September

September is a time of change as mammals start to make plans for winter.

Squirrels start to collect nuts to make stores for winter, birds start to arrive from Scandinavian countries and the final swallows are leaving our shores.

Download our hedgehog picture to use as a monthly desktop calendar. (click on the orange link and then right click on the picture and select 'set as background'.)

Wildlife to look out for

Hedgerows fill with berries at this time of year (rosehips, elder, blackberries) and autumn gentian can be found flowering late in grassland, a pinkie purple herb species. Bank and field voles and other animals are feeding up before hibernation, bats forage on moths and ivy provides a late nectar source for insects. Look out at your local Trust property to see signs of movement and change.

Hedgehogs are among the hibernating mammals, they will be furiously foraging for slugs, earthworms and beetles to build their fat reserves for their long winter sleep. If you wish to help them in their food quest, please do not feed them bread and milk, instead nice meaty pet food is perfect for their stomachs.

Birds

Migrating birds, such as swallows, can be seen all over the UK, as well as waders, birds of prey and bitterns. Autumn and winter migrant field fares and redwings, as well as mistle and song thrushes feast on fallen fruit.

Insects

A good time to see Red Admirals, clouds of hoverflies; bumblebees, Colletes bee, Mason bee and Mining bees. Insects are feasting on fallen fruit, spiders hunt and build webs.

East of England: Dunwich Heath (rich colonies)
Devon and Cornwall: Branscombe
South East: Runnymede
Northern Ireland: White Park Bay
Wales: Llyn Peninsula coast and Sandscale Haws
Northern Ireland: Murlough Nature Reserve

Dragonflies can still be found around ponds, rivers and streams.

Wessex: The scarce blue-tailed damselfly (Corfe Castle), Small red damselfly (Studland)
North West: Wasdale (uncommon ones)
Wales: North Pembrokeshire heath & commons
East of England: Norfolk Hawker dragonfly breed

Amphibians

Frogs, toads and newts will begin their hibernation. Frogs and toads tend to seek hibernation spots far from their watery breeding grounds. But newts like to find places close to ponds and streams, often under logs or stones. However, unlike other newts, the great crested newt does not always choose to hibernate. Amphibians also like to hibernate in decomposing vegetation and garden litter, so it is best not to disturb these areas between September and March.

Fly Agaric
© www.northeastwildlife.co.uk

Fungi

This month is really the beginning of the peak fungi season. The conditions are still warm but wet, and from their mhycorrhizal filaments great fungal fruiting bodies spring. They obtain their energy from decomposition, recycling vital nutrients back into the environments in which they live. Many have important relationships with the trees and plants we depend on for food. Keep an eye out for colourful grassland waxcaps, great brackets on trees, and wonderfully icky slime moulds.

Trees

Tree leaves are starting to turn into the bright colours of autumn. In September apples in orchards start ripening and fall off the tree when ready for harvest. Late September is the best time to go to orchards. Waxcaps, giant puffballs, field mushrooms and bracket fungus emerge on the orchard floor.

Discover wildlife hidden in our orchards

Devon and Cornwall: Cotehele, Parke Estate, Plym Valley properties, Plym Bridge woods, Trelissick
East of England:Blickling Hall
North West: Speke Hall
Northern Ireland: Strangford Lough
Thames & Solent: Buscot and Coleshill
Wales: Craflwyn
Wessex: Bath Skyline, Studland, Winkworth Arboretum
West Midlands: Brockhampton Estate, Croome Park

The National Trust

September