Mixed year for wildlife coping with 2018's weather extremes

The National Trust says extremes from Arctic temperatures to a sizzling heatwave resulted in a roller-coaster year for the UK's wildlife in 2018.

From a prolonged, harsh end to the winter, which saw the "Beast from theEast" sweep in with snow and freezing temperatures, to a scorching summer, the UK faced "astonishing" changes to the weather.

At the Trust's Wicken Fen nature reserve in Cambridgeshire the butterflies and other insects thrived when the hot weather came - but the heat also dried out the fen, meaning some wading birds had to move elsewhere to find food.

• Click to watch a report from Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire by ITV News Anglia's Stuart Leithes

Wildlife reacted in dramatic ways, with some species enjoying record years and other struggling to cope with the unusual conditions, the Trust said in itsannual review of the weather and its impact on nature.

While it was a good year for species including the large blue butterfly, at onetime extinct in the UK, and grey seals breeding on the east coast, in otherplaces creatures such as natterjack toads and Cheddar Gorge's feral goatssuffered.

There were record breeding seasons for grey seals at Blakeney, Norfolk.

For only the fourth time since the 1960s, the whole of the UK experienced amore "traditional" winter with widespread snow in January, February and March and temperatures plunging to minus 14°C.

This included the Beast from the East at the end of February, swiftly followed by Storm Emma and another cold snap dubbed the mini Beast from the East, which brought more snow.

But summer saw temperatures soaring above 30°C and drought, parching the country - creating the conditions for wildfires in the uplands which destroyed habitat and peat.

Much of the country then experienced a "second spring" in autumn, with strong grass growth and even spring flowers blooming such as violets and primroses.