{"id":37,"date":"2021-10-01T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T08:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/?p=36653"},"modified":"2021-10-12T17:35:27","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T15:35:27","slug":"british-wildlife-in-october","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/british-wildlife-in-october\/","title":{"rendered":"British wildlife in October"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ben Hoare\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 01 October 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The nights may be drawing in and temperatures dropping, but there is still so much to see. Golden leaves, delicate fungi and migrant wildfowl in all their finery \u2013 it\u2019s time to embrace autumn.<\/p>\n

Silver birch (Betula pendula<\/em>)<\/h3>\n
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Silver birch in autumn. \u00a9\u00a0Colin Varndell<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Among our native trees, the silver birch puts on one of the most spectacular autumn displays. Golden leaves provide a beautiful contrast with pale, peeling bark, enhanced by the dappled effect created by the tree\u2019s naturally open and airy structure. In a breeze, the burnished foliage dances and shimmers. Birch was known as the \u2018lady of the woods\u2019 in Irish Gaelic poetry, and more recently, in Coleridge\u2019s romantic poems.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a large or long-lived tree. Many birches don\u2019t see out a century; some will already show signs of rot and decay in their sixth decade. Their importance to the landscape comes not through longevity, but as environmental pioneers: birch saplings are often the first trees to colonise open areas. In the distant past, birch forest sprang up across the British Isles as the ice sheets retreated.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, this pioneering role is reprised as birches quickly take advantage of new road verges, railway cuttings and brownfield sites. They also march up hillsides, taking over from other trees as the ground gets steeper and more exposed \u2013 and, were it not for the browsing of sheep, would grow higher still.<\/p>\n

In autumn, the branches of birch trees are full of dark red mature female catkins packed with tiny seeds. These attract roving flocks of finches, especially redpolls<\/a> and siskins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Northern pintail (Anas acuta<\/em>)<\/h3>\n
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A male pintail in flight in Hokkaido, Japan. \u00a9 David Tipling<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

October sees wildfowl begin arriving from the north and east, swelling the flocks of resident ducks<\/a>, geese and swans. They include pintails, which mostly come from western Russia. Some of our best-looking ducks, male pintails have a long neck and a pair of extremely long central tail feathers, which give them a uniquely rakish profile.<\/p>\n

Females lack these and are also much plainer, but usually mix with the drakes, so can be identified by association. Look for pintails on estuaries and coastal pools, including on the sea itself.<\/p>\n

Learn more about ducks:\u00a0<\/h4>\n