October is the month of the red deer rut. Many of you probably watched BBC Autumnwatch and saw Simon King bringing us all the news and stories from the rut on Rhum. It's much better in real life, where you combine the sight and sound with smell, especially as Minsmere's red deer are even bigger due to better quality grazing.
We ran several guided walks to watch the deer rut this month, all fully booked, but the deer didn't always play ball. The rut started early this year, which meant it finished early too. This just highlights the joys and frustrations of watching wildlife.
It has been an excellent autumn for fungi. I'm not very good at identifying these fascinating plants, but there seem to many more than usual at Minsmere, including a superb group of poisonous fly agaric toadstools.
Large parasol mushrooms have sprouted up on many grasslands, and the stinkhorns in the woods lived up to their name – the smell really is pungent. Adam Rowlands, Minsmere's Senior Site Manager found an enormous puffball that must have measured at least 30 cm across.
Although the leaves have been slow to change this year, our grey squirrels and jays have been busy collecting and storing acorns and chestnuts in the woods. On the Scrape, hundreds of ducks have now returned for the winter, and we will soon be witnessing one of nature's most spectacular sights: thousands of starlings gathering to roost.
Judging from how busy we've been this month, many visitors have enjoyed the beauty of an autumn on the Suffolk coast. I'm sure the superb weather must have encouraged people to enjoy a late break. The school half term has been one of busiest weeks of the year, with many children enjoying making bird feeders on our Feed the Birds Day event.
An unusual visitor to Suffolk was a red-flanked bluetail. This rare visitor from Siberia spent ten days at Thorpeness, on the edge of RSPB North Warren, and attracted large crowds of birdwatchers. It was a lovely bird, if a little lost.
I hope many of you can join me on 4 November, when I'll be joining thousands of other people concerned about climate change at the Stop Climate Chaos's I Count rally in London. See you there.