A few days ago in the Botanic Garden, at the Copper Beech near the Hills Road entrance, I saw two Red Admiral butterflies flying about faster than I ever thought butterflies could fly. The jinked and flew like little maniacs. It was not until one landed on the gravel path that I could tell what they were.
It happened that I had stopped and turned around to look at the Copper Beech because on the way in I noticed it had lost its copper colour. It is still warm in mid November, and the leaves on the tree still had life in them, they had just lost their copper colour.
The beech is in shade on the north side and in full sun on the south side and I have noticed before that the red and purple of the leaves only happens on the side that catches the sun. Now, in the middle of November, all the leaves were more or less the same colour – greenish yellow.