The weekend has gone by with rain drumming against the window and the trees shaking their dead leaves in the moody wind, and fog being tinted orange by the streetlamps at night. The pavements are deep in beech leaves now, and puddles stretch across the roads. It's a time of great change in the woods, with finches and starlings coming down from the north, warblers leaving for the south, and mammals on the move as breeding cycles start or youngsters step out into the world away from their parents. But it's also a time when wildlife photographers are prisoners of the weather and the most unusual wild animal that I saw this weekend was actually indoors!



I'm still learning my spider ID, so, beyond that suspecting that this is an orb spider, and that it's very fat or perhaps just has a wide abdomen, I wouldn't like to speculate too much about it.

It has been a bumper autumn for spiders I took this picture when I was down on the south coast. I think it's a missing sector spider Zygiella x-notata, so-called because its webs have a thread-free section like a segment pulled out of an orange.


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The Tip Vixen has been visiting the back garden regularly; there has been no sign of her mate for a few days, but fox movement patterns are often erratic at this time of year.

So, back indoors Waiting there are several highly opinionated creatures, including Madam Inscrutable - that is, Foot, my tiny and very noisy 19-year-old cat, who has been driving me crazy with her demands for different food types this week



But at least she looks before she leaps.



Chiara just charges in whenever she sees anything that amuses her



And Leila is still very big



...and beautiful!



I am very impatient to catch up on the local foxes, though. Here's hoping for a break in the rain