AUTUMNAL WEATHER SUITS SLUGS AND SNAILS

No Indian Summer this year then! Well unless October produces something that’s not in keeping with the weather this year.

Growth is continuing among the flora, albeit at a reduce rate, while the early autumn blooms of colour in the garden are somewhat bland this year.

The small garden birds are starting to spend a little more time in the garden, although how much time is yet to be determined as many could be hidden away in the trees and bushes.

There is a concern locally that cats are driving wildlife away, and while this can’t be said to be true for the garden birds yet, it’s clearly a worry given the lower numbers seen this year.

However, the slugs and snails in the garden seemingly love the conditions and are regularly seen around the paths, on the patio and sometimes scaling windows and doors.

There have not been as many crane flies this year and, while it’s a tenuous link, the increase in numbers of spiders might be to blame.

In the last couple of weeks a number of large garden spiders have created huge webs around the garden. Unfortunately they’ve been mainly catching humans!

As October swings around the bird counts will be restricted to the weekend, but it’ll be interesting to note the numbers and variety that come along to feast on the different feeders.

FROM SUMMER TO AUTUMN IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE

It seems the weather decided the August Bank Holiday would be the last hurrah of anything connected with summer.

The warm and sunny weather experience over the Bank Holiday was certainly welcomed by many, but in the following weeks it’s been clear to any remaining swallows, swifts, house martins or any other summer visitors that the UK is shutting down for the season.

The local swallows had been swooping around the garden in high numbers, but none have been sighted for at least a week.

The magpies are most definitely around, but that wasn’t the case during a recent visit to Cornwall.

Not once in a week was a single magpie seen, there were however plenty of herring gulls and jackdaws living alongside each other.

The gulls could be responsible for the lack of magpies, while other smaller garden birds seemed to be away from the areas that the gulls operated in.

The weather hasn’t quite pushed the garden birds back into the garden on a regular basis, but in the last few days the blue tits have been spending time every day, foraging and it’s probably not going to be long before the blackbirds, robins, great tits, dunnocks and goldfinches.

In 2016 and 2014, September brought many days of warm sunshine, with 2016 recording the highest temperature of the year!

Will the end of September bring an Indian summer, or will it signal the mass return of the garden birds to feed on the fat feeders?

A BRIGHTER END TO SUMMER?

It’s not been an ideal summer, weather-wise, but it seems the summer visitors to these shores have benefitted quite well.

The swallows seem to have raised at least two broods, while there have often been swifts filling the skies over the last few weeks.

The latter have now left the area, heading back to Africa for the UK’s autumn and winter, before heading back to these shores next spring.

What’s fascinating is the way these two, seemingly similar, species feed.

This has been particularly noticeable when the youngsters of both species had fledged and were learning to fly and feed.

The swallows swoop around the tress, bushes and houses, often just inches away from the ground or colliding with something solid.

But the swifts were circling at a much higher altitude, obviously after different food and so meaning they can live alongside each other without competing for food, or indeed nest sites.

In the news there appears to be plenty of very large slugs around the garden. And strangely they seem to be spending quite some time out in the open during daylight hours.

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any hedgehogs about to help keep the population down

The broad beans have been harvested, and the six plants produced an amazing 42 beans – even with some pods that failed.

The tomatoes are next, and some may well go red if there's a warm interlude of weather.