THE legacy of March will be two bitterly cold weather fronts from Eastern Europe, dubbed the Beast from the East and the Mini-Beast.

It was a devastating time for the snow to hit – right at the end of winter when berries, seeds and nuts are gone. The birds around here really suffered.

But for me, it was a relief that this winter was at last to involve snow. More than two years ago BBC’s The One Show asked me to film a five minute piece about wildlife in winter and I had been praying for “proper” snow ever since.

High up on the Wolds strong winter easterlies hit hard. It was so bad that the TV crew were unable to drive here and I had to pick them up from their hotel in Pocklington in my Land Rover.

We only just made it back before five foot high snow drifts blocked the road. As we drove, the countryside was completely obscured by the whiteout. We didn’t want to waste any time so I took the crew directly to a valley where I knew we would find barn owls.

We filmed these graceful birds until 10pm. By now every road leading in and out of Thixendale was blocked by the ever-growing snow drifts and conditions were deteriorating rapidly.

So I offered the crew, which included the presenter Mike Dilger, a bed for the night. Snow storms buffeted the house and the wind howled down the chimney.

Early the following morning I watched a blizzard as it headed across the valley towards us. Field by field, wood by wood, the storm engulfed the landscape in a 100 foot high wall of white drifting snow.

When the blizzard hit the house, we were surrounded by white. After breakfast I rang friends, farmers and snow plough contractors to find the best roads to get out. I wanted to get the crew to a particular field where, just the day before, I had seen about 35 hares courting.

The cameraman wanted a shot of us setting off in the Land Rover and stood at the gate to capture it. But my 4x4 wouldn’t budge. It was frozen to the ground and wouldn’t go backwards or forwards. After revving hard, it came unstuck with a jolt.

The field where the hares were is normally only a 10 minute drive away but I had to take a 15-mile detour and it took us an hour to get there. Even then the closest I could get by car was three fields away.

As I opened my Land Rover door, the wind nearly blew it straight off its hinges. We got out, all dressed from head to toe in white so that we would blend in with the snow. It was minus four, but the wind chill factor made it closer to the -13C. It was virtually impossible to stand up in the wind.

We headed out across the fields towards a group of 16 hares with gusts of blowing snow, ice and even soil from the fields blowing us backwards and stinging our faces. The wind nearly ripped my camera and tripod right out of my hands.

The microphones on the TV camera were so cold that they had already stopped working.

Gradually we crept closer until we were just 30 metres away from five brown hares that were hunkered down with their backs to the wind.

Their fur was encrusted with snow and ice which one tried cleaning from its face with its front paws. It made no sense for them to be out in such an exposed field in this weather. But the urge to breed is strong and females are only in season for a short length of time.

You need either pure luck or a lot of time and patience to see hares boxing. The TV producer had set a time limit for being out in this brutal weather so sadly we had to go.

Our walk back was easier too now that the wind was behind us. We had one last bit to film. But now the camera completely stopped working too. It was just too cold for the equipment.

We drove back and finished the piece with a backup camera. It was such a relief to finally have the wildlife snow safari on film.