Autumn Fruits

Despite the very warm summer when everything appeared scorched, and plants were in desperate need of water, this autumn has seen an enormous growth of fruits on many forms of vegetation from trees to fungi. I guess over 7 inches (175mm) of rain has helped, but there do seem to be the most extraordinary things happening in the countryside. One of the most astonishing sights has been the emergence of hundreds of flowering wild arums, and there are several sites in the village where this has happened. There are also huge drops of acorns, beech nuts, sweet and horse chestnuts, and among fruiting trees, the village damson trees seem to have been loaded with an excess fruits this year. The extremely warm weather has also seemed to have had a effect on the amount of growth on trees themselves, with every tree seeming to have expanded enormously and in many cases joined together to form arches of dense leaves and branches. Just look at the Village Green for example and you can hardly see the ground, with the new War Memorial almost covered completely, and just now some of the branches of heavily laden trees beginning to break off, due to the excess weight they are carrying.

During the last few weeks, chiff chaff have been heard singing around the Pit, and both pied and grey wagtails have appeared. The last remaining swallows and martins left at the beginning of October and let’s hope they have a successful journey back to Africa and are able to return next year in greater numbers. The local buzzard population seem to have had good breeding success and they can be seen foraging in fields, and even coming into the village gardens. Jays are prominent around Birch Heath, and there has been a build up of starlings rather earlier than usual. We have also had lots of common garden birds come back to feed on our feeders, after being absent for several months during the hot weather. Robins and dunnock seem to be challenging each other for dominance, but my favourite sightings are two tiny wrens dipping and diving under raised plant pots and into hanging baskets searching for morsels of food. I also spotted a family of long tailed tits, probably 50+ in number flying along the tree lines canal at Rowton.

My bird of the month was a dipper, seen feeding on a rock on the River Wharf in the Yorkshire Dales. We don’t get many around this area, and it was a bird I became familiar with on the River Mellte near our family home at Ystradfellte in South Wales. They are very tough little birds, often nesting behind the curtain of water of a waterfall, and can be seen dipping and diving for food in fast flowing currents, or usually seen resting on a small moss covered boulder in mid stream as we saw recently. Keep an eye open for the flocks of Icelandic pink footed geese which are already flying over the village in early morning or at dusk. They are usually seen flying in V shaped formations, and calling to each other repeatedly as they fly. I think they have arrived two or three weeks earlier than usual, but it’s wonderful to have them back as they bring the skies alive during winter months.

There are several late-flying red admiral butterflies feeding on the nectar from ivy flowers on the hedgerows, and also small tortoiseshell and commas in and around the village. I have also spotted several late dragonflies, including common darter, southern and brown hawkers.