Wild Things columnist Eric Brown sifts through the first report issued on how UK wildlife fared in 2022 which paints a horrific picture of birds and mammals struggling against disease and extreme weather.

January traditionally sees publication of reports on previous year trends and the National Trust have been quick off the mark. For those who regard the National Trust as a charity charged with looking after bricks and mortar, from stately homes like Knole House in Sevenoaks to Paul McCartney's modest Liverpool home, think again.

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The Trust also owns thousands of acres of countryside and farmland and cares for wildlife occupying this rich habitat.

Its annual review paints a worrying picture for wildlife under NT supervision mainly due to wildly fluctuating weather extremes. A warm January encouraged butterflies, birds and other creatures to attempt breeding early. These early efforts were decimated by Storm Eunice which damaged buildings, uprooted trees and hit wildlife with gale-force winds and driving rain.

A dry spring followed, then record high temperatures in July which brought drought and eventually a hosepipe ban. This had only just been lifted when the year ended in snowstorms.

The joint hottest-ever UK summer sparked off wildfires which destroyed wildlife and their precious habitat. National Trust land, says the report, was badly hit in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset where the silver blue butterfly, rare sand lizards and snakes perished. Pollinating insects suffered as flowers wilted in the heat. When rain finally fell, it could not penetrate rock-hard soil and poured down slopes drowning small land mammals in its path.

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The Trust reported that rare natterjack toads were affected by the unpredictable weather which also disorientated bats.

Rain and gales washed away tern colonies on Trust-owned islands while the same habitat suffered severe disease with Avian flu sweeping through close-knit communities of nesting seabirds.

The true scale of losses to Avian flu will probably never be known but wildlife wardens reported huge gaps in those colonies where none existed previously. Thousands of corpses of birds such as gannets, guillemots, razorbills and terns were collected and removed.

All in all a pretty horrible year for wildlife then - but there was some good news. The Trust reports a bumper harvest of nuts and berries brought plentiful autumn bounty for birds, rodents and insects while the apple harvest profited from blossom lasting longer.

One method of dealing with the boom or bust storms and drought cycle is for landowners to bring in beavers to do their stuff creating dams and pools, ensuring a reliable water supply whatever the weather. Beavers have been introduced by the Trust at Holnicote in Somerset and future releases are planned in Kent.

Let us hope 2023 will not only be a happy new year for us all but also for our hard-pressed wildlife.