Autumnwatch
You might think that’s it for summer, we won’t see much in the way of wildlife until spring. Curtains closed and heating on from now on, but you would be wrong! There is so much to see as September ushers us towards the cooler months. With our seasons shifting due to climate change and wildlife having to delay their lifecycles because of the appalling wet and cold spring, there is still much activity ongoing in our meadows as species jostle for space.
The much-maligned ivy is now in full flower. Though they don’t look much like conventional flowers, each little green pincushion is packed with a rich source of late nectar and will be absolutely buzzing in the sunshine. Everything from the smallest thick legged hoverflies and little Ivy bees, who only arrived in the UK in 2001, to hornets and dragonflies, will be nectaring on ivy. Find a patch in the meadows and stay a while to see what you can find. These creatures in turn, provide food for insect eating birds such as robins, great tits and blackbirds, all trying to put on weight to make it through cold winter nights. They will be very glad of the purple-black berries that grow later. Did you know that weight for weight these berries have almost as many calories as a Mars bar?
Autumn is the time for fungi. Still-warm soils with moisture levels rising, make the perfect conditions for the fruiting bodies or mushrooms of these strange organisms to appear above ground. They are neither animal nor plant but live in a kingdom of their own along with yeasts and bacteria. The majority of the organism lives underground as vast networks of mycelium or hairlike structures which help to decay dead and dying plants and animals. Over the past few years the fungal kingdom has given us some near-miraculous solutions to our most pressing problems. They produce enzymes that can digest almost everything including toxins found in landfills and oil spills; new building materials; feeding livestock and the growing human population; alternatives to plastic packaging; even absorption of nuclear radiation after leaks. Their uses are growing as the need for solutions get more urgent. So when you find a chicken of the woods on a tree along the lark path, Magpie inkcaps in Nowton Park or Poplar fieldcaps in No Mans Meadow which have a preference for black poplar and willow, you might be looking at an organism which could save our planet!
Jillian Macready
BWMG Trustee