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
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.
Dry reeds and dragonflies from the Bittern hide, Hickling
Mute swans, Hickling broad
Cattle grazing beyond the river Bure
Ruins of St Benet's Abbey
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
Flooded gravel after storm Babet's rain all night and day
Blickling
Tatty Red Admiral on a sweet chestnut husk
Gathering sweet chestnuts
Sweet Chestnut sapling
Abundance -- Holly berries
Cooking pears for crumble
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
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
My sounds of October
Redwings
Fieldfares
Robin
