https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01q9d86
I posted the link to this programme about 2 years go as this BBC Winterwatch special in this one off episode about the winter of 1962-1963 the big freeze presented by Chris Packham in 2013 which was in that year. 50 years since the big freeze which in that winter in 1963 it is said about half the population of the UK’s wild bird population died. Above is he link from the BBC iPlayer to that broadcast in 2013. I was 10 years old in that winter. Also with the Met Office forecasting some really cold weather over the next week or more with some area’s possibly going to have some deep snow. Well I thought I would post this link again.
Regards,
Ian.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
I certainly remember it well, saw the sea frozen over in Margate, Kent and had Bro, wife & two babies staying when their pipes froze!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Hazel C said:Yes, remember it well, the sea froze in Watchet harbour & the snow lasted months. I used to go out walking with my dad & I'd have to step in the holes made by his wellies, mine were too low (I was 7 yrs old). He opened the back door one morning & the snow all fell off the roof & covered him !! We had an outside toilet across the back yard so had to dig a way through to it. I saw the program a few years ago & it was fascinating. Although a lot of small birds died, within a few years their numbers were back up (if I remember it correctly).
That is correct! But at the end of that programme in 2013, Chris Packham said that if another such winter occurred in a similar very as the long 1962-1963 winter! Garden Birds would have a better chance of surviving such a winter as the big freeze! As a lot more peopke have bird feeders than what was the case in 1962-1963. I was the only person that put bird food out for the wild gardeni birds in my street in 1962-1963. The wild birds that would suffer the most as mentioned by Chris Packham would be on farmland as the land that is farmed now has completely changed over the last 50+ years!