Autumn
Less people tend to record signs of autumn and unfortunately historical records are few and far between.
We tend to get more excited about nature waking after winter than heading into it.....
But thanks to Autumnwatch and the growing numbers of people recording nature's calendar, we've got more and more records coming in, making our scientific studies more accurate.
Reports
autumn 2007
autumn 2006
autumn 2005
autumn 2004
autumn 2003
2001 was exceptionally warm in the UK and across Europe and we were treated to wonderful leaf colour displays lasting much longer than normal right through into November. There were plenty of records of late butterflies too.
The dates of many phenological events returned to more ‘typical’ levels after the exceptional autumn of 2001...
2002 was a different story with cooler October temperatures and a lack of rainfall in September having the opposite effect. Warm August and September weather meant that fruit ripening occurred early. For many species fruit ripening was the earliest amongst recent years, for example rowan on 26 August was six days earlier than 2001. However, October weather didn’t match that experienced in 2001 and leaf colouring and fall returned to more ‘typical ‘ dates
2003 The dominant feature of late summer and early autumn in 2003, was lack of rainfall. This produced some interesting records, with first tint on trees occurring on average 8 days earlier than in 2002. Indeed records for first leaf-tint dates were being received as early as late July, particularly for more shallow rooted species such as silver birch.
Late colours
Keats' 'Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness' should begin on September 1 according to Victorian meterologists but today leaves are not developing their golden autumnal hues until the end of the month.
Oak leaves are generally not now falling until the end of October, a week later than 30 years ago. In 2001 oak leaves were still on the trees in late November thanks to the warmest October on record. In some milder parts of the UK people are reporting that their grass is growing all year round, and conditions permitting, that there is no let up from mowing the lawn.
Reluctant migrants
Migrant birds such as tree pipits, reed warblers and swallows, which fly off to warmer climes are enjoying the balmy autumn weather and delaying their departure from the UK. Some, such as blackcap and chiffchaff are remaining all winter through because of the very mild temperatures.
The swift shows a rather unique adaptation to problems of cold spells during the breeding season. The young nestlings can go into a state of torpor, slowing their metabolism right down, during cold spells and when food is scarce. When the weather then improves they resume normal growth. This results in fledging from the nest being delayed in cold summers. So late departure of swifts tends to be a response to that summer’s poor weather, rather than as a response to a delayed autumn. In a normal year the young will leave the nest at the end of July/ early August and migrate soon after, in cool years swifts can often still be seen in September.
Early signs of spring
Winter, when it does arrive, is becoming shorter and increasingly frost-free. Candlemas bells will no longer be an appropriate colloquial name for snowdrops. Rather than flowering around this festival on 2 February, they have been seen as early as November. The cheerful yellow heads of primroses are appearing in December, accompanied by the singing of the song thrush. Click here to view our live maps to see what is happening this autumn.
With spring arriving earlier and earlier and the autumn period lengthening, winter is being foreshortened at both ends. The UKPN records first and last lawn cutting dates as a measure of the length of the growing season. A significant number of people are now cutting their grass all year round as milder winter temperatures enable the grass to continue growing throughout the winter. To find out more, Tim Sparks (with Phil Croxton and Nick Collinson) took 20 years of lawn cutting data provided by ‘closet phenologist’ Mr Grisenthwaite and the resulting paper was published in Weather 2005 (vol 60 Number 5 ,pages 121-125) and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the Royal Meteorological Society
Greener grass
See also