October
Days of Importance
all month
October 1 October 16 October 20-26 October 24 |
Early October
- Many of the warblers that have been flitting about are now heading south. Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, however, are arriving in some numbers, along with Yellow-rumped Warblers, which are the last warblers to leave in the fall.
- Northern Canada Geese continue to over fly the area.
- Your backyard feeders may be busier now than at any other time of the year, as residents prepare for winter, and migrants fill up for their long trips. Get out the guides and start identifying! Later, figure out how you can attract more birds to your backyard, or to a school garden, and make a plan for the spring.
- In the forest the drumming of the male Ruffed Grouse, commonly heard during the spring mating season, returns as young males establish their own territories.
- Another sign of fall: rustlings from the attic. Deer Mice are looking for a secure winter nest, and often seek out buildings, woodpecker holes or even birdhouses. Care should be taken when handling deer mice and their droppings, as they may have the Hantavirus, which can cause a serious infection in humans. Big Brown Bats may also be looking for wintering spots in older buildings.
- Cluster flies may be abundant this year. They are a bit larger than houseflies, and have fine, light hairs on their backs. At this time of year they find cracks and crannies in buildings to over-winter in, but mild temperatures may not have driven them inside yet. If they make it inside, they will buzz against south-facing windows on sunny days. Unlike House Flies, cluster flies are not interested in your food, do not develop in garbage, and are not a sign of unsanitary conditions. They are just irritating! They begin laying eggs in the soil in spring, and the larvae enter earthworms and develop inside. Wet conditions during the spring may increase the earthworm population, and thus the fly population as well. Everything is connected!! The adults eat nectar and fruit.
- The combination of bright, sunny days and cooler air temperatures can lead to basking reptiles and amphibians on logs, rocks and road surfaces. Frogs and toads are still abundant, and Eastern Garter Snakes are active. They are the last snakes to make their way to winter shelter.
- Snowy Tree Crickets will continue calling until the first heavy frost. This site has some fun with chirps! Listen to warm and cold Snowy Tree Crickets here (scroll down).
- Finally, a meteor shower that’s better in the evening than before dawn. The Draconids (scroll down) are best seen October 7-8, radiating from the head area of Draco the Dragon, in the northern Sky. This shower most often produces only a handful of meteors per hour, but occasionally throws out many more. Unfortunately, the full moon my interfere.
Mid-October
- According to the fall colour reports, we’re well along in many parts of the provinces. Get out and observe what’s happening to the leaves in your schoolyard (see Featured Process from Early October). Trees that are stubbornly green may be non-native, and still tied to the day-length patterns of their native bioregions (e.g. Norway Maple, Common Buckthorn).
- Northern Saw-whet Owls are migrating through the area, and we got to help band these small owls as part of a research study at Trent University to find out more about habitat use and migration patterns. Fine netting is set up at night in a diamond pattern, with a tape recorder playing owl calls in the middle. Nets are checked every half-hour, and any birds untangled, weighed, measured and banded. One bird banded at our site near Bobcaygeon turned up in Port Hope, 60 km south, only 2.5 hours later. The little guy averaged 24 km/hr.! Other interesting individuals were ones that came from distant locations such as Wisconsin, Manitoba, Virginia and Thunder Bay.
- Common Goldeneye and Bufflehead Ducks, Rough-legged Hawks and even Golden Eagles are arriving, while Turkey Vultures, Cooper’s Hawks and Eastern Meadowlarks are leaving. Yellow-rumped Warblers, however, are still flitting around our trees.
- Our hummingbird feeder hasn’t gone down any more, so our Ruby-throated male, who guarded the thing passionately all summer, has also taken his leave. You can track the hummingbird migration on the Journey North website.
- Right now, you may still hear some buzzing, though – mosquitoes of the genus Culex are still somewhat active. These mosquitoes overwinter as adults, and need a blood meal to get them through the winter. Any donors out there?
- Something invisible, but quite remarkable and important, is going on in our lakes right now. As the surface water cools, it approaches the temperature of the deeper water. These two water bodies, kept separate since spring by their temperature differences, can now mix in what’s called the fall turnover (seen here in the context of the annual cycle of a temperate lake), which brings oxygen to the depths and nutrients to the shallows. Turnover will continue until ice over, when no more oxygen will be available until spring melt.
- The Orionid meteor shower will peak before dawn (why do these things always seem to peak before dawn?) October 21st, so you might want to plan an early morning viewing party for that day. Meteors will come flying out of Orion’s club at a rate of up to 15-20 per hour, and there will be no moonlight to crash your party. Look to the southeast or south, depending on time of night. The meteors are debris fromHalley’s Comet , left behind in its orbit, which crosses Earth’s in October. If its cloudy, or your alarm did not go off, try again on the 22nd.
Late October
- Other arriving waterbirds include Buffleheads, Common Goldeneyeand Hooded Mergansers. Departing are those White-crowned Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows that so recently moved in, as well as Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles (a bird in decline across N. America), although the latter two quit using our feeder weeks ago
- Golden Eagle 42 a young male Golden Eagle, was found injured in Minnesota late fall of 2008, rehabilitated, banded and outfitted with a satellite transmitter in, March of 2009. Since then we watched his fall migrations through Canada to Wisconsin, as well as his summer wanderings in Northern Quebec, Nunavut, Labrador and Newfoundland. “Whitey” either died or dropped his radio in the fall of 2011, but Golden Eagles 45, 46 and 53 were currently active in 2013, and you can track their travels as well.
- Porcupines are beginning to mate, if you can imagine what that must be like. Fortunately for the male, the underside of the female’s tail does not have quills. The male also does an elaborate dance for the female, and sprays urine on her head. Why this doesn’t make her very angry is beyond me. This also means that porcupines are a bit more active and wandering. If they’re on the roads, their instinct is not to run, so take care at night.
- Lake Trout are spawning over shallow rubble shoals in lakes when temperatures drop to around 10ºC. Ask anglers about any possible locations in your area. You can often spot them spawning at night using a high-powered flashlight. In Algonquin Provincial Park onOpeongo Lake, researchers (at times with volunteers) have been tagging, and now sonically tagging, Lake Trout in order to estimate population size, survival rates, spatial distribution, tag loss, and fishing pressure, and to improve monitoring technologies. Lake Trout are actually not trout, but a char.
- OMNR&F’s Kids’ Fish Art Contest currently features Bowfin and Splake. Learn about and draw one or both of these fishes and win great prizes!
- You can still find some wasps (which you may have seen a lot of this summer), flies and ladybird beetles on sun-warmed building sides. But frosts have begun - keep your ears tuned for the silence that means the end of most insect activity.
- Monarch Butterflies should have begun to cross into Mexico (as of this writing, they were stacked up in southern Kansas awaiting a cold front) on their journey to their highland sanctuary, flying as high as 3350 m/11,000 ft. in search of favourable winds. This year, far lower numbers are expected than normal, due to both recent and longer-term impacts.
- Those Heath Asters should be finishing up, ending the wildflower season for another year (but not all blooming – stay tuned).
- Don’t forget about the Orionid meteor shower peaking on the 21st (see Mid October).