As the days lengthen and the leaves fall from the trees, there's no escaping it, autumn is here. 

And with the arrival of autumn, it's time to reap the rewards of seeds sown in spring. 

Earlier in the year we sent our Family Members a pack of pumpkin seeds, hopefully these have grown into healthy plants yielding hefty orange fruit in plenty of time for Halloween! If not there's always the supermarket. 

In a couple of weeks time we'll also be sending our family members a special Halloween pack to help you make the most of your pumpkin and the autumn festivities. If that mean's you, be sure to keep an eye out for the post man.

To get you in the mood for this holiday. Here's a selection of Halloween inspired nature pictures from our online archive RSPB-Images:

This is the Shaggy Ink-cap mushroom, certainly the goth of the fungi world. Just look at that hair do! The drips are actually thousands of spores, each one with the potential to grow a new mushroom. 

This ghost like visage belongs to the Dead-man's Fingers anemone, found lurking on the ocean floor around the UK coast.  

Grave yards at night can too spooky for the bravest of us, but seeing old gravestones in the light can reveal beautiful lichens. Some live for hundreds of years. 

The grey long-eared bat is one of the UKs rarest bat species, with only a few thousand in the whole UK. Bats tend to be thought of as scary but this guy is undeniably cute. The big ears are almost as long as its body.

This great crested newt is in perfect colours for Halloween, but they're designed to send the message 'don't eat me I taste gross!'. If a witch pops by during the evening they might ask for eye of newt...

...or toe of frog. But some chewy sweets or chocolate bars will go down better with most trick-or-treaters.

Frogs and newts may still be active for now, but they will be scoping places to snuggle up for the long cold winter.

Why not give them a home?