Autumn bushcraft
Autumn wildlife bundle
September and October are a good time for bushcraft. There are still leaves on the trees, and animals are still active before the winter. Plus after the first heavy rains, the woodland floor comes alive with the colourful fruiting bodies of fungi. We’ve chosen 3 WildID guides featuring mammals tracks and signs, woodland trees, flowers and fungi and a guide to stars and planets in the night sky.
Mammal tracks and signs guide
Brand new for autumn 2023, Mammal tracks and signs shows the clues left by the wild and domesticated mammals of Britain and Ireland. Many mammals are shy, making them difficult to see. But the signs that mammals leave, like tracks, droppings and feeding marks, can tell us a lot about which species are present. If you have never tried tracking before, the key thing is to just get out there and start looking. Areas of mud or sand are particularly worth investigating.
Woodlands guide
Woodlands: Trees, flowers and fungi fold-out guide features 61 tree, flowers, ferns and fungi of UK woodlands. Mushrooms and toadstalls are most common after the first autumn storms and before the first frosts of winter. You can spot these fungi by looking at dead logs and fallen leaves. Also check old tree stumps. From Amethyst Deceiver to Stinkhorn, the woodland floor a great place to hunt. Of course, not all fungi look like mushrooms. Some common woodland species grow as brackets on dead wood, such as Turkeytail and Birch Polypore.
Night sky guide
A guide to the stars of spring, summer, autumn and winter, plus planets, stars and constellations. This guide tells you how to find your way around the night sky, plus how to identify some of the planets, stars and constellations. Maps of the main features pick out the main constellations for each season. You don’t need a telescope to study the objects in the sky. Instead ordinary binoculars will show you a great deal. As well as using them to identify the planets, they will show you stars and other objects that are invisible to the naked eye. Co-created with the Society for Popular Astronomy.
