October 2022
It is odd that September (current month as I write) actually means seventh month and October actually means eighth month (also, November and December – 9th and 10th months). This is due to odd changes in month names going back many centuries. September is also the month of the autumn equinox which occurs at 02:03 h on 23rd September this year. After this date, daylight time is shorter than darkness time until Monday 20th March 2023, the spring equinox.
September and October is the time when nature makes many changes in preparation for the cool duller days of winter. Birds conclude their post-breeding season moult and so have a new plumage of feathers. Mammals also produce a thicker pelt of fur. Some, like some stoats and mountain hares, actually change colour and become white if they live in colder, higher altitudes and latitudes. Large numbers of birds migrate to warmer locations. Reptiles, amphibians and many insects go into hibernation. Deciduous plants lose their leaves and become dormant above ground.
All these are adaptations to seasonal changes in our part of the world where the climate is temperate or sub-arctic. Our Zoogeographical region is called the Palearctic, which is the largest of the 8 biogeographic regions of the Earth. This extends east from Iberia to Japan and north from North Africa to Svalbard (Spitzbergen) which is north of Norway.
Generally, the closer to the sea we are – the milder the winters, as the sea water is slower to cool down than the land. In Britain, the Atlantic conveyer or Gulf Stream brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico to our islands, keeping our coastal regions milder than inland. This current of warm water also brings countless millions of elvers (young eels) from the Sargasso Sea which extends west from Bermuda to the mid-North Atlantic Ocean. These elvers have hatched from billions of eggs laid by adult eels that have spent many years living and growing in British fresh-water habitats including Hempstead Meadows and Lake Wood nature reserves in Uckfield. These refuges and our surrounding countryside must be conserved for these and other often unseen but vital species of plants and animals that live along-side us often without us knowing it.