Wildlife weather a strange year

British wildlife - including Marsh Fritillary butterflies, puffins and lesser horseshoe bats - has suffered at the hands of the weather for the second year in a row, according to experts at the National Trust.

"A cold late spring, a wet summer, with few sunny days, and the long dry autumn has shown how dependent our wildlife is on the weather," says Matthew Oates, National Trust Nature Conservation Advisor.

"Many iconic species closely associated with the four seasons are having to cope with higher incidents of poor weather as our climate becomes more unpredictable."

There have been far more wildlife losers than winners as a result of two poor summers in a row.

Insects have been hit particularly hard by the increasing number of adverse weather events as a result of climate change.

Bad weather conditions have also led to a poor breeding season for birds, particularly the tit family and coastal birds. The wet weather has also affected small plants and invertebrates as they've been squeezed out by dense grass growth.

"After two very poor years in a row we desperately need a good summer in 2009, otherwise it's going to look increasingly grim for a wealth of wildlife in the UK," Oates says.

"Climate change is not some future prediction of what might happen, it's happening now and having a serious impact on our countryside every year."