It has been difficult to believe that winter was approaching, with such mild weather, trees late to lose their leaves and people outdoors in shirtsleeves...
but today, 14th November the bitterly cold North West wind brought the winter with it. Leaves falling into drifts and crows, jackdaws, black-headed gulls, starlings, mixed fieldfare and redwing flocks
filling the sky, the wind accelerating their flight across the countryside - visible one second and gone the next.
The first sign of winter was on 5th November here with a group of about 16 redwing seen flying across together and a flock of black-headed gulls flying low, surveying their traditional winter feeding grounds. Nuthatches were heard calling, another sign of change.
Poplars on the river bank 10th November
On Remembrance Sunday 10th November 2013 a quick look along the river after midday:
I was looking at goldfinches heard singing in a riverside thicket and spotted a young female Roe deer watching me intently from the opposite river bank amongst the tangled Hawthorn. After considering for a while, it bounded away with a series of high springs over the undergrowth. It had chosen a good area to browse, in an enclosure fenced with chicken wire designed to keep out deer....
The weather was fine after a cold start and very wet underfoot after heavy rain the previous day. Blackbirds were foraging low on the river banks, with large numbers of blue and great tits in the trees taking advantage of the sun to collect emerging insects.
Further downstream, a nuthatch called and flew onto an Ash tree, clearly seen and a great-spotted woodpecker was seen flying into a nearby Ash, also calling, both trees laden with Ash keys.
22 black-headed gulls in near-perfect winter plumage had arrived on their winter grounds to feed but remained wary, moving frequently whilst woodpigeons dozed in trees. Greenfinches were still well camouflaged amongst the yellow and green leaves with one easily visible perched on a tree top.
A small group of fieldfare flew over the river and higher up, over the oaks, two buzzards were being harassed by a single crow but eventually drifted off, unconcerned.
One thing is certain about this autumn - Ash trees lost their leaves well before the Oaks which still retain their leaves at present - so it's a case of 'Ash before Oak' 'we are in for a soak' - as we saw yesterday, this could be true!
Our magnificent old Oaks still have their leaves
whilst Ash trees have lost their leaves but the brown
Ash keys are abundant this year - food for birds
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