Wednesday, November 1, 2023

October 2023: Quick Roundup

 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.



Rooks gathering, the afternoon


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?


Ivy


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.


Lake walk path, Felbrigg







Felbrigg lake




Sheep grazing



Box tree moth, kitchen window


 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.

 


Roses 'Blue for you', garden



Blickling lake. Low levels whilst work is undertaken on its wall













Ewe, foraging for acorns


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.



Tiny snail rescued from the watering can


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.


Blickling Hall





 

Fancy a bite of this apple? Fly Agaric mushroom
 



Glad to be indoors, rainy afternoon in Norwich



Heavily-laden hawthorn bushes, plump rosehips and holly berry clumps confirm a soft-mast year of fruity abundance.

 

 

Ripe yet? Wisteria seed pod. A member of the pea family, but all parts are poisonous.
 

 

 

Marsh harrier
 


 

Dry reeds and dragonflies from the Bittern hide, Hickling
 

 

Hickling NWT
 

 


 

 

Mute swans, Hickling broad

 

 

"Tseep!" Redwings
 

 

Cloudburst in the east

 

 

Cattle grazing beyond the river Bure

 

 

 

 

Goldfinches
 

 

 

 

Ruins of St Benet's Abbey

 

 

Barn owl with prey
 

 

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.

 

Fieldfares flying west over garden
 

 

 

 
USAF Stratotanker and F15s flying south-east over garden



Redwings flying west over garden



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.



 
Blickling lake



Low water, Blickling lake



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.



The morning star Venus, garden



Robin, sunrise sentinel




Flooded gravel after storm Babet's rain all night and day



Blickling lake



Blickling




Tatty Red Admiral on a sweet chestnut husk



 

Gathering sweet chestnuts



Sweet Chestnut sapling




Abundance -- Holly berries



Cooking pears for crumble




Tomatoes: last crop


 
The tomato plants are taken down, the last of the crop nestled with bananas to ripen.
Mist drifts most mornings, dripping from the trees, sometimes burnt away, sometimes not.


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.



Magpie in dead Almond tree


 


 



Bedford Street, Norwich




Gulls flying east to roost



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.



House Sparrows




 
Pheasant -- wary wary




Mud and fallen leaves underfoot









Odd one out: Wigeon duck amongst Mallards



 
Setting sunlight



Full moon, Jupiter



Pigeon in the mist



My sounds of October

Redwings

Fieldfares

Robin

 

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