The harsh face of winter.

The current snow storms coupled with very cold winds coming in from the east are causing us all problems, particularly our farmers who are in the thick of lambing.

The weather must also be having an adverse on our wildlife, especially our birds. This morning Newburgh beach was littered with dead puffins brought ashore by the recent onshore winds and high seas.

One species that suffers badly in prolonged cold weather is the grey heron. The British Trust for Ornithology has surveyed the number of nesting herons since the 1920s and the census figures show clearly the impact of harsh winters through severe mortality. For example the horrendous winter of 1962-63 reduced the number of breeding pairs from 12,000 to under 6,000, and the population did not recover to its original size until the late 1970s.

Other species suffered even more greatly during the winter of '62-'63. For example, about 80 per cent of wrens perished, but the Dartford warbler, which overwinters in Southern England, fared even worse. In 1962, the British population stood at 450 pairs - the following summer only 10 were counted, a death rate of 98 per cent.