The rains, high winds and flooding of recent weeks have brought misery and economic disaster to many businesses, farmers and individuals in and around the Downs.

Many farmers have lost animals, with livestock swept away by the rivers bursting their banks. Field after field can be seen waterlogged with crops rotting where they stand. In numerous places the surface water has gouged out large gullies forcing eroded soil out on to roads and clogging ditches and filling drains.

The severe weather has also affected the local wildlife, many smaller animals like mice, voles and shrews will have been drowned, or, at the very least, made homeless. Many of the last softer fruited berries like the blackberry, a valuable food source for the smaller mammals, are now lying rotting on the ground. Many insects will be affected by the wet conditions making life difficult for the shrews, hedgehogs and moles, whose main food source is insects.
Birds and other animals are forced to find food during the dry intervals between these prolonged spells of bad weather, this makes them easy

Sweet chestnuts

prey for foxes, stoats and birds of prey like the kestrel and tawny owl. Such weather will affect the whole balance of nature on the Downs; for if the population of the smaller animals decreases the predators find less prey to hunt and may face starvation too.

Haw berries

On a more optimistic note there are many fruits and nuts still to be found and gathered like the Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) which is popular roasted or eaten raw. In the woods many Grey Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) can be seen gathering them. Also the berries of the Hawthorn (Cratageus monogyna) can be found in the hedgerows, these are known as "haws" and are a good source of food for the smaller birds and mammals.

Beech Leaves

The leaves are changing colour and in some cases, such as poplar trees, nearly all the leaves have already fallen. As the month progresses most of the leaves will fall but in the meantime the vivid orange, red and yellow colours of the leaves will bring their own majesty to the landscape.

Many of the small birds give up their personal territories at this time of year and group together into large flocks and roam the countryside until the spring. The Robin (Erithacus rubecula) and the Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) however remain and can be heard singing, reminding us that we are in their territory.

Bucks prepare to do battle

During this month you can look out for Fallow deer (Dama dama) on the downs. From the end of October and into November the male Fallow Deer known as a "buck" can be heard bellowing. They can also be seen fighting other bucks over the female deer. Whichever buck wins the fight earns the right to mate with one or more females. This time of the year is known as the fallow deer's "rutting season".

Next month winter migrants and Mistletoe.