October is a month of transition and change, as the leaves turn and fall in a kaleidoscope of golds, yellows and reds. Nights are getting longer and colder and as autumn progresses, wildlife too is changing and adapting. Our winter migrants are returning, with Swans and Geese flocking to our wetlands, while Redwings and Fieldfares are flying in to forage on berries.
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Autumn is when Tawny Owls are at their noisiest and this is the perfect time to take a night-time stroll to listen for their storybook ‘too-whit, too-whoo’ calls. Although, this is actually a mash-up of both male and female calls. It’s the females who call with a shrill ‘kewick’ (too-whit), while the males have a haunting ‘hoooo, hoooo’ (too-whoo). All this hooting and shrieking is down to one thing: territory.
Come autumn, the young Owls are moving away from their parents and looking for territories of their own. As the young Owls branch out to stake their claims, the older birds call to defend their patch.
Redwings are small thrushes that migrate to the UK from colder climes, including Iceland, Scandinavia and Russia. These birds fly in by night and if you head outside on a still night, you may hear them call to each other with a soft ‘seep seep’. They arrive in their thousands and can be heard all over the UK, typically from late September through October.
They are here to feast on berries and during the day you might see them in the countryside or in parks and playing fields joining with other birds such as Starlings or Fieldfares roaming the trees and hedgerows. Look for small thrush-like birds with a rusty red patch under their wings and a white stripe above their eyes.
Another member of the thrush family that winters in the UK is the Fieldfare. These birds migrate in vast numbers from their breeding grounds in northern and eastern Europe. They are sociable birds on the hunt for berries and can be seen flocking with Redwings and others in the countryside, along hedgerows and in parks. Like Song Thrushes, they are brownish with speckled bellies, but can be told apart by their distinct grey heads. Listen too for their chuckling ‘chack, chack, chack’ call.
The number of Fieldfares flying in varies each year, depending on how the berry crops fair nearer their breeding grounds, with the poorer the crop, the more birds flying to the UK.
By autumn, Hedgehogs are getting ready to hibernate. They’ll be piling on the calories and snuffling out a safe place for their long winter sleep. In the 1950s, there were an estimated 30 million Hedgehogs in the UK but recent estimates suggest there are less than a million left. By building a Hedgehog home you can provide somewhere safe for shelter, hibernation and, come the warmer months, to raise hoglets.
Now’s a great time to see Pink-footed Geese as large numbers spend the autumn and winter in the UK, having flown in from their breeding grounds in Spitsbergen, Iceland and Greenland. They can be seen near large estuaries, such as on the east Scottish coast, The Wash on the east English coast, the Ribble on the north-west English coast and the Solway on the west between England and Scotland.
Pink-footed Geese are our most common wild geese, and they can be identified by their pink legs and feet, a pink band on an otherwise dark bill and brownish/grey body.
RSPB Snettisham in Norfolk can be an excellent place to view Pink-footed Geese. During the colder months up to 40,000 Pink-footed Geese make their way from Iceland and Greenland to gather on The Wash. At sunrise you can watch the geese leaving their roost in extraordinarily large flocks. Please note, the moon phase affects the movements of geese and this spectacle does not occur every day.
Head outside on a sunny autumn day and look out for insects busy on Ivy flowers, humming and buzzing as they collect the last pollen and nectar of the season. Ivy, unlike most other plants, flowers in autumn making it an extremely valuable source of food for many insects. Only mature plants, more than 10 years old, produce flowers, and you can spot these plants by their oval leaves. Younger plants have the lobed leaves that we more typically associate with Ivy.
The flowers themselves are not particularly flower-like, being ball-shaped structures made up of lime green nodules each with pollen-smothered stamens. But their honey-like scent is a clear sign of this fascinating flower’s bounty.
Pull on your boots and head to one of our woodland nature reserves this month for autumnal colours and wildlife spotting.
