18th October, 1999

During the past week, the transition from summer to autumn has brought with it a number of interesting things to see andRipening seed pods of yellow flag iris. 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 Seed pods of yellow flag iris.and seems to be more attractive to the hares than nearby fields, which are either smaller in size or are sloping.

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 hedgerowOpen seed pod of yellow flag iris. 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.

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.