The colours of late autumn

Paul Gunn (TCV Natural Communities Trainee) went along to the Butterfly Conservation work day at Wester Moss yesterday. He noticed that many of the trees at Fallin Bing still had some leaves on them, especially the birch. There was a wide variety of colours present from orange to red to yellow. 

Some of the trees still have leaves on and are a variety of colours! (c) Paul Gunn

Paul noticed that there were even some flowers still out including Oxeye daisy, Ragwort and Creeping buttercup! Most of the pollinating insects will be hibernating or would have died with the start of the cold weather. Some will still be active on dry days when it can be quite warm with the sun out and these flowers will provide these pollinators with a vital food source. It certainly hasn’t been warm and dry for a few days though so I think many insects will be in hiding. 

An Oxeye daisy still in flower at Fallin Bing (c) Paul Gunn

A guest blog was written about the All Our Stories project at Fallin Bing for Readwave, check it out here: http://www.readwave.com/fallin-bing-from-coalfield-to-brownfield_s16446