OCTOBER IN SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA FARMLAND

      October is a beautiful, unique month in southeastern Pennsylvania farmland, as it is across much of the northern hemisphere.  Here it is full of the beauties of orange pumpkins lying in fields, brightly-colored, deciduous leaves, lovely wild flowers, nuts, berries and seeds, migrating birds and wooly caterpillars crossing rural roads in search of sheltering places to spend the winter.

     In October, certain trees and vines, including staghorn sumac trees, sassafras trees, poison ivy vines and Virginia creeper vines, have strikingly red, yellow and orange leaves that help beautify roadsides and certain, abandoned fields in local farmland.  The vines climb trees and fences to reach sunlight, causing their beautifully colored leaves to be more visible in fall.

     Goldenrod with their many clusters of tiny, yellow flowers on tall stems and a kind of aster with many lovely, pale-purple blooms help make country roadsides and fields prettier through October.  And those abundant, omnipresent plants' attractive blossoms provide a last big source of nectar and pollen for a variety of bees and other kinds of insects, adding to the intrigue of farmland in October.  

     Certain kinds of trees, vines and other types of plants produce nuts, berries and seeds that add to the beauty and bounty of October in farmland.  White oak trees, pin oak trees, black walnut trees and a couple kinds of hickory trees growing in bottomland pastures, where the soil is always moist, produce nuts that gray squirrels and white-footed mice gnaw open to consume the meat inside.  White-tailed deer eat many acorns and blue jays ingest pin oak acorns and store many of them in soil and tree cavities for use in winter.  The blue feathers of the jays and the warm colors of pin oak leaves emphasize each others' beauties while the jays harvest pin oak acorns one at a time and fly away with each one firmly gripped in each jay's beak.   

     Poison ivy, tearthumb and Virginia creeper vines, pokeweed, and multiflora rose, barberry and Tartarian honeysuckle shrubs produce berries that add beauty to farmland hedgerows and roadsides.  Tearthumb berries are pale blue while those of poke and creepers are dark-purple.  And the berries of rose, barberry and honeysuckle are red and quite visibly attractive.  All these berries are eaten by rodents and a variety of wintering birds, including starlings, American robins, eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings and other species, all of which add their beauties and intrigues to local farmland.  

     The seeds of "weeds" and tall grasses are another part of the bounty of October, into winter.  Those seeds feed mice and a variety of seed-eating birds, including white-throated sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, horned larks and other kinds through winter.

     Through the years, I've seen several kinds of migrating birds passing over southeastern Pennsylvania farmland in October.  I've seen single great blue herons, northern harriers and bald eagles flying and soaring over local cropland in a southerly direction.  Occasionally, I have spotted a peregrine falcon perched on a roadside pole in farmland.  I knew they were migrants resting on those poles and watching for pigeons, doves or starlings to catch and eat before continuing their migrations.

     Sometimes, I've spotted a flock of migrant golden plovers on a short-grass meadow or a plowed field where they rest and consume invertebrates before going on to South America to escape the northern winter.  

     All the above beauties and happenings make human-made farmland more appealing to people during October, making that month, like all months, unique.  October is a lovely, exciting month when we get out and look for nature's beauties and intrigues.