WILDLIFE experts have said fauna and flora have been mixed up this year as a result of the warm weather.

Staff at the Dorset Wildlife Trust said they've seen a number of examples of strange activity amongst flowers across the county due to the unseasonable weather.

Following the warmest and wettest December on record a number of flowers have been in bloom that otherwise would not be seen until spring, the trust claims.

Nicky Hoar, learning and interpretation officer of The Great Heath, said: "Lesser celandines were in flower by Christmas locally – including on the Broadstone relief road. I normally think of them as the first flower of spring after snowdrops but they beat the snowdrops.

"I have seen blackthorn blossom already last weekend and alder, birch and hazel catkins have been out for several weeks."

The news follows information published by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) that said more than 600 species of British wildflowers were in bloom on New Year's Day 2016.

Botanists expected around 20 to 30 types of wild plant to be in flower across the UK at the year's end 2015 including some daisies, dandelion and gorse.

But the BSBI survey discovered no fewer than 612 species were flowering, including some from late spring and high summer.

And it's not just the flowers that are acting peculiarly.

Nicky added: "Frogspawn this week on January 24 in Wareham Forest – that's the first I’m aware of this year.

"Song thrushes and mistle thrushes are singing, while the winter thrushes - redwings and fieldfares - are still here before leaving to breed in Scandinavia, which embodies how winter and spring are mixed up this year."