Wild Words from the Ground - September

Welcome to our blogs featuring the photos and sightings of wildlife in the garden (and outreach sites like Chattowood, the Meanwhile Garden and for the first time the Albert Roundabout) by our staff, whether in the office, shop, tea-room, nursery or garden. The images are curated and commented upon by Dr Chris Gibson, our Wildlife Advocate.

While the photos are not always of the highest quality – our staff are busy doing their main jobs! – they give a real feel of life in the garden, something we are very keen to encourage, as indeed was Beth.

Autumn is here. Late September sun can be quite warm, almost summery, like it is as I write this, but the longer nights are turning perceptibly cooler. And that does not go unnoticed by nature: the leaves of many of our trees are assuming the tints of autumn, leaves are starting to fall, and animals out there are preparing for winter.

For many, those preparations are all about feeding. Frogs are moving out of the ponds, on the hunt for slugs and other invertebrates. Ben C photographed this one doing its job in the nursery, and Malin found the hatchling having just emerged from the ponds. This is good news: we have successful breeding despite losses from disease and predation by ducks, fish and grass snakes. It is a good thing that frogspawn contains so many eggs! And talking of the ponds, Matt reported the electric-blue flash of a Kingfisher through the garden: this is the typical time of year we see them, post-breeding dispersal from breeding sites rather than hard weather movement triggered by freezing.

Spiders are another group of important predators, helping to bring about balance in a healthy garden, and many overwinter (especially the often larger females), sometimes for several years. One of the larger and most obvious species, making large orb-webs that can be especially obvious in autumn when they are bedecked with dewdrops, is the Garden Cross Spider (cross because of the abdominal markings, not its attitude!), here photographed by Malin, Rob and David (on the Albert Roundabout). The latter does beg questions, such as how did it get there? Such a busy roundabout is not a favourable habitat for a wandering arachnid. But spiderlings can ‘fly’, or float (called ballooning) on silken threads; or perhaps it came in on the plants we planted there?

A much-maligned spider is the Noble False Widow, as snapped by Mandy. Yes, it can bite us, but so can several other spiders, and for most people the effect is no worse than a wasp sting, although as with any bites or stings there are some who react badly, and those people generally know to take precautionary avoidance measures. The mania surrounding this species is all down to the fact that it resembles the ‘true’ widow spiders which are much more potent, but are NOT found in this country.

Beetles are one of the most numerous groups of insect life, and they have a correspondingly huge variety of lifestyles. In our context, the most important are the predators. We all know about ladybirds munching aphids, but there are many others. The Devil’s Coach Horse found by Ned shows its unnerving habit of curling over its rear end menacingly when it feels threatened; if this bravado fails, it can take further steps by spraying noxious chemicals from one end and/or biting with the other. In the garden they prey upon slugs, spiders, woodlice and other slower invertebrates, as well as eating carrion. Ground beetles take a similar range of prey, and the larger species such as Violet Ground Beetle (here found by Pete and Kirsten) are especially valuable to us in for example keeping our hostas relatively intact.

While some insects double up as predators and carrion-feeders, for example, others may have even more varied diets, sometimes at different times of their life cycle. Social wasps and Hornets are a fine example: eating nectar as adults, supplemented with jam, beer, the juices of rotting fruit, carrion and live-caught prey, but taking primarily soft-bodies larval insects to their offspring. Solitary wasps too, although in some cases their larval food is adult insects: the Bee-wolf photographed in the Meanwhile Garden by David, as its name suggests, provisions its nests with stung bees.

But herbivores too are also busy at work chomping, aiming to get enough food to complete their development or just to survive the winter. Angela spotted this lovely creature, looking superficially like a Mullein Moth larva. In fact it is not even a moth or butterfly caterpillar but that of a sawfly, confusingly a type of wasp. Many sawflies have caterpillar-like larvae, but they differ from those of moths and butterflies by having five (not four) pairs of prolegs (the fleshy legs at the back end). Kirsten found the lovely caterpillar of an Oak Eggar moth, an early-stage specimen which looks very unlike the hairy giants they become as they approach the completion of their larval life. And the confusion doesn’t stop there: despite its name it eats the leaves of Bramble, Sallow and Hawthorn especially.

Kirsten also provided this month’s moth: an Angle Shades. Although it can be found throughout the summer, this is especially abundant in autumn, benefiting from the protective camouflage of its green/brown colouring and pleated, crinkle-cut wings resembling dead leaves. Several butterflies have similar protective resemblance to dead leaves, particularly those that overwinter in the adult stage, like Rob’s Red Admiral, in typical resting posture, not showing its upperside colours to any great extent.

And finally for this month, just feast your eyes on Ben F’s picture of a Peacock. Another overwintering species, they could be around for a month or two yet, emerging in March, but you are unlikely to see a better picture of one to help you through the doldrums of winter!

For a different perspective on the last month, see my personal blog from mid-September:

The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: autumn plenty | Chris Gibson Wildlife

Although the equinox is now behind us, and the night is longer than the day, the gardens will be continuing to provide wildlife interest throughout next month. To witness leaves changing colour and fluttering to the ground is to see the start of the Great Renewal, the recycling of summer’s bounty into the resources that will feed next year. Another reason to keep on visiting us!