Most of UK and Ireland covered in blanket of snow

The winter weather that first arrived in Britain on 18 December 2009 stepped up a gear in the past 24 hours, with a blanket of heavy snow, in some places 44 cms deep, now covering most of the country, even as far west as Cornwall. This is proving detrimental to our birdlife and with it forecast to continue until 12 February, could be absolutely catastrophic and as bad as the winters of 1847 and 1963.

Unlike those two winters when birdlife was in relatively good shape, the numbers of many of our more familiar farmland species are severely depleted and this winter could well prove to be the 'nail in the coffin' and even relative new immigrants such as Little Egret and Cetti's Warbler will be suffering. It is heart-rending watching so many Bitterns standing on the ice and starving and so many birds are now being killed on the roads as they desperately seek out salt deposits used to melt the snow. These are depressing times indeed........

Lee G R Evans