Total monthly rainfall: 134.5 millimetres. Maximum daily rainfall:  16 millimetres (18^th and 19^th). This high rainfall total went some way towards restoring water-levels in the lake, but had little effect on pond levels. There were 16 days when cloud-cover was 100% during the day. Maximum temperature was 17°C on October 1^st, but only 10°C on the 31^st, and on the 18^th, 19^th, and from the 22^nd to 26^th winds were strong enough to bring down many small woodland trees – especially those suffering grey squirrel damage to their bark.

With no new sightings of wildflower species this month, the story now is of last sightings and still on-site. We saw our last birds-foot trefoil on October 3^rd; last yarrow on the 5^th; knapweed on the 6^th; water-mint on the 7^th, and yellow water-lily on the 8^th. These were followed by the last red clover on the 18^th; white water-lily on the 19^th; plus common fleabane and rough hawkbit on the 29^th. Wildflowers in bloom and still on-site on October 31^st were: dandelion, red and white deadnettle, feverfew, nipplewort, sow-thistle, daisy, herb-Robert, oxeye daisy, scentless mayweed, and Canadian fleabane.

• Holly berries ripe Holly berries ripe
• Parasol mushroom Parasol mushroom
• Speckled wood butterfly Speckled wood butterfly
• Willow emerald egg-laying scars on willow Willow emerald egg-laying scars on willow
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There were no new first-sightings of butterflies either. With the generally cold, wet, windy and cloudy weather also, our most frequent diary comment was “unsuitable weather for insects”. We last spotted a small white butterfly on the 9^th, a speckled wood on the 10^th, a large white on the 14^th, a comma on the 18^th - maybe rather early for a last sighting. However, the peacock was still here on the 30^th, and red admiral on the 31^st. Also on the 31^st, we re-located four large white butterfly caterpillars from brussels sprouts to garden shrubs. We did manage three first-sightings among an equally small number of moths. In the woodland we came across an almost certain November moth on the 18^th. On the same evening we found a winter moth attracted to light in the bathroom; while on the 31^st we spotted a slow-flying pale moth in the woodland, which we believe to be a Pale November moth.

Dragonflies too are down to small numbers. We lost the white-legged damselfly on October 1^st –-but that was a new last-sighting record for our site, and the first October sighting we have achieved. The ruddy darter lasted until the 17^th; southern hawker until the 19^th, and the migrant hawker until the 28^th. We still had the willow emerald damselfly and the common darter on the 31^st.

There was much more interesting wild-bird activity this month. On the 4^th five house martins swooped around our lake feeding on crane-flies and other insects before leaving on their winter migration. Over 50 Canada geese announced their arrival with noisy honking on the 22^nd, and on the 24^th we found a pair of cormorants searching for a fish dinner. These left when they saw our dogs – unlike the heron, which lurks patiently among the rushes, and blends in with the scenery. Finally, we spotted a goldcrest along the woodland ride on the 29^th.

The extraordinary rainfall brought forth a succession of fungi from the 8^th onwards, starting with 15 parasol mushrooms on the 8^th, which became 169 by the 17^th. By October 9^th we had common funnel and fairy-ring champignon, while on the 12^th we found Noddy’s toadstool (fly agaric), and birch polypore.

Changes to autumn colours this month have been varied and prolonged. Beech leaves started to turn yellow on the 1^st, while bright red holly berries were ripe by the 5^th. Silver birch leaves had a yellow tint by the 10^th. A poplar (tinted last month) was bare by the 20^th, while some hornbeam were tinted orange by the 22^nd. Frost on the 28^th caused leaves to fall steadily throughout the wood thereafter; elder was bare next day, and maple leaves turned orange by the 31^st.