AUTUMN has arrived in all her glory and with Halloween on the way spooky spiders and swooping bats are the order of the day. At this time of year your garden – and even sometimes your house – provide vital habitats for all sorts of wonderful creatures.
October is a superb month for spiders. Larger-than-life house spiders can be found throughout the year but are often found scurrying around in bathtubs throughout the autumn months. Houses provide warmth and shelter and prove an irresistible lure for many a wandering eight-legged creature in search of a mate.
Another arachnid to keep an eye out for is the garden spider, easily recognised by the mottled brown markings on its back, with a series of white dots forming a cross. Garden spiders rarely venture inside houses and are often found guarding their webs that daintily adorn a hedge or shrub, ready to catch any passing insects.
Another creature partial to insects is the bat. Come October most bats are busy looking for suitable hibernation sites. Having found a suitable site, they will continue to busily build up their fat reserves – an average common pipistrelle bat can eat as many as 3,000 insects in one night. Gradually, they lengthen the time they sleep before hibernating throughout the winter.
?The other winged creature on the Halloween list is the crow. Carrion crows are members of the corvid family, a highly intelligent group of birds, known for their hoarding capabilities. During October, both jays and magpies (cousins of the crow) will hoard foodstuffs for later retrieval in times of food shortage or harsh winter weather.
?Fungi make a tasty snack for a whole host of different wildlife and October is prime fungi season. Most mushrooms and toadstools are found in wooded areas or grassland but many can occur much closer to home and may be found in your own back garden. Fungi vary in shape, size and colour; some are safe to eat others are not, so unless you know what you are doing, it is advisable to leave them well alone.
?Now that autumn is well and truly here why not get your garden ready for spring and plant up your garden borders? Opt for a good selection of herbaceous shrubs and perennials as well as an assortment of spring bulbs, such as tulips and daffodils, for a splash of colour.
If you have any tall roses, now is a good time to prune these plants back. Doing so will promote healthy growth next season.
If you have a pond, there is no harm in clearing the leaf litter from it but resist the temptation to discard or move the debris too far away as it may provide shelter for a whole host of creatures. Don’t forget to provide some natural food for your garden birds and leave seed heads to overwinter. Thistles and teasels, for example, are highly favoured by many birds, such as goldfinches.
Now is also the time to start thinking about providing cosy homes for the feathered friends which visit your garden. Many birds, keen to find shelter over the winter, will readily set up home and roost if provided with nest boxes.
It’s recommended that old nests are removed in the autumn once the breeding season is over and there’s no chance of disturbing previous occupants. The nests of most birds harbour fleas and parasites which remain to infest young birds that hatch the following year unless the box is cleaned with boiling water.
Once the box is clean and dry, a handful of hay or wood shavings can be inserted into the box to keep it snug for roosting birds or small mammals.
:: For more tips on giving wildlife a home in your garden, visit www.rspb.org.uk/homes.
