Nature Diary
Autumn is the season in which we have started this project - September in fact, but this month usually has just the last bit of summer trying to heat us up before we experience autumn with its gales and leaves turning golden brown, red, and yellow, and of course, temperatures dropping quite fast, with mist and fog expected. We will be using this section of the website to put dates to things that happen to our site's natural changes throughout the year - and to help you use it as a resource for learning.
9th Sept. The grass is still green, and the temperatures high enough to be out without coats on. The blackberries are still ripe and full on the bushes on the far western side of the field.
When the tips of these branches (above) reach the soil they put out roots. In this way they start new plants. This is why we can see such thick masses of these (bramble) bushes so close together. It's difficult for people to get into these tangled masses but birds, wasps, bees, and fruit flies can get in easily. You can just see in the photo above, the 'Rust Fungus' that affects many bramble leaves - orangey rust - coloured edges. September also sees the first early morning mist after warm days' sunshine heats up the ground only to have cool air blow over it at night forming a sort of condensation.
Early morning mist during the third week of September at The Asheldham Centre. The first frosts are not long away - probably around the last week of October and already the rose hips are full, but still hard and cannot be used by insects, birds, or man (for survival food) until these frosts have started...the pulp inside is made softer by the freezing and thawing caused by the tiny ice crystals.
22nd September The trees are now beginning to shows signs that the 'green' will turn to 'gold' pretty soon. The temperatures are still relatively high - weather forecasters call this the 'after-summer and it is certainly the final gasp of warmth. A heavy overnight dew fell this week....the first of the season, with cobwebs covered so as to be easily seen with hundreds spread across the school site.
September 2009
There has been a good crop of hazelnuts on the school site this year - if you know where to look! There is evidence of fieldmice eating the nuts - and squirrels.
Very close to the hazel trees was a young dog fox, sleeping in the late summer/early autumn sun. I'd been downwind of him some 200 metres away and could smell fox - but not known exactly where he was. I followed my nose and slowly crept up to him: he was still asleep when I stood right next to him: he was very startled when he realised I was there!
October 2008
Temperatures have dropped sharply this month with a frost on the 12 th of the month in Laindon, and colder and heavier frosts towards the middle of Essex. The school is 45 metres above sea level and Langdon Hills are 114 metres up; temperature drops 1°C for every hundred metres climbed....so Merrylands always has a temperature at least ½ degree celsius lower than, say Wat Tyler Country park which is at sea level. 19th Oct. The dampness of the ground after dew cover every night, and the longer nights means fungi can grow very fast - overnight for some species - and feed on the decaying wood and vegetation. This month alone - up to and including the 19th we've seen a 'Dryad's Saddle' [below] and Shaggy Ink Cap [bottom picture].
REMEMBER SAFETY You should not touch fungi / toadstools
28th October The leaves have all but turned golden yellow on the trees surrounding our school site. The ever lower temperatures are turning the stalk junction to jelly and so the leaves fall off the tree due to their own weight. However a complete range of colours can still - just - be seen from green to almost white. By the middle of next month there will be rotting leaves on the field - some of which will blow up against hedges and decompose.
OCTOBER 2009
This month has been one of the warmest Octobers on record with an almost record breaking temperature on the 29th of 20º C. starting off the day with thick fog. Although there has been some heavy dew, frosts have been totally absent and days have been warm and balmy, with light breezes from the south. Only one or two days have been very heavy rain - usually the pattern now ie when it does rain it comes down in torrents: eg on the 9th when we had 0.6mm per minute for the whole school day.