Wild Georgia: October is a time for color — and hoarding
Now we have October, one of Georgia’s two most glorious months, the other being April. This is the month of great ripeness, when trees, shrubs, vines and herbaceous plants sag with fruits, berries, nuts and seeds — vital food for wildlife.
Wild fruits such as pawpaw, blackgum, devil’s walking stick and wild grapes are abundant now.
October’s colors dazzle the eye. By month’s end, mountain slopes and piedmont hillsides will be ablaze with one of nature’s greatest spectacles, the fall leaf show. Right now, though, there is much else to bedazzle us. Fields and roadsides are lit up with the bright yellows of goldenrod and wingstem, the deep purple of ironweed and the glowing reds of sumac and sourwood,
I love to wade through a field thick with goldenrod this time of year (as I did on a friend’s farm in White County the other day) and observe the array of bees, beetles, butterflies, wasps, spiders and other invertebrates that congregate there.
Many of them spend their time amongst the blooms sipping nectar. Others buzz, stalk or lie in wait to pounce on and make meals of fellow invertebrates. I watched as a yellow goldenrod spider, or crab spider, subdued a honeybee and commenced sucking the life out of it. The spider is so named because it is commonly found hunting in goldenrod sprays this time of year. And I spied more than a few preying mantises waiting patiently for their dinners to happen along.
October is the time of hoarding and gorging, when countless creatures try to put away enough food to see them through the cold months. Black bears are gorging on acorns, nuts and berries. Chipmunks are storing acorns, seeds and nuts in their burrows.
Gray squirrels are burying acorns in the ground for later retrieval. As I write this, a squirrel, mouth full of acorns, is looking at me from his perch in the big white oak just outside my window. Many of the acorns that squirrels bury will not be recovered and will sprout new oaks.
Blue jays may rival squirrels in oak regeneration. The birds also have a fondness for acorns. This time of year they may carry as many as two or three acorns at a time in their strong bills to bury for use when cold weather arrives. Like squirrels, blue jays don’t remember where they bury every acorn and thus they unwittingly plant a tree.
In the sky: The moon will be last quarter on Oct. 8, rising about midnight and setting around midday, said David Dundee, an astronomer at the Tellus Science Museum. Venus rises out of the east two hours before sunrise. It will appear near the moon the morning of Oct. 12. Mars is low in the west just after dark and sets a few hours later. Jupiter rises out of the east before dark.
