After the daily outings of week one for the remainder of October I was back at work, so things became a bit harder for doing #WildOctober.

It’s not so much the getting outside that’s hard – there is a small park near work and I try to go for a walk around it every lunchtime. The struggle is finding interesting things to photograph. For the last few years this park has had a lot of wild flowers, brambles, fungi and lots of insects and I’ve taken quite a few photos there in the past. I’m not sure what happened this year, maybe it was the wet and mild weather of last winter, but that wide array of nature was almost entirely missing. During the week I would therefore be mostly looking for things in and around the garden at home in the evenings.

This didn’t get off to a great start with a wet and gloomy Monday meaning that the already darker evening was even darker than usual, but there’s always something out there to see and as the week went on the weather improved.

A macro shot of some soggy moss from the garden.

The structure of an autumn coloured cherry leaf, revealed in the fading evening light.

A brown-lipped groove snail, hunkered down under the shelter of my porch.

A garden spider on its web in one of my windows, against the fading evening light.

Veins and undulations in an autumnal golden brown chestnut leaf.

The weekend weather forecast was for a mixture of sunny spells and heavy showers, so I decided to stay home and spend some time in the garden in daylight. Autumn crocuses were still well in flower and on the Saturday I noticed the bright pink berries on my Spindleberry tree were opening up to reveal the even brighter orange seeds inside. Sunday saw rain in the morning followed by sunshine, which brought out the fruiting bodies of some delicate pleated inkcap mushrooms in the lawn.

More autumn crocuses flowering in the garden.

Spindleberry berries opening up in the garden.

Overhead view of a Pleated Inkcap mushroom.

Pleated Inkcap mushroom sprouting from the lawn.

As the fading evening light became more of a problem, I’d decided to break out my lights. I have a pair of Manfrotto Lumimuse 6 LED lights which I’d already used for the chestnut leaf photo on the Friday. During the next week they got a lot more use, with the chestnut, daisy and even the feather (which looks like it was taken in the sun) below all being taken using one of these lights for extra illumination.

Tiny moss forests growing on the surface of a rock in the garden.

Chestnut prickles and autumn leaf colours.

White flowers of Mexican fleabane standing out in the garden as the light fades.

Another tiny toadstool from the garden, growing amongst the grass. I think this is a galerina, possible graminea – the Turf Bell.

A feather in amongst the grass of the garden lawn.

The third weekend of October saw nice sunny weather on Saturday, which brought out the common carder bees to the still flowering crocuses and really lit up the yellowing ash leaves against the blue sky.

Carder bees still about, feeding on the autumn crocuses.

Bright yellow autumn colour of ash leaves contrasting nicely against the blue sky.

As the Sunday was also forecast to be dry, albeit with some overcast spells, I decided to head over to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes. The weather mostly held out giving a nice warm day, although it did get surprisingly cold on the few occasions when the sun was obscured by cloud. There was a lot to see: tufted ducks, cormorants and swans out on the lakes, common darter dragonflies still hunting along the hedges and the autumn colours starting to come through in the leaves. There were also an unexpectedly high number of harlequin ladybird exuviae around where the adults had emerged, although I didn’t actually see many adults around.

A tufted duck out on one of the lakes. Photos from a trip to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes nature reserve.

Osier willow leaves changing colour as autumn gets underway. Photos from a trip to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes nature reserve.

A ladybird exuvia (the shell left behind when a larve transforms into an adult) on a hawthorn leaf. Photos from a trip to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes nature reserve.

Dandelion seeds ready to be whisked off by the breeze. Photos from a trip to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes nature reserve.

Common darter dragonfly taking in the morning sun amongst the autumn colours. Photos from a trip to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes nature reserve.

Bright autumn leaves in the sun. I think this is a small-leaved lime tree. Photos from a trip to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes nature reserve.

The path around the reserve, bathed in the warm autumn sunlight. Photos from a trip to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes nature reserve.

A magnificent Cormorant flying over Moore Lake. Photos from a trip to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes nature reserve.

A mute swan stretching it’s wings, in Moore Lake. Photos from a trip to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes nature reserve.

The bright translucent berries of a Guelder rose. Despite the common name this isn’t a rose at all, but actually a species of viburnum. Photos from a trip to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes nature reserve.

Monday and Tuesday of the final week of October I was out in the garden with my lights in the evening again. On the Wednesday and Thursday I got some unexpected (and unwelcome) assistance with the weekday photos: due to illness I was at home during the day so was able to take a couple of photos in slightly better light. I say slightly better because although it was daytime the week was very overcast so it was still quite dark. By Friday it was so dark in the evening that I gathered some leaves, acorns and knopper galls together and had to use entirely artificial light for the photo.

French cranesbill, geranium endressii, still providing pollen and nectar in the garden.

A solitary oxeye daisy, still stubbornly flowering despite the cold in the garden.

The red acer in my garden getting brighter as the leaves take on their richer autumn colours.

A dandelion setting seed in my lawn, many potential new plants floating away on the breeze.

Knobby knopper galls on acorns from the oak tree next to the garden.

A cold and overcast Saturday in the garden on this final weekend, so much so that the morning dew was still on the lawn at lunchtime! I also noticed that one of my honeysuckle’s was now covered in small black berries.

Dew drops still on the garden lawn in the early afternoon, it’s been a damp day.

Japanese Honeysuckle berries in the garden.

For the last Sunday of #WildOctober I decided to go somewhere new again, so I headed off to Wakerley Great Wood for a walk around the Deer Park Trail. This is the longest of the waymarked trails around the wood, although there can be longer walks if you plan one out yourself. It was another cold and grey day but the autumn colour in the trees and berries was brightening everything up quite nicely. There were a LOT of squirrels around, running up and down the trees and around the woodland floor.

A pair of toadstools growing on an old treestump. Photos from a trip to Wakerley Great Wood.

A grey squirrel making off with an acorn. Photos from a trip to Wakerley Great Wood.

Leaf covered woodland footpath winging through the trees. Photos from a trip to Wakerley Great Wood.

Another leafy path through the autumnal woodland. Photos from a trip to Wakerley Great Wood.

Bright red berries creating a vivid splash of colour on a vine in the trees. Photos from a trip to Wakerley Great Wood.

One of a small cluster of little white mushrooms, growing next to the path. Photos from a trip to Wakerley Great Wood.

A tiny bit of green left at the end of a browning bracken frond. Photos from a trip to Wakerley Great Wood.

Autumn leaves and empty nut cases on a beech tree. Photos from a trip to Wakerley Great Wood.

And so we come to the last day of October. With the now quite dark evenings I decided to get up earlier than normal and have a hunt around the garden in the morning light before heading off work. I found a small number of these fungi growing on one of my slowly rotting log piles, they seemed like an appropriate way to end a series of autumn photos.

Gills of a fully open and partially nibbled toadstool in the garden.

However October wasn’t quite done yet!

I hadn’t thought anymore about the harlequin ladybird exuviae I’d seen at Fen Drayton Lakes, although the numbers were high it’s not unusual to see them at this time of year as the larvae turn into adults and then go off to find somewhere to overwinter.

However during lunchtime walks over the following week I’d also seen an unusual number of adult harlequin ladybirds flying around or gathering together in large numbers. I still didn’t really think much more about it until a member of the Countryfile magazine team mentioned that they’d seen the same thing happening, which then sparked a lot more people to mention that they’d seen them as well.

Over the next week or so similar reports started coming in from all over the country, with the unusually high number of adults gathering together in houses, sheds, etc, to overwinter, with the reports peaking over the final weekend in October. There were so many it ended up becoming a national news story!

BBC News: We’re being invaded – by ladybirds.

And with that final burst of nature, #WildOctober was over. For 2016 at least!