Change in the air for autumn

I live in the country and the natural life that surrounds me probably changes more radically in the month of October than in any other month of the year.

Humans make arbitrary decisions about the timing of the seasons but plants, animals and birds know that the northern summer ends and winter begins in the middle of this month.

It’s very obvious in the bird world. The last of the summer migrants leave and the first of the winter migrants arrive in October. But there are also subtle changes in the behaviour of our resident birds. I was driving down a country road the other day and a great flock of goldfinches burst out of the hedge, flew about 20 metres and landed again. It did this several times and there were probably around a hundred birds in it.