It seems like an awful long time since we had any rain worth mentioning, at least in the South East here. A light sprinkle this morning, but not much. My lawn keeled over and died a couple of weeks back. The introduction of a hosepipe ban in the North West, amid reported driest conditions since 1929 has also hit the headlines. But this set me wondering – how is this dry spell affecting wildlife?

This is my own pure speculation, but I assume that those damp niches that certain animals prefer (like the newts I found in my own pond-less garden) are gradually drying out and forcing them to look harder or dig deeper for cool moisture. Maybe it's killing some of them off as a result. I imagine that drinking water is becoming that bit harder to come by, and of course plants are dying – though they will tend to spring back via seeds they've already dropped. Are animals that burrow in the ground finding life a bit harder as it's baked hard and dry: moles, beetles, bumblebees, worms etc?

Do you have any anecdotal evidence of how the dry spell is affecting nature in your neck of the woods? Please leave a comment and share!