AS we move into October and the weather starts to turn we often start to think about getting out our warmer winter clothing.

Animals out on the nature reserve will also be making preparations for winter.

Many of our common summer birds have already left for sunny climes such as areas of north Africa.

Those who have not been gifted with such a wonderful skill of flight have made other arrangements.

Smaller creatures such as insects and other invertebrates have evolved their lifestyles around the chill of winter by ensuring they hide out the worst of the winter as either an egg or a pupa.

Larger animals like foxes and badgers, who plan to stay active for the winter period, will also be making preparations by eating large quantities of the abundant autumn fruits and nuts.

They may also create caches of food that they unearth in leaner times.

Other animals such as mice, voles, shrews, frogs and toads opt to spend the winter asleep in a state of hibernation.

One such animal that this month will be busily making preparations out on the marshland nature reserves ready to enter into hibernation for the colder months is the slow worm.

These wonderful animals are rarely seen as they are most active at night where they move almost effortlessly through the marsh vegetation seeking out their favourite food of slugs.

It is possible to catch a glimpse of them on nights where there is a full moon and particularly at this time of year as the marsh vegetation is not so vigorous.

They can sometimes be seen when their silvery skins catch the moonlight and make them almost look like ghostly serpents that slip away into the marshland vegetation.

Despite looking like snakes, slow worms are, in fact, legless lizards and are more closely related to crocodiles than snakes.

Despite these rather fearsome relatives, slow worms are totally harmless and even do us some good by being one of the few creatures that eat slugs.

Unfortunately you would have thought this would have made the slow worm the gardener's friend but many are killed out of ignorance by gardeners or poisoned by eating slugs which have, in turn, been poisoned by eating slug pellets.

Others are mauled and killed by family pets.

So please give a thought to the poor old slow worms and help them by trying to leave alone any place you discover them during the day and, if they are in your garden, use an alternative method to poisonous pellets to control your slugs.