When the English poet, John Keats, wrote his famous ode To Autumn, two hundred years ago, he knew his time was short. The 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' is now in full swing, reminding us that winter is just around the corner. The photo above is of the abandoned quarry at the bottom of the hill. The beautiful colours are really showing well and I am amazed at how they change during the day as the sun moves across the sky with a mixture of yellow, orange and red. There have been many sunny days this month and despite the fresh, misty mornings, the temperature is reaching about 20 centigrade by the middle of the day. This spell of warm weather is to the liking of a few butterflies still fluttering around in the orchard. I have seen Red admirals, Clouded yellows and Small whites in the main but there are very few flowers left for them to settle on.
It doesn’t seem so long ago that I would watch the Swallows filling the evening sky. Their twittering to each other and acrobatic flight was a real source of enjoyment. Following their departure for warmer climes, their absence from the evening blue skies leaves me with a slight sense of sadness, but I look forward to their return in the Spring. Whilst on the subject of migration, here I am under the migration corridor of the Common Crane. It is about this time of the year that they leave their breeding grounds in Scandinavia and fly south to Spain and North Africa for the winter. They are a bit of a phenomenon with the locals, who refer to them as ‘Les Grues’ and know that the migration heralds the approaching dark days of winter.
I have only seen a couple of small groups so far, in their arrow formation but expect to see a lot more in the coming weeks. They all chatto each other when they are flying so you get plenty of notice that they are approaching and they can be heard at night too. On occasion, they will start to fly around in a circle as if checking their bearings, before continuing on their way. It is fascinating to watch, and the real bonus is that they will return towards the end of February on exactly the same route but in the opposite direction. Hopefully, I will be able to capture some images to show next time.
So as we move well into autumn, Nature continues to offer generously. It gives us skies full of migrating birds and the rich, beautiful autumn colours on our trees as they prepare to drop their leaves that add nourishment to the soil. There is something so magical about walking in the woods and the breeze filling the air with falling leaves, and that lovely scrunching sound when you walk over them. These are all gifts from Nature and we should treasure them. More importantly, we should not just take but should also give back. Let’s stop choking Mother Nature and clean up our act. Give her air to breathe and she can give us so much more to enjoy and share.
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