October 2023 Quick Roundup
A damp month of mist and mushrooms. Above average temperatures swing to those below by mid-month. Birds migrate: redwing and fieldfare flocks fly regularly across from the east coast, with short-eared owls, 24,000+ chaffinches, waxwings, starlings, passing down from the north.
1st October: Three swallows fly over the garden, my last seen for this year.
The next day, Waxwings are observed flying over the Norfolk coast. Thunder grumbles overnight.
Busy rooks gather on telegraph wires, dawn, dusk and in-between.
Magpies and jackdaws are welcome corvids in the garden this month; a quiet month for garden birds whilst a soft mast year berry and nut abundance is found further afield.
Wood Pigeons pluck the last elderberries whilst a Pinkfeet skein crosses west overhead. A sub-singing blackbird practicing his song affords more delight to the ear than a pigeon's raspy attempts.
A patch of garden ivy grows with a different shape to that before: is the ivy now maturing, will it bear berries next year?
The roses and lavender still bloom, bees and red admirals still on the wing. The weather's odd: unseasonably mild, humid, but the air blows cold. The sun glows through cloud banks.
Dewy and damp mornings, with a droplet to every point of rose leaves. Mushrooms sprout aplenty, subtle, small and brown or else exuberant Fly Agaric and giant puffballs.
Hazel nuts are all gone, beech nuts fallen, but sweet chestnuts now start to open.
Silver Birch foliage is yellow-stippled, some leaves detach and fall to the grass. A bat is seen after dusk. A sparrowhawk makes regular sallies across the garden.
13th: Odd weather continues with blustery cold winds, but a hot glancing sun. The day after, condensation on the window affirms a change to the weather: cool, chilly fridge-scented air, a misty breath.
Heavily-laden hawthorn bushes, plump rosehips and holly berry clumps confirm a soft-mast year of fruity abundance.
16th: Stepping outdoors to a light frost on the car and rooftops, with the welcome chuckling of Fieldfares heard the first time this season. Medium to large flocks fly over west, sometimes small flocks of their quieter Redwing cousins. Far high above them, US Air Force planes pass over with a soft humming. It's all go in the skies.
17th: Tawny owl calls overnight, during the day close-by farmed turkeys gobble as if a football-stadium crowd. Wonder when it will be their deadline.
Raindrops and leaves stuck to the windows.
Sweet Chestnuts start falling, crashing down with a thump. Some gathered for cooking, and pears made into crumble. Blackthorns are stripped of their sloes, all within an arm's-length: poached for sloe gin.
A consideration for the lack of Dunnocks seen this year.
Two magpies are daily visitors to the garden. The regular collared dove pair are sweet to see, although one bears a deep red wound to its chest: lucky escape from a sparrowhawk? Behind the shed, a male blackbird quietly pursues a female.
Sparrows chirrup from their bush perches, but soon dive away. Four pheasant hens feed on grain, very shy, with a magpie amongst who fills their beak with peanuts to stash away.
My sounds of October
Redwings
Fieldfares
Robin
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