Nature in October
Nature in October can be spectacular, so make sure your human has their phone charged up or keeps a camera handy when you are out on your adventures.
Deciduous trees give one last huge light display before dropping their leaves. Autumn’s cooler temperatures, shorter days and less daylight causes the trees to stop producing chlorophyll, which they use to convert light into energy to grow, give their leaves the rich green colours and colourful flowers. When the chlorophyll levels lower, the yellow and red pigments in the leaves are revealed creating the spectacular colours that range through yellow, gold, red and brown. The leaves continue to change colour until they fall from the tree.
As plants throw the last of their fruits and berries on the ground, along with the darker and damper days, mushrooms and toadstools will start appearing more. There is an increase of wild boar, and other animals we don’t normally see, forging to get the last chance to eat and fill themselves up before settling down for winter. This will increase the number of interesting smells but may also increase the possibility of you disappearing into a hedge to investigate these smells. So, your human needs to be more alert.
There will be a lot of birds migrating. Some leaving for the warmer climates and some migrating here.
Did you know that along with thousands of other birds, 90% of the world’s pink-footed geese, about 375,000 birds, visit the UK every year. So that is a lot of honking and flapping overhead BOL! Birds from Iceland and Greenland arrive in northern Scotland in October, then spread south to the Solway Firth, Lancashire and North Norfolk, staying until March.
Owls more likely to be seen due to shorter days and more people being out around dawn and dusk.
Bats can also be seen flying around as the light fades and for s few hours after dark as they feed up on the last few insects before heading towards their hibernation roosts.
In autumn you are more likely to hear the deer causing chaos as they call out and fight with each other as they start to look for mates. During this time, it can be quite dangerous to be near deer when they are all filled with hormones. So, if you are lucky to see deer, keep well away and try not to disturb them.
Even rivers become an area of high activity as salmon and sea trout start swimming upstream to spawn. His can be quite epic to watch in areas of the river where there are natural waterfalls as they leap to swim back up them.
The main difference between salmon and sea trout is that after spawning the salmon will die but the sea trout will return to the sea to spawn again. Salmon can live up to 11 years and sea trout can live up to 20 years.
Finally, one bit of great news for your humans. The sloe berries are ripe for harvesting in Autumn, perfect for their gin, BOL!
Enjoy your Autumn walks and Chin chin to your humans.
