Here Comes November

Once the clocks have changed and the nights get darker earlier,  it begins to feel as though winter is closing in. Following the gloriously warm sunny days of late September and early October, and the spectacular displays of leaves turning yellow, gold and red, November generally brings a quieter rhythm to the countryside. Along the Downs, the beeches and oaks shed the last of their leaves, carpeting the chalk paths in copper and gold. The yews on Box Hill stand evergreen and sombre, a reminder of the ancient woods that once cloaked this landscape. Ivy draped on trees is flowering attracting wasps and hoverflies before the frosts silence them.

In the hedgerows between Betchworth and Brockham, scarlet hawthorn berries and rose hips glow against bare twigs, a welcome feast for newly arrived redwings and fieldfares from Scandinavia. Blackbirds and song thrushes join them, gorging on berries before the leaner months set in. Robins sing from garden fences and woodland edges, their song sharper in the chill air, each bird defending the territory it is claiming for winter. Tawny owls call from the churchyard yews and woodlands — the classic “too-wit too-woo” echoing through long nights. Grey herons stand sentinel in the shallows of the River Mole or poach fish from garden ponds.

​By late November our native starling population will welcome starlings from colder parts of mainland Europe, forming large, dense flocks. If we are lucky, they might treat us to a spectacular aerial display known as a murmuration, swirling through the sky, forming patterns like iron filings over a magnet, before they all funnel down to roost.
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November is one of the best months to spot fungi, with damp, mild conditions, fallen leaves and rotting wood for food. This year, fungi have been appearing a little earlier than usual because of the damp spells after the hot dry summer. You may have spotted puffballs, inkcaps, parasols, and waxcaps in grasslands from late September. But the real show is between mid-October to mid- November, provided the weather stays moist but not too frosty.

some of the photos of fungi posted in the 4Bs WhatsApp Nature Group