The month was mostly warm, humid and wet, with above average temperatures.  Some nights were almost balmy and on Guy Fawkes Night, on the 5th of November it registered fifteen degrees whilst damp and rainy.

My memories of bonfire night as a child recall painfully cold hands holding sparklers. Not any more. Other weather fronts appeared briefly and took us into a few bitterly cold nights and frosts and plenty of wet weather.  It was, as the MET described, ‘very variable’. Storm Claudia hit Britain in the middle of the month and battered South Wales to Lincolnshire but as the radar maps from the MET show, it completely bypassed Cornwall, just a  bit of contact near the Tamar area.

Plenty of activity still present in the bird world with some interesting newcomers. As I have mentioned before, I am not always convinced by the veracity of the Merlin bird identification App, occasionally it throws a random name into the ring, as in ‘A Red Throated Loon’ and I can’t see any reason one of them would turn up on a windy sloping field in November, given that they are usually found around Shetland and Orkney and other Scottish coastal areas. Other names mentioned were more likely visitors; the Meadow Pipit, a Firecrest, a Kingfisher and a Grey Wagtail all lurking among the ususal cast of Robins, Jackdaws, Dunnocks, Stonechats and the ever loyal Chaffinch family.

In the field the brief spell of high winds took its toll on the leaves of the trees and down they fell, covering the ground with plenty of material for future Leafmould. The Chestnuts were the only ones left with leaves blowing in a horizontal fashion on the trees.  Two nights of frost finally did for the Nasturtiums, they went from robust, verdant and vigorous growth to limp and lifeless, wilting into the ground. It marked the end of bright colours in the field. The frost, however did not see off the new Hogweed sprouting up in various corners of the field, it looked a bit lonesome but it kept on growing thoughout the month with good displays of white flowers.  Mushrooms had a good show and were out in force, particularly in the early part of the month, they flourished in the warm damp conditions. The few that I managed to identify were the obvious ones; Field Mushrooms, Sulpher Tuft and Puffballs.  I’ve yet to get hold of that illusive book I promised to buy on Fungi Identification and so my knowledge remains very limited in this area.  Put it on the list!

The world of politics has been invading our lives with the Planning and Infrasture Bill dragging its way through parliament. Whilst journeying through the Lords, several amendments were added to stop developments destroying protected wildlife and wild places.  How have we got to this place? And of course the MPs voted the amendments down and in doing so the government has broken its manifesto promise to protect the natural world. Clearly they have all bought into the ridiculous mantra of growth versus nature.  As the saying goes – it looks like the inmates are now running the asylum.