October's forests are ablaze with color in Cleveland Metroparks. Autumn, picking up momentum since August, suddenly surrenders to the first inklings of winter. Vibrant colors burst upon the landscape for a few days and then are gone. One morning this month you are likely to awaken to find the earth covered with a crisp white sheet of frost, marking the end of the biological year for many insects and some plants too.

October is thought by some to be a month of endings. As leaves fall and crisp autumn air turns cold, another winter beckons. In Cleveland Metroparks, however, October will be a month of new beginnings. Familiar waterfowl return to refuges and deer, hidden by summers' foliage, are seen again. One species' end is another's beginning.

Birds-

Chickadees at feeders now wear sharp new winter feather coats.

The fall migration continues with yellow-rumped warblers becoming common in the Rocky River Valley. The first of the golden-crowned kinglets, residents of Canada's boreal forests, also begin to appear.

Mammals-

Ever wary of winter, portly skunks intently prowl open grassy fields in search of their fall diet of insect larvae. They grow rounder as the month passes and will be in winter sleep by late November.

Wildflower-

Most asters are at their peak of blooming this week and will quickly decline after mid-month.

Jewelweed is in seed. Touch the cigar-shaped green seed pods and find out why they're called "touch-me-nots!"

Birds-

Wood ducks begin their migration southward in earnest. Many begin to appear this week at Lake Isaac and Sunset Pond. A few will stay the winter but most migrate farther south.

Ruby-crowned kinglets follow in their golden-crowned relatives' migration paths this week.

The peak of the invasion of the white-throated sparrows should occur this week. They scamper through the underbrush in small flocks looking for insects and seeds, making a great deal of noise for such small birds.

Trees-

The peak of fall color arrives this week, generally between the 10th and 20th of the month. Due to local variations in climate and moisture, different parts of Cleveland Metroparks may offer views of peak color at different times.

Birds-

The first of the wintering black ducks are now at Lake Isaac in Big Creek Reservation. Other earlier arrivals have passed on to the south, but these birds will stay for most of the winter in small, reclusive flocks.

Ducks appearing on Cleveland Metroparks ponds with long, pointed bills are mergansers, sometimes called "fish ducks". They may gather off the Lake Erie shoreline in rafts numbering in the thousands.

Mammals-

Woodchucks wax fat on the last of the green grasses. Some are seen feeding far into the night, preparing for their long hibernation to come. They will disappear into their wintering forest burrows by late November.

Insects-

Crickets may still call on warm autumn nights before the first hard frost.

Wildflowers-

New England aster and small white aster, the last of the autumn wildflowers, should be at their peak of bloom by now. They will quickly decline and leave the meadows a gentle brown haze of stems and seeds.

Reptiles-

Small and gentle DeKay's snakes can often be found sunning themselves along Cleveland Metroparks trails this week as they prepare for a long winter hibernation.

Birds-

Whistling (now called tundra) swans begin to appear throughout Cleveland Metroparks as winter begins in the far north.

Red-bellied and downy woodpeckers return to feeders as cooler weather approaches.

Mammals-

Deer begin their fall breeding season in the meadows of the Cleveland Metroparks, which will last until January. If you see a female deer, stand quietly and watch for a buck to follow in her tracks.

Wildflowers-

Milkweed pods open and fill the air with their fluffy parachute seeds this week.

Trees-

By months end, the appearance of flowers on witch-hazel announces the final act of the plant world's play for the year.