It's been a beautiful autumn so far. The question is, has it finished now?
Yesterday, picking crab apples for jelly, I found the distinctive caterpillar of the Grey Dagger moth, Acronicta psi, walking up my trousers. Everywhere is still green, although one conker tree behind my house does look very autumnal. Sadly, this is not because of the season, but because of the horse chestnut leaf miner moth, whose tiny caterpillars can be seen between the ribs of any leaf held up to the light. There must be hundreds of thousands in each mature tree. Speckled Woods and dozens of small brown dragonflies were on the wing at Ynys-hir on Saturday, along with a few late swallows moving through.
But tonight, Wednesday, it is raining and the temperature has dropped. The forecast says it's going to be considerably colder for the rest of the week. And today Gary found the first brambling of winter under the feeders at the Coed y Capel hide.
Graham