As autumn arrives, berries take centre stage. Notice which ones are eaten first in your garden – typically honeysuckle and rowan berries are devoured straight away, while hawthorn and crab apples are saved for a little later. By the end of winter only ivy berries will be left, usually only eaten when there’s nothing else. Do they taste horrible or are birds just really clever? Gramme for gramme, ivy berries are nearly as calorie-rich as chocolate, so birds could be saving the best for last, to help them get into good condition for breeding. If you don’t have many berrying plants, now’s the time to add some, as standalone trees or in wildlife hedges. Try hawthorn, holly, rowan and crab apples.
WORDS KATE BRADBURY
You may spot...
Chiff chaff, Phylloscopus collybita This is a little brown bird with a big personality. Although named after its “chiff chaff, chiff chaff” song, which you can hear in spring and summer when it’s breeding, it makes a “hweet, hweet” contact call the rest of the time. Typically a summer migrant, most chiff chaffs spend winter in the Mediterranean and West Africa, before returning to the UK to breed. But, increasingly, more are overwintering here.
Found in areas of woodland and scrub, and occasionally gardens, chiff chaffs nest in May or June, laying up to six eggs. The chicks are fed on insects and caterpillars.
In autumn, chiff chaffs spread into more urban areas, possibly as they fly south before crossing the Channel. Listen out for their contact call and keep an eye on your roses – unusual birds picking aphids off the leaves could well be migrating chiff chaffs.
Also be on the lookout for…
◾ Ivy bees – these solitary species are the last mining bee of the year to fly, and feeds almost exclusively on ivy flowers. You may be lucky to have them nesting in your lawn.
◾ House martins – staying longer than swallows and swifts, often to raise a third brood, house martins will finally be starting to fly south now, returning again in spring.
◾ Garden spiders – it’s that time of year when you start to find cobwebs strung across paths and borders. Each one contains a female spider waiting for a male to take his chance.
Make the most of harvests
Save £££s on your food shopping for months to come with Rosie Yeomans’ easy guide to storing and preserving crops
Preserving, freezing, drying, pickling and fermenting – there are so many ways to en
