10 of my favourite pictures taken in October 2021
1. Starlings and Goldfinch in the garden
3. One of my favourite birds the Kingfisher at Lymington, Hampshire
4. Amethyst deceiver mushroom at Denny Wood in the New Forest
5. View at Leaden Hall in the New Forest
6. Slow worm near Leaden Hall in the New Forest
7. Shaggy ink cap on the green out the front
9. Jackdaw seen from my room, Hampshire
10. Flower at Upton, Poole in Dorset taken yesterday
And so we reach the end of another month, and my final post like this of 2021. The premise of these posts are that I bring together some of my favourite photos I’ve taken over the month together in a Tumblr photoset. The number of pictures in the set corresponds to the number of the month, so at the end of June it is six pictures, at the end of July seven and so on. So I finish in October with ten the maximum number for a photoset. These posts I have been doing for a few years have become a handy place for me to reflect on the month in writing too. I have tended to do a cheeky ten photo post for January since ten has the number one in it. But next year I am thinking of doing these posts for February, March and April as I enjoy that reflection and picking photos for it. In the past I have considered that picking two, three or four pictures from the month to be a bit too selective and I might deliberate quite a bit. But I think nowadays I can do it quite casually. I find I tend to reflect on the month in a similar way in these posts so it’s good way to track the journey through a year seeing which months of mine were dominated by birds and which months butterflies and others and this will depend on the time of year and things. I probably won’t do these types of posts in November and December though as in those months the amount of extra posts to my usual what I saw and where I went today ramps up with my end of year posts across my social media and largely on here. Due to getting everything ready to post, things I see and do in December won’t be included in the end of year posts but I will signpost anything in daily posts that were a key moment or major highlight of my year. There is also the option of doing a monthly reflection for either month in a daily blog.
So this was another amazing month of birdwatching for me, with so many wonderful species seen in the throws of migration as the clock ticks towards winter. It has been lovely seeing lots of special species come back to our shores and some before leaving too of a great variety with a touch of twitching at times this month too seeing my fourth new bird of 2021 the wonderful Western Sandpiper at Lymington and others. There was a pleasing injection of additions to my bird year list this month I am really thrilled with the amount of birds I have seen this year. I’ve seen many of my favourite birds locally on the Lakeside lunch time walks such as Kingfisher, Great Crested Grebe with Jays a key bird of any autumn seen by me so often at different places this month.
Autumnal sights and photo subjects took centre stage this month especially breathtaking colour taking over trees and the marvellous world of fungi from amethyst deceiver to shaggy ink cap I am having one of my best years of seeing mushrooms again I think getting more interested in them all the time.
Whilst maybe not as prominent as past months butterflies, moths, dragonflies, flowers and spiders were present for me this month getting some top moments with them and for the insects and flowers it was great to make the most of them as the peak season comes to an end. There were some great mammal and other wildlife moments this month too. There were also some top bits of fine weather in October, it was a good month for doing day trips and really appreciate being outside. I enjoyed taking in many landscapes at different places taking yet again a huge amount of photos this month. I hope you all have a great November.
