Brambles are beautiful all year round, for different reasons. This year most were early to fruit in the sun and wildlife took advantage, selecting the best fruits and leaving the rest to dry out in the heat. Fortunately rain fell just in time to save the fruits and generate fresh leaves where the old leaves and stems were drying out. After birds and small mammals had had their fill, riverside insects took over, collecting sugars left in the dried fruits. Even now there are seeds left to be foraged by autumn birds.
There are many varieties of Bramble here and some have fine autumn colours:
On 12th November 2018 the colours were vivid along the bank:
Contrasting with the old oak in the background.
The young bare tree in the middle distance is a fruit tree which has thrived since planting due to the protection given to the young growing trunk and branches by the dense bramble shoots around it. Traditional forestry employed brambles as effective protection for newly planted trees, especially from browsing deer, and this has worked well here.
Brambles are good for numerous reasons and help maintain a diverse ecology.
New Bramble shoots appeared after the first rain, the new leaves turning
red after a few weeks.
On the day these photos were taken, 12th November, the riverside had come to life after heavy rain the preceding day, with numerous starlings singing together with goldfinches and house sparrows along the river thickets. Black-headed gulls flew over, fast in the wind. Blue and great tits were foraging along the Blackthorn thickets but there were no signs yet of winter migrants. The river was flowing quite high and fast and a kingfisher dashed across low over the water.
By evening a storm had moved in, bringing heavy hail then rainfall, thunder and lightening.
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