This is the time of year when the hedgerow is asleep and so are its residents - dormice and hedgehogs curled into tiny balls at the base of bare twiggy shrubs and brambles, seven spotted ladybirds piled together in nooks and crannies and rolled up leaves. Badgers dont actually hibernate, but they sleep alot more on these short, cold days.
Birds are awake and struggling to feed; balckening ivy berries are pounced on by hungry starlings, thrushes and wood pigeons.
Watch out for the snowdrops along the base of the hedgerow - they are a sign that life continues out of sight, beneath the cold dark earth, and spring will be upon us before we know it.
The catkins are already swinging on some hazel bushes. They are next spring's male flowers. They appear in the autumn as tight green clusters, like a bird's foot, but loosen as the pollen swells and they start to dangle merrily from twigs and are then known as 'lamb's tails'.
Even if there is not enough snow to justify the medieval moon name Snow Moon this month, the full moon on the 9th will light up snowy expanses across meadows,woodlands and river banks as snowdrop tome reaches its peak.
White flowers always bloom first along the hedgerow, and this time of year the hopeful smattering of hawthorn buds and snowdrops peeping through the ground can really lift the spirits. On a warm day it can begin to feel like spring, with the first butterflies - yellow-green brimstones - emerging and flitting around for flowers in the weak sun.
Rooks are noisily repairing their nests in the treetops. You'll see the male bringing beaks full of sticks and mud to the female who works it all into the structure. Later in the month while female will sits on four or five blotchy green eggs, the male will bring her worms and insects to eat.
Guess how many beats per second a great spotted woodpecker maikes with its beak? Five? Ten? Try 40! The great spotted is on of three native woodpercker and by far the best drummer but there are no headaches for these head bangers! Woodpeckers withstand the rapid deceleration that comes with quick-fire drumming thanks to their compact skulls and close-fitting brains.
Wild daffodils are dancing in the verges, bringing sunshine to the days when the weather has other plans. In a food web, wild daffodils would be classified as a primary producer, providing nutrition for insects and not much else. The toxicity of the daffodil's poison causes most herbivores to avoid it entirely.
The 'dawn' chorus is now in full voice long before sunrise. The ringing notes of the song thrushes are usually first to break the silence when it is still pitch dark with great tits, blackbirds and wrens soon to follow. Most of them stop singing to look for food as soon as it is light enough for them to see the insects and spiders that they need, but they will sing again later in the morning.
The first flowers of spring are often white or yellow because of who pollinates them. The majority of early spring pollinators are flies. Flies lack color vision, meaning they can’t see scores of colors the way we do. White and yellow reflect plenty of light. Flies will visit a range of colors, but they visit white and yellow flowers the most. Flies are the most frequent visitors to flowers and are often misidentified as bees.
Badger cubs come out and explore, and the hedgehog rutting season has begun. Pygmy shrews - who live in tunnels beneath the hedgerow and feed on beetles, caterpillars, worms and woodlice are mating now and will produce the first of up to four litters in a month's time.
Primroses growing along the lanes and verges. These delicate flowers used to be used for protection against bad fairies who would steal your firstborn child in the first few days of May. For this reason, householders would scatter pimroses across the threshold during the first few days of the month.
It is the month of flowers in the hedgerow. All of the roses are blooming: dog rose, apple scented sweet briar, downy rose, burnet and field rose. They scramble between bramble flowers, white bryony and honeysuckle highter up in the hedge
Hoglets and doormouse babies start to go on foraging trips with their mother - about two weeks later they will set off on their own.
Brown hawker dragonflies patrol the riverbank at this time of year. They are one of the largest dragonflies and have gauzy, orange-brown wings.
Hover flies can be seen over flowers. Some have evolved to look like bumblebees or wasps to deter predators.
Young goldfinches can be seen lined up on a branch or the top of a wall. They are fluffy, light-brown birds with greish heads. Their parents, who bring them food, have gold wing flashes and heads streaked with red, white and black.
The hedgerow is full or berries startig to turn full colour: blackberries, elderberries, rowan fruits and haws are all begining to ripen. Birds and mammals will soon start to feast on them, spreading the seeds far and wide and ensuring next year's hedgerow harvest.
This is the second most exciting month in the 'hedgerow year'! Fat juicy berries, hazlenuts, even honesuckle has switched from flowering to berrying. At gournd level, small mammals, domice, voles, hedehogs and shrew scurrying around laying food aside for the winter, or tucking in nfor full bellies before a long night's sleep.
Many new molehills appear above the ground on damp autumn days. The moles are digging new passages to live in, pushing superfuous soil up specially dug shafts and leaving it in mounds on the surface,
A full moon at the start and end of October this year (2020). The first, being closest to the autumn equinox, is a Harvest Moon, whick, weather allowing, will extend the farmers' reaping hours with its silvery light. The second, a Hunters' or Blood moon, is a throwback to hunting days, October being the best time to kill deer or livestock fattened up over the summer months.
Field mushrooms are appearing in pastures where cows wander. Little beige toadstools also coming up in circles. After they die the grass becomes more lush where they have been, hence the name fairy ring.
The hedgerow forms waves of gold and purple, with splatters of vivid red hawthorn berries and deadly nightshade crested with irresistible whiskers of old man's beard, the fluffy seed heads of wild clematis.
After a clear, dewy night, the webs of thousands of tiny money spiders glitter in the morning sun. They often stretch between two adjacent blades of grass and become visible only when the dew picks them out. The spider waits beneath then leaps up to seize a small insect that has landed on it.
Mistle thrushes are singing in the treetops for the first time since July. They sit on exposed branches, even when the wind is howling, and are sometimes known as stormcocks.
They're alreading preparing for spring, staking a claim on their territory ready for nesting as early as the beginning of February.
Aside from the holly and the ivy, signs of life are rare in the hedgerow at this time of year, but sharp-eyed nature lovers may notice hazel catkins fattening for warmer days, seven spotted ladybirds creeping along them in search of aphids and even, if the weather's good and you're very lucky, the odd badger foraging down below.