Blooming flowers, fledgling birds … the UK’s spring is early – and always will be

Anomalies are a sign that global heating is changing behaviour of flora and fauna

A blackbird feeding a fledged youngster in early January. Red campions flowering four months early. And the earliest recorded sighting of a rare beetle.

Wildlife experts and gardeners are reporting a series of highly unusual early sightings of flora, fauna, insects and birds across Britain, some of them weeks before when they would normally appear, in a further sign that rising global temperatures are having a significant impact on British wildlife.