18th October, 1999 During the past week, the transition from summer to
autumn has brought with it a number of interesting things to see and The weekend saw the arrival of the first groups of
fieldfares and redwings in the area. I thought I saw a group of these as I was driving
along a lane near Ackworth on the 16th and my thoughts were confirmed when I walked the
grounds early today. I found blackbirds and redwings moving along a hedgerow The illustrations on this page are of some large seed pods taken from some yellow flag irises which grow in a shallow stone pond at the end of the main teaching block. The pond is almost completely overgrown by the irises.
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hear.
One welcome sight, several days ago, was of three brown hares chasing each other around in
a field of winter wheat. The farmer may not have been too pleased if he had seen them
feeding there but hares are not particularly numerous nowadays and it is encouraging to
see that there are, still, some around. The spot where I saw these three is in the field
where I usually see hares in winter time. The field is large and fairly flat 
and seems to be more attractive to the hares than nearby fields, which are
either smaller in size or are sloping.
which contains large, old hawthorns, which are laden
with berries at the moment. The shrill whistles of the redwings were easy to identify when
I first encountered the birds and I then heard the 'chacking' sounds of fieldfares, which
I then spotted flying overhead.