WEATHER HISTORY 

Record High: October 5th, 1979, 80 degrees F.
Record Low: October 30th, 1971, 3 degrees F.

October has an average high of 61 degrees, and an average low of 30 degrees. Average precipitation is 1.91 inches, Average snow fall 1.5 inches.

ANIMAL HAPPENINGS

Rock squirrels, chipmunks, wood rats (better known as pack rats), cottontails, wild turkeys, scrub jays, black bears, coyotes, gray foxes, porcupines, spotted skunks, deer mice, towhees, chickadees, and juncos are all eating or storing available fall berries and seeds, in preparation for the coming winter.

Moose rut (mating season) is in full swing. Interestingly, moose did not become established in Colorado until 1978, when the Colorado Division of Wildlife introduced two dozen animals into North Park. They have since also been introduced into the San Juan Mountains near Creede. Moose, except during mating season, are solitary animals, but will reduce their home range in winter and “yard up” or group up to trample down snow and make foraging easier.

Rattlesnakes are getting ready to hibernate, when multiple snakes will often pile up in one den. They can travel up to 10 miles from their foraging areas to their favored hibernation sites and may return year after year. While they may eat any small rodents who inhabit a chosen den, one scientist, exploring a rattlesnake den, found 13 rattlesnakes, four turtles, 2 skunks and a swarm of bees, all hibernating together in apparent harmony.

Cottontail rabbit populations peak this month. In good years, they can have a litter once a month from February through August. Only 15% of offspring will make it through their first winter. They are an important food source for many predators.

Ducks and geese are migrating south for the winter. Some will only move on when the lakes they are feeding on freeze over.

Elk begin migration (they do a vertical migration, dropping from 11,000 to 5-7,000 feet by late October).

PLANT HAPPENINGS

Wild
We’re at the peak of the fall color season for our deciduous trees (trees that loose their leaves in the winter). Did you know that the yellow/orange colors you see in the fall have actually been there since spring, but were masked by the green chlorophyll in the leaves? As the cool weather of fall triggers the plant to stop producing chlorophyll, the other pigments are revealed. Sometimes, as chlorophyll stops, anthocyanins start to form, producing the brilliant reds we all love. http://www.durangonaturestudies.org/articles/101004.htm for more on Fall Leaves.

Garden
If you have been covering your warm season plants at night in September, early October is the time to do your final harvests and let your garden go fallow for the winter. Harvest remaining carrots and, without washing, store in wet sand in a cool place (a plastic bin in the basement works well). They will last all winter. Also harvest and dry in a cool place any remaining onions or winter squash.

Plant garlic early in the month before the soil gets to cold to work and cover with a heavy mulch of leaves or straw. They will sprout now and then overwinter, starting to grow again in early spring.

Now is also the time to plant a green "cover crop" of annual grass and/or peas or vetch to be turned into the soil in the spring as a green manure. Visit Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply at http://www.groworganic.com/default.html and type in "Cover Crops" to learn more.

ASTRONOMICAL HAPPENINGS 

*Daylight Savings Time ends on October 29th

CELESTIAL HAPPENINGS 

October is a slim month for planet watching. Mars finally reaches conjunction and slips behind the Sun on the 23rd. By month's end, Jupiter will be difficult to view as it vanishes into the Sun's glare, as does Venus. Mercury is barely visible above the horizon, making its meeting with Venus from the 20th through the 31st challenging to view.

The Moon is so far south that, when one day old on the 23rd, it sets before the Sun; the two-day-old Moon is equally impossible to see. These are the lowest, hardest-to-see crescent Moons in 18 years. Only Saturn is easily visible, but it doesn't rise until 2:30 a.m. (Based on the Old Farmer's Almanac).

OTHER HAPPENINGS 

The Orionids meteor shower happens each year when Earth passes through the debris stream of Comet Halley. The Orionids, which originates near the constellation Orion in the South-southeast, is always best seen during the third week of October. Five to twenty five shooting stars an hour can be seen moving from south to north, with the best viewing during a chilly 2:00-4:00 am, when Earth's rotation aligns our line of sight with the direction of Earth's motion around the Sun. At midnight the radiant will be rising in the southeast, and by a.m. Orion will be high in the sky when you face due south.