butterflies.

"Smaller mammals will probably be finding it difficult," says the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's head of conservation projects, Terry Smithson. "It's very difficult for anything with short legs to get through deep snow, and it's also harder for them to pick up food smells."

But Terry does marvel at how nature shows its determination to survive. Small holes in the ice cover of lakes and ponds can still provide food for birds as well as mammals like otters. And most butterflies and insects are "knocked out", he says, hibernating in the unlikeliest of places. The snow covering can actually be a form of insulation.

Hard winters are nothing new, the earliest to be recorded in Britain being in 671. The coldest winter is said to have been in 1784 and in living memory we had the legendary winter of 1946-47, when the British population of bearded tits was reduced to a single male.

In the big freeze of 1962-63 the effect of birdlife was even worse. Species like kingfishers, goldcrests, stonechats, wrens, barn owls, common snipe, long-tailed tits and green woodpeckers suffered huge declines and took years to recover.

Another significant casualty of that winter was the remarkable mountain hare population that lives on Pennine moorland bounded by the M62, Sheffield and Manchester.

There are signs that it is once again being hit hard in this cold spell.

Unlike the much commoner brown hare, its mountain cousin famously moults in autumn and adopts a white coat as camouflage in snow to protect it from predators like foxes and stoats. The Yorkshire and Derbyshire population, introduced

from the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century, reached a low point in the winter of 1962-63.

Since then they have recovered, but today's extreme temperatures are bringing a further threat. Andy Valentine, the ranger in the Peak District National Park's northern-most areas around Holmfirth, Huddersfield and Oldham, has noticed that the number of mountain hares killed on roads rises sharply in snowy weather.

"I suspect it's because the surface of busy roads retains some heat from the traffic, and this attracts the hares at night. They don't have a lot of road sense and there are loads of fatalities."

Dave Mallon, who has conducted a study of the mountain hares, says there are three hot spots for road casualties – the Woodhead and Snake Passes, and the Strines road to the west of Sheffield.

In the winter of 1962-63, the wildlife least affected by the hard weather were garden birds. Millions were saved by the public putting out food for them.

The present freeze-up will be potentially fatal unless food is provided for them once more, according to the RSPB's Gemma Rogers. "Our garden birds will be in for a nasty shock. Insects become harder to find and seeds and berries can be locked away by snow and frost. Just a little water, food and shelter can turn the garden into a vital haven for birds."

The birdlife at Rodley Nature Reserve, run by volunteers at a former sewage works beside the River Aire on the west side of Leeds, is reaping the benefits of work to ensure food was available during hard weather.

When the reserve was created a decade ago it was decided to cultivate what the reserve's founders called a "Farming for Birds" field where crops like quinoa, linseed and kale were grown as a natural source of winter food, as well as allowing seed-producing weeds like redshank to flourish.

"Thank goodness we have that field," says Rodley's Barbara Murphy. "It has been very well used by birds looking for bugs and seeds. But the big surprise for us this week was that we accidentally flushed a flock of 21 common snipe. I suppose the margins of wet areas in which they normally feed have frozen over, while in that field there is still a bit of a pliable surface for them to probe with their long beaks."

The reserve has more than a dozen feeders, all kept topped up, and is looking into the purchase of horse carrots to feed wild animals if the hard weather continues.

The reserve's lagoon is one of the few unfrozen areas of still water in that part of the Aire Valley and has become a magnet for wildfowl.

This week there were shoveler, gadwall, pochard and a total of 41 goosander.

Terry Smithson believes the hard weather could be a timely reminder for people that leaving "messy corners" in gardens and fields can save countless birds and mammals.

"It's rough, scrubby, overgrown areas that hold back the snow from the ground so that species can find shelter and food."

Rodley Nature Reserve signposted off the A657 in Rodley Town Street, four miles west of Leeds. Opening: Wednesday, Saturdays and Sundays 10am-4pm.

Making tracks – prints reveal how far otters and other species are ranging for food

The blanket of snow is telling a daily story of which species of wild animals are coming out to look for food.

Footprints and other marks are easy to find, and this week they have done a job which even CCTV cameras were unable to perform.

At Rodley Nature Reserve, near Leeds, a camera had been installed to watch for otters, but the battery packed up in the freezing temperatures. However, the presence of otters was confirmed the old way – by looking for animal trails in the crisp snow.

Sure enough, a set of unmistakable otter prints were found on the reserve's long bank of the River Aire.

Other animals leaving tracks have been foxes, badgers, roe deer and weasels. The latter were identified after a volunteer saw one scurry across a path, its paws leaving small circles and its body trailing a long scuff-mark.

Near the village of Copmanthorpe, on the outskirts of York, Trevor Walton saw a set of animal footprints and emailed a photograph to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to have them identified.

They turned out to be the prints of an otter – remarkable given that the location was more than a mile from the nearest river, the Ouse.

Need help identifying animal footprints in the snow? Terry Smithson of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust invites you to email a photograph, taken with a coin or another object to provide an indication of scale. Send to [email protected]