October 2014

Autumn is upon us.  Nature will exhibit many changes over the next few weeks.  Leaf-fall has started with the elder trees; other trees are just starting to turn on 17th September.  These are birch, beech, poplar and lime (linden).  The horse chestnut leaves have turned brown and will soon fall and hazel is also beginning to turn.  Incidentally, horse and sweet chestnut are not related, and are in completely different families.  And resemblance between the two is entirely due to what is called convergent evolution.  Sweet chestnut leaves are still green today.

Autumn is also the time for rutting deer, and I saw an impressive group of large antlered male fallow deer from the Uckfield to London Bridge train today.  We are having a warm dry September, but nature still moves on with peacock butterflies seeking hibernation sites in buildings.  Dormice are fattening up for hibernation, and can double in size within a few weeks.  Birds such as willow warbler, chiffchaff, swallow and house martin are migrating south in huge numbers.  The autumn equinox is on 21st September when everywhere on planet Earth will experience 12 hours of daylight followed by 12 hours of darkness.  After that daylight time variation resumes.  We will be in for rain and wind, equinox weather, although this usually happens in October with events such as the hurricane force wind of 1987 and the floods of 2000.

However, a beautiful orchid chooses to flower at this time, it is called autumn ladies tresses (Spiranthes spiralis) and as its name suggests, has a spiral arrangement of beautiful small white flowers. Colchicum, the autumn crocus also flowers at this time, but is not native to Britain, but hales from Mediterranean climates around the world.  Many plants such as bracken and most water plants will be dying back for the winter.

As well as dormice, bats, hedgehogs and before going extinct in Britain, brown bears, still around on the continent will also all be going into hibernation soon.  However, mice, rats, voles, shrews, rabbits, foxes, badgers, weasels, stoats, otters, polecats, martens, deer, reintroduced beavers and before they went extinct in this country, wolves, lynx, bison, elk and wolverines do not hibernate, but continue to roam.

Autumn is a time for spiders, wasps and moths giving us a final flurry of invertebrate animal life before most die in the frost or hibernate.