An early summer is set to follow the wet and mild winter, the fifth mildest December to February recorded in the UK for more than a century.

The winter season is abundant with storms and rains that ravaged the country, but many species have already made an early appearance in anticipation of warmer weather.

National Trust naturalist Matthew Oates said the winter had disrupted the usual annual cycle of many species.

"It's an early summer because of the mild, wet and stormy winter, and the whole thing's rather jumped the gun," Oates said.

Spring was primarily held back in some areas by heavy downpours, with plants such as snowdrops still early but not "unduly" early.

"The only thing holding spring back was the heavy rain and saturated ground conditions. At the end of February, however, someone switched the tap off and spring really broke through," he added.

In fact, sallows (pussy willows) and bluebells blossomed early as well as celandines, primroses and cowslips which bloomed ahead of time.

Oates also observed that it is quite bizarre for elderflowers and dog roses to grow in the middle of May, which were supposed to grow at the end of the month.

The unusual weather change also led to a change of behaviour to some animals, particularly in their hibernation.

Oates said the animals were also affected by the devastation earlier bought by the storms such as the habitats of puffins, guillemots and razorbills. Burrowing animals were drowned out by the floods, especially earthworms, moles and rabbits.

He said National Trust Land saw the worst tree loss in two decades, with the Killerton Estate in Devon losing more than 500 trees alone.

Meanwhile, the hibernation of insects such as small tortoiseshell, purple emperor and white admiral butterflies had emerged earlier than expected.

Oates warned gardeners of a reappearance of slugs during summer after taking two or three years of maturing from being hatched in 2012.

"Looking into summer, one good thing is the water tables are very high, it's going to take a seriously hot summer to impact on that," he said.

Oates said that the upcoming summer helps consider the weather events of 2011 wherein the spring is remarkable in April, but then the next month became worse that turned into the worst summer.

The naturalist also said the people could still have a wonderful summer if the floodwaters are not too destructive despite the warm and early weather.

"On the plus side, high water levels benefited breeding frogs, toads and newts, and the rare fairy shrimp in New Forest puddles," Oates said.

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