Autumn looks like bringing a bountiful harvest of wildlife food with plenty of nuts and berries.
After a sweltering summer, trees and bushes are straining under the weight of fruits and nuts.
I hadn't seen a jay for nearly two months but now these pink, white, black and blue conspicuous corvids are everywhere hoovering up fallen acorns.
Early indications are that it could be the first 'mast year' since 2020 when large numbers of nuts and berries produced in woodlands and gardens provided abundant food for birds and mammals.
The berry bounty is evident at Chislehurst Commons where efforts of conservators and volunteers have again been recognised by a Green Flag Award For Nature.
Judges make a formal visit to assess all aspects of management against a range of criteria including value to the community, maintenance of footpaths and habitats, and litter collection.
The award recognises dedication and hard work by many people, especially a weekly working party guided by head keeper Jonathan and assistant keeper Toby who tackle a huge variety of tasks each month to ensure the commons remain at Green Flag Award standard.
This is the eighth successive year that the Chislehurst Common team's efforts have been recognised by a Green Flag Award. Their entry was sponsored by idverde UK, London Borough of Bromley contractors for parks and open spaces.
This hard graft has paid biodiversity dividends.
During a recent bug hunt across the commons, two species were seen for the first time at Chislehurst: birch catkin bug and 24-spot ladybird.
Now I wasn't aware so many different ladybirds existed in Britain but it seems we have 53 separate species including the common two-spot and seven-spot varieties plus 4, 5, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 22 and 24 spots.
Nine of these species have been recorded at Chislehurst.
Most are welcome for their habit of feeding on the gardener's enemy the aphid but one recent addition to the British list is definitely not !
The harlequin ladybird which first appeared in Britain in 2004 is a killer, preying on other ladybirds and causing considerable damage.
Look out for black-spotted orange or orange spotted black bodied ladybirds gathering on windowsills or other sheltered places at this time of year.
Known as Halloween bugs, they provide no treats but just nasty tricks. They can give you a nasty nip, damage carpets and curtains and squirt foul-smelling liquid.
Bexley Borough's Crossness Nature reserve has also recently had new bug visitors, the firebug (pyrrhocoris) and the ichneumon wasp.
The firebug is a rare insect on the northern edge of its known range and was traditionally restricted to Devon, but it has spread with sightings from Surrey, Essex, Sussex, Kent, Suffolk and Bedfordshire possibly the result of introductions.
The ichneumon wasp has a nasty habit of injecting its eggs into hawkmoth caterpillars which are then eaten alive by the emerging grubs.
Seems those costumed ghosts and ghouls are not the only horrors to beware of at Halloween!
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