Nature Diary

Hear red deer

Britain’s largest land mammal, the red deer stag, is an impressive creature, particularly during autumn’s rutting season. With a rusty red coat and buff rump it blends well with the browning bracken, but you may hear its bellowing roar and the hard, dry sound of antlers clashing as they battle for supremacy. Red deer are most widespread north of the border, with scattered populations in England, and fewer in Wales. With no predator (other than the car) deer numbers can get out of hand so they are checked by culling; this can affect where you can walk in the Highlands in autumn.

Listen for redwings

On a clear, starry autumn night, stand and listen: you’ll soon hear the thin seeping call of migrating redwings. These small thrushes with a red flash under each wing are winter visitors, coming here from Iceland and Scandinavia to escape the ravages further north. Berries are what they come for and large flocks mixed with fieldfares can strip a hedgerow in a few days.

Taste berries

Any hedgerow in Britain holds the bountiful fruits of autumn. From the familiar blackberry to the dark sloes of the blackthorn (best used in gin) they’re a major food source for many creatures. Look too for red haws on the hawthorn, orange berries on the rowan, dog rose hips packed with hairy seeds used in itching powder, and shocking pink spindle berries. Some of these are toxic to humans, or need cooking, but if you find a wild service tree after the first frost, its soft brown fruits are delicious.

Crunch through oak leaves

There are two kinds of oak tree in Britain: English (aka pedunculate) and sessile. The former grows in central and eastern regions; the latter in the north and west. The acorns of English oaks grow on stalks while their leaves are tight to the branch. Sessile oaks are the opposite, with stalkless acorns and leaves on stems. As temps fall their foliage turns a charming orange-brown, but what makes the oak stand out is it’s the last to lose its leaves, sometimes hanging on into Dec.

Watch geese fly by

Now is the time to listen for the honks of migrating geese, and a thin straggling V-shaped skein looming into view: wobbling, reforming, noisy, but very definitely going somewhere. Barnacle, bean, pink-footed, brent and white-fronted geese are all visitors from the north and distribute themselves unevenly around Britain. Estuaries and farmland are their feeding grounds for our relatively easy winter; remember these are natives of far colder climes. Feeding flocks can sometimes be huge, and if flushed by a peregrine falcon can take to the sky in their thousands.