This October and its fall foliage were not as spectacular here as in some prior years. That said, the month was a remarkable one. The month’s early clouds and light were special, even though, during the first two weeks, Apples, Beach Rose Hips, and Winterberry fruit hung on for dear life.
Eventually, the leaves began turning in earnest on trees and bushes.
The wild Low-Bush Blueberry leaves were stunning in their fields that slowly became raspberry red. The Viburnum bushes also were especially vibrant this year, producing their full range of colors — from blazing red to purple.
By mid-month, the Goldenrod had turned fuzzy gray, the Cinnamon Fern was turning gold, and the red fruits of invasive Asian Bittersweet were emerging from their yellow husks. Some of the trees also had dropped most of their leaves by then, including the Camperdown Elm in Brooklin Cemetery and many old wild apple trees.
But, the Chrysanthemums were at their prime and truckloads of them were arriving to decorate Fall porches.
On the waterfront, we had our share of whitecap days, but the big activity involved our fishing vessels ending their lobster season and taking in their traps and buoys. Many of the vessels will get refitted for scallop dredging during the winter.
Although there was some recreational sailboat activity in October, many of the boats were in storage by then and some of them never left storage to sail this summer due to the Covid 19 plague.
Those of our Sea Gulls that intend to migrate south usually start in October. We hosted m,any sandpipers on their way south, including the Greater Yellowlegs Sandpiper below. Our White-Tailed Deer don’t migrate — they grow dark and deep winter coats and stay put.
By the end of the month, the sunsets were starting to get dramatic, as usual. The low sunlight in winter produces yellow, pink, red and occasional greenish sunsets. Of course, the last evening in the month is Halloween, which was historic this year.
The reason that Halloween was historic this year had to do with the moon: We had two full moons this October and one of them was on Halloween. Below, you see the first one, the Harvest Moon on October 3:
It’s unusual to have a full moon on Halloween and even more unusual for that moon to be the second full moon in the month, making it a “Blue Moon.” Yet, we had one last night. That October Hunters’ Moon also was a “Micro Moon,” meaning that it was unusually far away — the opposite of a “Super Moon,” which is unusually close. Below, we see it rising over Acadia National Park and sending its glitterpath over Blue Hill Bay.
Now that we think about it, maybe October was spectacular.
(All images above were taken in Down East Maine in October of 2020.)