Hello Autumn
Tomorrow morning, at around 1.05am, the astronomical autumn begins (at the time of writing this)
The autumn equinox.
A point in the year when day and night are roughly equal, and from here onwards the nights gradually begin to take the upper hand.
Although, if I’m honest, I think nature has been quietly preparing for autumn for a little while already.
You can see it in the changing colours.
Hear it in the rustling leaves.
Feel it in those cooler mornings.
And spot it in all sorts of little places if you stop and have a proper look.
For someone doing a daily nature photograph, autumn is a pretty special time of year.
There is so much going on.
The colours are coming
The obvious one, of course, is the changing colour of the leaves.
We aren’t quite at the full-on explosion of reds, oranges and golds yet, but you can see the first signs appearing.
A single yellow leaf amongst a sea of green.
A splash of red creeping into a hedge.
The first fallen leaves gathering along a path.
It won’t be long before the landscape starts changing almost daily.
And I love that.
You can walk the same route several times in a week and suddenly notice something completely different.
Fungi start making an appearance
Autumn and fungi seem to go hand in hand.
Some appear almost overnight.
Some are tiny and easily missed.
Some are anything but tiny.
And some, like our annual beefsteak fungus, seem to have become regular characters in my daily photography challenge.
They are brilliant reminders that there is a whole world going on at ground level that is very easy to walk past.
The insects haven’t finished yet
Autumn doesn’t mean everything suddenly disappears.
There are still bees working the late flowers.
Wasps are still busy.
Spiders are everywhere.
And on a sunny day there can still be plenty of insect life to discover.
Our ivy hedge has been a particularly good example recently, absolutely buzzing with bees making the most of the flowers.
It’s easy to think of autumn as nature winding down, but perhaps it’s more accurate to think of it as nature changing gear.
And then there are the mornings
One of my favourite things about this time of year is the changing light.
The sun is lower.
The mornings have a different feel.
The shadows are longer.
And occasionally you get that beautiful soft autumn light that makes even a very ordinary scene look rather special.
Of course, whether I’m actually awake early enough to appreciate all of this is another matter…
A new season to keep looking
Four years into my daily nature photography challenge, I’ve become increasingly aware of just how much changes through the year.
The same paths.
The same trees.
The same hedges.
But never quite the same view.
That’s probably one of the reasons I still enjoy taking a photograph every day.
There is always something changing.
Sometimes it’s obvious.
Sometimes you need to look a little harder.
And sometimes, like today’s photograph, you don’t need to go anywhere at all.
So hello autumn.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you bring us over the next few months.
More fungi.
More colour.
More wildlife.
More misty mornings.
More fallen leaves.
And, no doubt, quite a few photographs of things I’ve never noticed before.
Time to put the walking shoes on and see what’s waiting out there.