Halloween began with Samhain, the ancient Celtic celebration of the mid point of autumn. On this night, All Hallow’s Even, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead are obscured.  All sorts of unholy beings roam the earth and commit mischief on homes, crops and live stock.  With Halloween the dark season begins.

Indeed we are entering the season of darkness.  From now until winter’s mid point, approximately Groundhog Day, night dominates the days.  During the dark season the sun comes late, sets early and travels close to the horizon.  The days are cold, frosty, frozen.  The morning condensation takes long to dissipate or melt.  Green, the color of life, succumbs to browns. Signs of life are scarce.  Hazy, dismal skies are without joy or hope.   

Animals neither grow nor reproduce.  Instead they struggle to survive another day.  Many do not.  It is the imperative of the northern hemisphere that no plant nor animal can ignore.  Prepare for the dark season -- or perish.

We are fortunate to live in a time and a place where we can step back from nature and observe the dark season.

Explore the sudden openness of the forest.  Look for bird and squirrel nests, cocoons, the latest, hardiest wildflowers.  Take in the fragrances of autumn; hickory smoke, burning leaves, fermenting fruit, sweet decaying ferns.  Crack open a hickory nut.  Watch the last reds of the oak leaves dissipate into the autumn gray.  Rustle your feet through the fallen leaves as you walk across a forest floor the color of an Irish Setter.  Dance along to the rhythm of the crunchy ground.  Listen to distant sounds on crisp evening walks.  With luck you’ll hear an owl hoot or whinny.

Drink some cider.  Bake a pie.  Don’t let the dark season get to your soul.

Anticipate Indian Summer, a period of mild, clear weather that occurs after the leaves have fallen and frost has killed off all the non-woody plants.  But don’t wait.  Get out now.  Too soon the comforts and pleasures of fall will be winter memories.

Feel the cold.  Draw pictures on a frosted window.  Watch silky milkweed parachutes drift on a breeze.

It’s time for the capsules of Asiatic Bittersweet to split and reveal the orange fruit inside.  Look for rattle-like seed pods on Bladdernut bushes and the sausage-like pods on Catalpa trees.  

As the dark season moves steadily down from the frigid north, waterfowl move south.  Listen for the braying of Tundra Swans as they pass overhead.  Expect the swans after a cold front during the first or second week of November.

Look for stray Snow Geese mixed in flocks of Canada Geese, especially around Pymatuning.  These migrants from Arctic Canada are unusual in western Pennsylvania, but common east of the Allegheny Front.  They have two color forms; the Snow Goose, all white with black primaries and the Blue Goose, a gray bird with a white neck and head.  Rarely a Ross’ Goose, a smaller version of the Snow Goose, will turn up in western Pennsylvania. 

Joan and I spotted eleven Snow Geese and two Ross’ Geese grazing in the Miller Pond area of Pymatuning on October 24.

It’s a good time to visit Presque Isle, Pymatuning, Yellow Creek and Lake Arthur.  The highland lakes around Laurel and Chestnut Ridges are also excellent places to observe waterfowl and other water birds. Don’t forget Pittsburgh’s three rivers. 

Moraine State Park is a great place, but not the only place, to look for Common Loons.  Other water birds that pass through the region early in November are Red-throated Loons, Double-crested Cormorants and Horned Grebes.  American Bitterns may be lurking in swamps and marshes.

Be aware that observers are spotting Sandhill Cranes in western PA with increasing frequency.

Along the ridges on the eastern edge of our region hawk migration continues.  In November look for lingering Golden Eagles, Northern Goshawks and a stream of Red-tails riding the north winds.  Will this be a good year for Rough-legged Hawks?  Check Pymatuning and reclaimed strip mines for these tundra breeders.

Wild Turkey flocks and roosts will grow as winter approaches.

Hummingbirds in November?  Keep your feeders up and your hummingbird flowers blooming as long as you can.  In late autumn Rufous Hummingbirds and other western strays show up in eastern North America.

Keep an eye out for Common Snipe in muddy ditches and along the edges of ponds.  How long will the Killdeer hang around?

Songbirds are still migrating.   Expect Fox Sparrows, Yellow-rumped Warblers, both species of kinglets, Winter Wrens, Rusty Blackbirds and Brown Creepers.  Look for individual songbirds that hang around when others of their species have gone south.  In November you might find Gray Catbirds, Blue-headed Vireo, Eastern Phoebe or Tree Swallow.  Some Hermit Thrushes hang around for the Christmas Bird Counts.

Keep an eye out for American Pipits and Horned Larks, especially in newly plowed or manured fields.  Look for Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs.  American Tree Sparrows are always a joy.

At dusk watch for huge flocks of European Starlings congregating in the bridges around Pittsburgh.  American Robins and grackles are also forming huge roosts.  Red-wings and other blackbirds gather in cattail stands for the night. 

Will Black-capped Chickadees move down from the northern forest this winter?  If you live or bird in southwestern Pennsylvania be aware that there may be northern Black-caps mixed in with the resident Carolina-type Chickadees.  These birds are larger, longer tailed and have a lower, slower call than Carolina Chickadees.  Look for hooked white line, a “hockey stick”, on Black-cap’s wings.

Other irruptive species reported in southwestern PA so far this season are White-winged Crossbills and Pine Siskins.  The first Short-eared Owls usually arrive in time for Halloween.  Some years large winter roosts of Short-ears and Northern Harriers gather in Strip Mines and open fields.  Check grassy areas for tell-tale runways and tunnels through clumps of grass.  There’s a correlation between Meadow Vole populations and the number of winter raptors.

Chipmunks are busily caching acorns and other winter stores.  During the dark season woodchucks are hard to find.  White-tailed Deer began their rut in October.  Black Bears are getting fat.  Skunks, opossum and Raccoons are getting restless.  Jumping Mice are already hibernating.  There will be very few sightings of resident bats but keep an eye out for migrating Red Bats and Hoary Bats.

Sightings of fox and coyote increase as the landscape opens.

The flight of most butterflies is over for the winter although we may still observe sulphurs, whites and Mourning Cloaks.  After dark Winter Moths visit the spidery blooms of With Hazel.  Look for the last Chinese Mantids, and as the leaves drop from the goldenrods in old fields, look for their egg cases on stems. 

Dogwood shrubs and willows are good places for Cecropia Moth cocoons.  Promethea Moth pupae are wrapped in silken sacks that hang from many species of trees and shrubs

Which are the toughest wildflowers?  Keep a list of flowers that boom in November.  You still might find Queen Anne’s Lace, dandelion, Creeping Wood Sorrel, Common Evening Primrose, Common Groundsel, Canada Thistle, several aster species, Witch Hazel and Winter Cress.  Some asters continue well after the frost.  Will any flowers make it to December?

Fear not the dark season.  Accept its challenge; embrace its pleasures.  Fight the depression that comes from gloomy days and endless nights. 

Me?  I finally learned from the birds.  I go south with the ducks, grebes and cormorants.  I will publish my next phenological update in mid November, from the coast of central Florida.

*Kate St. John includes a summary of my phenology in her fine blog, Outside My Window.