After a long dry summer, this September has been a rather wet affair, with some quite heavy, blustery downpours. We enjoyed a few sunny spells, but it can often be a far hotter month, feeling at times like the height of summer. Despite the inconsistences of the weather, wildlife is the strongest indicator of September’s position between summer and autumn. Technically, autumn has two start dates. The ‘astronomical’ start is normally on 21 September or one day either side, and it is marked by the equinox - when daylight and dark hours are equal. There is also the ‘meteorological’ start which is used by weather scientists. They split the year into quarters, so autumn starts on 1 September and lasts until 30 November.

In nature, the start of autumn is marked by many things, the most obvious being the turning leaves. This time of year I’m always asked to write about the virtues of autumn. The usual stuff: the cool damp melancholic air, smell of rotting vegetation, rutting deer, strange shaped fungi popping up in woodland and meadow. Well for me it is marked by wasps, and they can be everywhere, take a glance at flowering ivy if you are in any doubt! Every September holds memories of angry wasps. There can be few members of staff, or volunteers, on our reserves that don’t understand this sentiment. Many know the feeling of a wasp down the back of a shirt, under the visor of a chainsaw helmet, pestering an ear whilst laden down with equipment, or loitering on one’s lunch. Being stung on the lip, as I’ve been, is definitely not an autumn highlight.   

There can be over ten thousand wasps in a single nest, nearly all of them workers. These wasps are all infertile females - their sting is actually a modified ovipositor. In September, the males and new queens, who were brought up by the workers, are emerging to mate with each other. The males will all die, as will the founder queen and the workers. The fertilised queens, the sole survivors, will hibernate and each will start a new colony next spring. Before their death the workers, released from their duties, will go on the rampage - giddy with freedom and drunk on fermented fallen fruit and ivy nectar. They are bold, pugnacious and looking for you.       

As the wasps pass away, the end of September finds crane flies, or daddy-long-legs as most of us know them, appearing in parks and gardens. Crane flies are the polar opposite of wasps when it comes to personality. Bizarrely, they seem to spend the day blundering about on feeble wings, trailing gangly legs, just waiting to be eaten. They have dwindled in number as grassland and meadows have diminished. Their larvae, called leatherjackets, live in the earth feeding on grassroots. It is these that are an important food for starlings, which probe about for them with their sensitive beaks. Starlings in turn have suffered a decline, possibly as a result of falling crane fly numbers. It is now that our resident starlings start being augmented by their cousins from Eastern Europe and Russia. By November we start to see large concentrations of starlings and can enjoy watching the roost-time murmurations.

With bird migration in full swing, September and October are the months that vagrant birds start showing up in the county. With Norfolk jutting out into the North Sea, and our proximity to the continent, each autumn the county delivers more than its’ fair share of unusual birds. On Sunday 7 September, the staff at NWT Hickling Broad had a case of déjà vu when an exceptionally rare (for the UK) black-winged kite turned up. The first ever black-winged kite for the UK appeared in mid-Wales in April 2023. Being a rather shy and illusive bird it disappeared, re-appearing at Hickling Broad in July. Being the first ‘twitchable’ bird, it drew a good crowd and helpfully remained in the fields to the front of the reserve’s Raptor Watch-point. The species has seen a northward shift in its distribution, possibly due to climate change, for formerly it was found in North Africa. It has spread into Spain, Portugal and southern France, no doubt we will see a steady increase in black-winged kite appearances in the UK over the coming years.

This individual, possibly the same bird, stayed longer - from 7 to 11 September and although it remained some distance away, it provided most birdwatchers with an adequate view. At the same time, an influx of glossy ibis were in the area. The record of six individuals at Hickling was soon smashed with an astonishing 22 just up the road at Horsey Mere. September has also seen more than usual numbers of the less common migrating waders, with good numbers of curlew sandpiper, pectoral sandpiper and spotted redshank being at Cley, Hickling and other favoured migration ‘stop-off’ points. September can find many of these birds still in their summer plumage, and discovering a brick-red curlew sandpiper or black-speckled spotted redshank is a real treat.

What to look for in October

October, the month of nuts and berries! It is also the best time to see fungi produce their oddly shaped spore-laden ‘fruits’. Look out for the magnificent chicken of the woods, a bracket fungus found growing on tree trunks, or the impressive red and white-spotted fly agaric, the fungus of fairy tales.  Mid-autumn provides so much subtle beauty, with each hedgerow a rich mix of red, tan, fading green and yellow. The woodland edges find jays noisily crying out to one another as they cache hundreds, perhaps thousands, of acorns for winter. Astonishingly, they manage to remember exactly where they bury each one, well almost! The few that are not found emerge in the spring as tiny two leaved oak trees. A heavy October mist allows us a glimpse of the magnificent work of the orb spiders, normally hidden in bright sunlight, their webs become bejewelled with droplets. Far from being a tangled web, their ability and skill at weaving is displayed in its full splendour.

Take Action

If you do go searching for fungi, we would recommend taking a good identification book with you, or downloading an app such as iNaturalist to identify your finds. Some great locations for a range of species are NWT Bretts Wood and Foxley Wood, or NWT Roydon Common for grassland species. Cemeteries and ancient meadows are also good places to search. Important to note – do not consume any fungi you find! Not only are some fungi poisonous, but it is an offence to remove plants or fungi from nature reserves without prior permission. The fruiting body of fungi and mushrooms are its method of distributing spores, so their removal prevents reproduction.