TRADITIONAL signs of autumn have been creeping into summer for several years now and the Woodland Trust, the woodland conservation charty, and the BBC need your help to look for them.

Blackberrries, known as brambles in parts of the UK, have always been a late summer/autumn fruit.

But now, like many wild fruits, they are ripening earlier and earlier.

In fact, for the past two years, there have been ripe blackberries in time for the Wimbledon tennis championships.

The hunt for summer blackberries is all part of Autumnwatch, which will record how climate change is affecting nature’s autumn calendar with the results shown on BBC 2 later this year.

Jill Attenborough, of the Woodland Trust, said: “Ripe blackberries are just one early sign of autumn that we are asking people to look for.

“Look out also for swifts leaving for their long flight south to Africa and the ripe hawthorn berrries.

“Later on we will want to hear about ripe conkers, flowering ivy and the first autumn colours on oak trees.

“Climate change is affecting autumn as well as spring: brambles are flowering earlier in the spring which means that blackberries, the fruits, are ripening earlier and earlier.

“This is something that could potentially have a devastating effect on the animals that rely on stored energy from the fruit to help them hibernate later on.

“At the other end of the season, autumn colours are coming later (provided there is enough rain) as the warm weather allows them to stay green for longer”

The UK Phenology Network, run by the Woodland Trust and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, has 300 years of spring records but, traditionally, people have not been so keen to record signs of autumn.

However, members of the public can now help build the most complete picture of the season as it unfolds across the UK.

Scientists will then have a better understanding as to how autumn is changing and what needs to be done to help wildlife thrive.

* To join in the biggest ever hunt for signs of autumn go to www.bbc.co.uk/autumnwatch or call 0800 083 7497 to log your sightings.