Autumn Appears

Autumn - a Speckled Wood butterfly from above - on a Bramble leaf

Autumn is an optimistic season with new beginnings and future promise. Seeds fall and take root, leaves fall to create compost to feed them. Young resident birds set out to find new territories along the rivers whilst winter migrants are already heading for our temperate shores to avoid ice and snow in their northern summer breeding grounds. 

Late August is as usual a quiet time for birds as most are busy feeding up for winter and this year the crops of wild berries and nuts has been especially prolific. Last year the summer heat advanced growth of most fruit-bearing plants and lack of water throughout the summer meant that some fruits did not mature. Berries dried out and went to seed and leaves fell early.  When it eventually rained, some new green growth appeared but was too late to fruit.

  This year is different:

Friday 30th August 2019 started bright, with light cloud remaining warm but becoming breezy. The river was flowing low but clear and the grass and most vegetation remained remarkably green with good carpets of clovers and birds-foot trefoil. Umbellifers and thistles were flowering well and covered in insects - bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Nettles were not so prolific and mostly going to seed however.

The bright yellow flowers of Fleabane, attracting many insects, were starting to go to seed, having spread and done very well this year along verges.

Robins (18), were either 'chinking' - usually a first sign of autumn and chasing or giving short versions of territorial song, whilst wrens (6) were singing very quietly. Blackbirds (5) were keeping low, mostly out of sight - they are present but keeping a low profile as were 3 song thrushes scrabbling amongst leaf- litter. House sparrows are now at the stage where they have formed groups and fly around together and roost together, sometimes merging to form much larger groups. About thirty were present today, with more hidden in dense brambles, quite quiet. Perhaps there was a sparrowhawk around.

Woodpigeons were now more numerous (34), some nesting as usual.  One  pair of collared doves was seen near their nest site, their fledged young being well-hidden. A silent Jay flew across into trees and nearby directly above me a great-spotted woodpecker called.

Seven carrion crows were seen in various places and six herring gulls flew across. Five Black-headed gulls were also seen in the air - maybe the first of many to fly inland from the coast this autumn. Numbers of blue tits seen were reasonable, (62) with family parties exploring new sources of food such as blackberries. Long-tailed tits were easily seen today as their contact calls could be heard and the birds seen moving amongst the tree canopy above the river (21). Numbers are good this year as conditions have been good for nesting, with few gales and floods to damage their carefully built but fragile nests.

Great tits (20) were active too, adults accompanied by yellow-cheeked young. They are less easily seen as often forage in undergrowth and tree roots, like the dunnock - only one seen today.

One treecreeper was visible climbing a youngish tree whilst one goldcrest was foraging in a conifer.

A look at a recently seeded field revealed a scattered set of birds feeding, mostly wood pigeons but with  about six magpies here and there where new shoots were growing up.

Close to the river, largely hidden in a thicket was a group of singing goldfinches (more than 15), and two bullfinches were skulking in a Blackthorn, the male calling softly. A single chaffinch called from a poplar. Of the summer migrants, only a single blackcap was alarm-calling from the willows and three chiffchaffs were contact-calling, two of them probably young. These 'migrants' of course may prove to be amongst the few which stay here over the winter, as winters become warmer.

Nuthatches are very much with us all year, (6) the young now spreading out to choose suitable territories for nesting, whilst finding abundant food on the way.

Gatekeeper butterfly on thistle flower -

note the double 'spot' on the wing.

Butterflies and dragonflies:

Meadow Brown butterflies were still about amongst the grasses but Gatekeepers and Speckled Woods were more numerous today. Large Whites were ranging the banks and fields.

Southern Hawker dragonflies were quite numerous, patrolling the banks of the river, one chasing a  Migrant Hawker. Brown Hawkers were also present.

The breeze probably caused some to seek out more sheltered locations.