What To Look For In November
Spider month. Earthstars, spleenworts and ferns. And are we in for a Waxwing winter?
Prepare yourself, arachnophobes: we have spiders this month. The reasons they appear in your bath or running across the living room carpet in November are not necessarily because it’s getting so cold outside, as you’ll learn.
Less scarily, we also have the possible first signs of a Waxwing winter, some more weird and wonderful fungi, and the rise of urban ferns.
Thanks to Sorby Natural History Society, the RSPB Sheffield Group and Sheffield Bird Study Group for their help with this post, and a special mention to photographers Roger Butterfield, Chris Kelly, Gerry Firkins and Peter Garrity for another set of brilliant photos.
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Cellar Spider
A smallish spider with legs up to two inches long, the Cellar Spider is also known as the Cobweb Spider or confusingly, the Daddy Long Legs Spider. (Despite having no relationship with the species of crane fly or harvest spiders also known as the Daddy Long Legs).
Cellar Spiders are often responsible for the wispy spider webs in the corner of your ceiling and wall, where they trap insects and other spiders. You sometimes see them vibrating in their web, either to confuse predators or catch prey.
This spider arrived in southern England from warmer climates, possibly in traveller’s bags, in the nineteenth century and has made our homes its home - it tends to stay inside as our winters are too cold for it. There were few records of the Cellar Spider in Sheffield until around ten years ago, perhaps another sign of how species are adapting to a changing climate.
Earthstar
This bizarre looking fungus can be seen just now poking out of layers of fallen leaves, particularly near Beech trees. When Earthstars first appear they look rather like eyes watching you from the forest floor, then they develop a whiteish star shape, before crumbling into a darker grey.
The fungi’s spores lurk in the central eye, and then puff out in a cloud when the Earthstar is battered by November raindrops.
Wall Ferns
Wall ferns can be seen all over the city growing from damp stone walls in gardens or gennels, having adapted to urban life from their original homes on cliffs and rocks and cave walls.
They tend to stand out at this time of year, when other plants die down. Local species with splendid names to look for include Hart's-tongue, Maidenhair Spleenwort, Polypody, and the rarer Rustyback.
Loved by Victorian botanists, wall ferns were collected and grown in fashionable indoor glass cases following an experiment in 1833 when British wall ferns were successfully transported in closely sealed glass cases all the way to Australia.
These ferns spread via tiny spores, and need damp to grow, so can be kept alive under glass where they effectively water themselves through transpiration. A wet Sheffield November seems to suit them quite well too.
Waxwing Winter?
The Waxwings have arrived - just in Crosspool at present, but some bird watchers are saying we may be in for a Waxwing winter, when hundreds of the gaudy orange Scandinavians arrive to eat our berries. (The last Waxwing winter was in 2016/17).
The birds (more properly called Bohemian Waxwings) usually live in northern forests, but every few years, often when weather affects their local food supplies, they head across the North Sea, usually to Scotland at first. This year flocks of several hundred have been seen north of the border. They then spread south over the winter, and the gang in Crosspool may be the first of many.
Watch out for sightings at the Sheffield Bird Study Group recent sightings page, or follow them nationally on their own Twitter / X feed.
They like Rowan and Hawthorn berries in particular, and I’m told they go for the yellow and pink ones first, and then the red ones, and occasionally eat so many they get a bit tipsy. (They generally eat insects back home in northern Europe).
They also take Pyracantha and Cotoneaster from gardens, and from supermarket and office car parks, so if we do get flocks this year, expect to see dozens of birdwatchers and their cameras congregating at Asda and Meadowhall Retail Park.
Black Spleenwort
Black Spleenwort, another of the wall ferns, was once a scarce plant in the Sheffield area, but over the last 30 years it has become much more widespread and abundant, appearing on garden and industrials walls, even around the railway station.
The reason for Black Spleenwort's recovery is not clear. There are theories it’s doing well due to the decline in sulphur dioxide emissions, or the disappearance of the industrial soot that once coated many of the city's walls. Milder winters may also be a contributory factor, says photographer and naturalist Roger Butterfield.
Botanist Gerry Firkins says it has boomed locally over the last 12 years, and he’s found it in three separate sites within 50 yards of his house, whereas in 1986 there were only three sightings across the whole of Sheffield.
“The expansion is really remarkable and the plant is one of the winners in the climate catastrophe,” he observes.
House Spiders
The huge beast you see scuttling across the living room carpet at this time of year is a House Spider, or maybe a Giant House Spider. There are several domestic spider species that look similar, among the Tegenaria and Eratigena varieties of arachnids, and the story used to go that they invaded our houses in October and November because they didn’t like cold weather.
It seems the real reason we see them just now is that the males in particular are desperately seeking out females, since this time of year is House Spider mating season. (And yes, occasionally the male then gets eaten by the female, but quite often the smaller-bodied male is quick about it, and makes a swift getaway).
The giant version (and its legs) can be 12cm long, but although House Spiders can bite, the venom is not usually poisonous enough to hurt a human. When you find one in the bath, it probably hasn’t crawled up through the plughole, more likely it fell from the ceiling and can’t get out.
Spider lovers say leave a towel on the bath side so they can crawl out, and since they eat lots of other household pests, we should love our spiders. Even if they are three inches wide and run two feet in a second.
The Herald of Winter
Fungi hunter Chris Kelly has set her colleagues (and us) a challenge to find this wood wax mushroom just now. Its colours don’t help, as it hides on forest floors under dark pine trees. The Herald of Winter changes over the season, but is generally pretty slimy looking.
For some, its appearance in November is the end of the traditional mushroom season. This mushroom tells us that winter is coming.
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Thanks for another great article. I will try the towel trick next time a find a house spider in the bath.
The cellar spiders in our house hang upside down. Is this usual too?