What’s going on ? Nature looks different !

Based on a photo by:  Olga Filonenko

In Regent’s Park in London there are fallen leaves strewn all over the grass. The shades of brown, red and yellow catch the eye and certainly add beauty we can admire. But as the leaves continue to fall and accumulate on paths, lawns and flowerbeds they leave behind trees with branches that look so bare.

What’s going on?

Also on the grass, some sort of wild mushroom or toadstool has formed small clumps with brownish caps glistening in the morning dew. Someone has kicked a lot of these fungi over. Perhaps they thought the mushrooms were poisonous and it makes good sense to never eat wild fungi unless you are absolutely sure of your identification.

Photo by: Let Ideas Compete

What’s going on?

Another fungus species is sprouting around an old tree stump by a shrub border. These toadstools were not there earlier in the year. It looks like the natural world is undergoing a lot of change and in a very visible way.

But flowers are still blooming in the borders and a colourful small tortoiseshell and a red admiral butterfly can be seen on the Michaelmas daisies, as well as drone flies and hover flies that look very similar to bees and wasps. All these pollinating insects are busy searching for nectar and taking advantage of the sunlight.

Photo by: Xenja Santarelli

What’s going on?

The sunshine is still warm but not as hot as it was last month, and when it gets cloudy and early in the morning there is a definite chill in the air.
And it is not just in London in the UK because in Central Park in New York over in America, it is a very similar picture. Leaves are falling from the bushes and trees.

Photo by: Jen Goellnitz

Something is happening that is changing how the world of nature is showing up in our parks and gardens.
It must be autumn already!