Living with Birds 21 Facts on Autumn Tweetapedia

Hidden treasure - Acorns, the fruit of the oak, are a favourite food of the jay. In autumn, these colourful crows are busy collecting, then burying, acorns, laying down a stock of food to see them through the winter. The buried acorns that they fail to find may grow into oak trees themselves.

Running late - By late October, few butterflies remain on the wing, though it is not unusual to see the occasional red admiral flying on a sunny day, even in November and December.

Berry shortage - If the rowan crop fails in Scandinavia, then an irruption of waxwings is likely in Britain. Big irruptions only occur irregularly (the last was in the winter of 2023/24), and in most winters waxwings are rare birds here.

Gold rush - Goldcrests are the smallest of all our migrant birds, weighing no more than a 20p piece. At one time, naturalists couldn’t believe that such tiny birds could fly across the North Sea, and they were thought to hitch rides on the backs of bigger birds like woodcocks and short-eared owls.

Off-course - Birdwatchers like autumn as it’s the best season for finding rarities. Some off-course migrants come from across the Atlantic, others from Siberia.

Emerald veil - We tend to take the changing colour of the leaves for granted without wondering why. Leaves are coloured by molecules called pigments, and the pigment that causes leaves to be green is chlorophyll. During spring and summer, when there is plenty of sunshine, plants make a lot of chlorophyll. In autumn, when it starts to get cold, they tend to stop making chlorophyll, so the leaves turn yellow, gold, and bronze.

Night call - Redwings migrate at night. If you go outdoors on a still autumn evening, you may hear the gentle seeping calls of migrant redwings as they fly overhead.

Tipple time - Sloes, the fruit of the blackthorn, are sour to taste but popular for flavouring gin. Country lore insists that you shouldn’t pick them until after the first frost.

On the move - By mid-October, most of our summer migrant birds, such as swallows and martins, have moved south, their place taken by migrants from Scandinavia, such as redwings and fieldfares.

Globetrotters - Many species of wildfowl migrate from their breeding grounds in the Arctic to winter in Britain. Almost the entire population of whooper swans that breed in Iceland winter in the British Isles.

Dressed down - In summer, male ducks moult into a dull eclipse plumage that resembles that of the ducks. It is not until autumn that they start to regain their distinctive plumage. Mallards are always the first back in their breeding finery, usually in early September, but shovelers, wigeons, and teals are rarely in full plumage before November.

Antlers in action - Autumn is the rutting (mating) season for both red and fallow deer. The red deer rut starts at the end of September and continues into October, but the fallow rut doesn’t start until the end of October, continuing into November.

Team work - Many small birds join together in roving flocks in autumn. They benefit from safety in numbers, with more eyes able to spot predators. Flocks may contain four or five species of tits, often joined by treecreepers and nuthatches.

Light sleeper - Hedgehogs construct their winter nests in October; by November, most have started their hibernation. They may wake up occasionally in December during unusually mild spells of weather.

Late bloomer - Ivy is one of the last plants to flower. The flowers appear from September to November and are vital for supporting late-season pollinators like bees and hoverflies, while the resulting black berries are popular with birds such as thrushes and pigeons.

Autumn chorus - While most birds only sing in spring, there are a number that can be heard in autumn and winter. Listen out for robins and song thrushes, skylarks, and woodlarks.

Join the locals - Though we may think of our robins and blackbirds as resident birds, they are joined in autumn by birds that breed farther north, with many flying to us from Scandinavia.