It wasn’t until we started to think about our October diary entry that we discovered, that actually, we haven’t been out and about a lot this month but still the days have flown by.
As the song says ;
Busy doing nothing, working the whole day through,
Trying to find lots of things not to do.
We have been working on the images for the 2024 calendar. We just need to lay it out and make sure the images work. We really must go through our picture library and weed out the rubbish photos. We have far too many that are not up to standard.
The Christmas card is ready to go to the printers, just one last check before we send it for printing.
After queuing for over an hour we have finally had our Covid and Flu jabs for this year so hopefully we will not be quite so poorly this winter as we were last.
We must just say huge congratulations to our friends Martin and Juliet at Papley Grove Farm who won the Silver Award for Sustainable Farmer of the Year!! at the British Farming awards. They really deserve it as they work so hard all year round, and we feel very fortunate that they allow us onto their farm to “stalk” the wildlife (and the workers) with our cameras.
Beginning of October and the Humming Bird Hawk Moth is still visiting the garden most afternoons.
October/November is when the Red Deer Stags start to get a bit silly with just one thing on their mind.
Such a beautiful boy, but think he must have lost the challenge this time as he was all alone. Other stags were guarding the herd. He still looks hopeful though, so maybe next time perhaps add a bit more decoration to the antlers.
A Fallow Deer stag trying to reach the “best” bits.
Juvenile Fallow Deer with their friend the Jackdaw.
Another handsome Fallow Deer Stag.
A Mum doing what Mum’s always do, washing babies.
As the day became warmer the Deer retreated to the shade of the trees, with the Stags ever watchful. You know he is saying, “Back Off! These are my Ladies”.
Late October, and our local wood is looking very green with the majority of the leaves still hanging on. A bit wet and slippery underfoot, but very mild and looking like early Summer not late Autumn.
At the time of writing, Waxwings have started to arrive in their hundreds. Mostly in Scotland and the North of England, but a few have been reported flying in along the Norfolk Coast. So it’s looking promising for a Waxwing Winter which doesn’t very often happen. Towards the end of autumn, birdwatchers start to anticipate whether we will see an irruption of (Bohemian) Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) – when large numbers migrate to Britain, sometimes in flocks of hundreds, from their summer breeding grounds in Scandinavia and Russia. When this happens, the birds are often easily spotted in carparks around our towns and cities where ornamental rowan trees bear their favoured berries. So keep looking in the car parks when you are out shopping.
Large flocks of Redwings and Fieldfares have also arrived, and the Short Eared Owls have arrived at their favourite winter feeding spots, so its time for us to start getting out and about again.