Beyond Birdwatching
November offers the chance of some late-autumn treats
QUAKING IN YOUR BOOTS? Autumn moths have an admittedly rather warranted reputation for being rather, well, brown. So it’s nice to come across species that modestly subvert the stereotype. As its name suggests, Red- lined Quaker does so through several crimson lines, notably one on the rear forewing, which is decurved like a downturned mouth. When combined with the eye- like black spots mid- wing, this creates a rather eerie impression of a displeased face. What, it makes me fear, “have I done wrong, now”? Angel of the North?
So odd-looking are plumes that it can be hard to conceive of them as moths. But, much as it may look like a tiny version of Anthony Gormley’s giant winged sculpture near Gateshead, the Common Plume is indeed a moth. It can often be found by day, resting on walls with tightly furled wings held perpendicular to its remarkably slender body.
Nice to meet Yew
Darkly compelling trees throughout the year, Yew come into their own from November until January, when their shadowy evergreen forms are heightened by glorious cerise fruits (the ‘aril’). These berry-like offerings are the only part of the tree that is not poisonous – and even then, the fruit harbours a toxic seed.
Purple glaze
Autumn is the prime time for fungal forays, although this year’s Covid complications may render communal rambles a rare event. One of my favourite discoveries last November was of old boughs caked with the leathery, purplish splodges of Silverleaf Fungus aka Chondrostereum purpureum. Horticulturalists and gardeners, however, are less enamoured by this fungus, as afflicts the leaves of cherry and plum trees with silverleaf disease.
Still beetling around
Compared to the heady excesses of summer, insect life is few and far between. Some creatures are still active, however, including an attractive, bronze-hued leaf-beetle, Donacia vulgaris. This is locally common through much of Britain, favouring reeds and rushes adjacent to slow-moving or still watercourses.
Imperial vagrant
In late autumn, particularly in coastal England, should you stumble across a dragonfly larger than a Migrant Hawker, it is conceivable that you’ve lucked out with a Vagrant Emperor. Last century, this nomadic insect was a true rarity here. But it’s now prone to increasingly regular irruptions – such that colonisation has even become a fair bet.