Autumn on the wildlife allotment

The year has gone really quickly, summer is just a dream now and winter is coming. But so far we did not have any prolonged cold weather here. We had some very early frosts in September which blackened the Dahlias but surprisingly did not do much to the Cosmos which were still standing in October.

There were quite a lot of lovely warm days, a reminiscence of summer. Many perennials kept on flowering well into late autumn such as the autumn asters and Bidens heterophyllum. Others which had suffered in the heatwave started to flower again such as Astrantia major. But autumn was still quite dry and the few rainy days did not do much to relieve the drought.

Dahlia merckii flowering on the allotment

Dahlia merckii, Verbena bonariensis and seed heads of Echinacea purpurea

Kniphofia 'Mango Popsicle'

Aster pyrenaeus 'Lutetia' flowering in September

The allotment on a sunny morning in September

On cold and sunny mornings I liked to get up early to photograph the seed heads and grasses on the allotment which looked beautiful covered in dew. I especially love the grass Eragrostis elliottii which has a lightness and airiness, not found in many other grasses.

The cloud-like seed heads of Eragrostis elliottii look beautiful on a cold morning in autumn

Calamagrostis brachytricha, also called Diamond grass, sparkling in the early morning sunshine

Spiders like the seed heads of Inula magnificum and Veronicastrum virginicum

Bees were quite active until October, especially the Common carder bumblebee (Bombus pascuorum) was quite abundant.  I have even seen a solitary bee, the Ashy Mining Bee (Andrena cineraria), which normally has just one generation which is active in spring. You normally don`t see it in late autumn. But this year there were several bees flying around on my allotment, visiting flowers. They must have been confused by the weird weather we had this year.

Common carder bumblebee on a Berkheya purpurea flower

Another Common carder bee visiting a Cosmos flower

A Drone fly (a  type of hoverfly) drinking nectar from aster flowers

I was very surprised to find some Ashy mining bees on my allotment in October

I was glad the allotment hedgehog survived the summer heatwave, partly probably thanks to the ponds on my allotment which offered much needed fresh water. The foxes were frequently seen as well, always looking busy. For a long time I had not seen the little wood mice which used to live on my allotment and I already feared that the cats might have finished them off. But luckily they are alive and well, happily residing in one of my compost heaps.

Here is a little video of some of he nocturnal wildlife on my allotment including the hedgehog, a little wood mouse and foxes:

Below are some more pictures from the allotment:

Seed heads and grasses

Cosmos is still flowering in October

Seed heads of Echinacea purpurea, Verbena hastata, Alliums and grasses

Panicum virgatum, also called switchgrass, looks very pretty in autumn

Bidens heterophyllum is still flowering in October

Annual Coreopsis with the grass Hakonechloa macra in the background

Kniphofia caulescens flowering in September

Aster flower (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii) covered in dew

Astrantia major started flowering again in September and is looking very pretty after a frosty night