Yesterday the National Trust’s specialist on nature and wildlife, Matthew Oates, wrote a piece about the mild autumn weather and the impact it has having on plants and animals. It is worth a read – you can see it here.
In ‘normal’ years spring flowers flower in the spring but on a quick walk around Parke yesterday I found wild strawberries flowering along with hogweed, dandelion, hawkbit, scarlet pimpernel, Herb Robert, prickly sow thistle and euphorbias.
The pansies outside Home Farm Cafe are still in full bloom
I even found this chrysomelid leaf beetle out and about. By mid November you would expect that the frosts would have killed the insects off or would have driven them into shelter to hibernate for the autumn and winter
The Avenue of beech trees is still full of colour too but as I write Storm Barney is imminent. It is still very mild though – I am in a short sleeved shirt and haven’t got the heating on, but after today and Barney’s winds I suspect most of the leaves will have been blown off the trees. The Met Office are also forecasting much colder weather at the weekend. We might be finally heading towards winter – we will see.
A Dartmoor blog 