Halloween's Full Moon

BY TARALYNN REYNOLDS, GROUP FOR THE EAST END OUTREACH AND EDUCATION MANAGER

What an October we’ve been having! After a wonderfully extended summer, fall feels like it’s really here, and here to stay. Colder nights, lots of wet and foggy days to augment this month’s spooky feel and a second full moon that falls on Halloween! So much to be excited for.

With the arrival of fall and the loss of summer’s flowers, we see and hear an uptick in our bird and mammal neighbors as they prepare for the long winter. They are migrating or stocking up on their winter essentials, be it an acorn or a warm place to sleep. Visit your favorite nature preserve and keep an eye or an ear out for the call of Eastern Screech or Great Horned owls and the chitter chatter of blue jays and squirrels.

Hopefully you’ll have some time this Halloween, a Saturday no less, to look up at the night sky and observe the second full moon of the month, also known as a blue moon. After consecutive supermoons earlier in the year, the Halloween moon is predicted to be the smallest of 2020. 

Look for a bright red “star” near the moon, in fact not a star at all but the red planet, Mars. 

The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists this month’s moon as both the Harvest Moon and Hunter’s Moon. The full moon at the beginning of the month was called the Harvest Moon, coinciding with the September equinox while the end of month moon is the start of the Hunter’s Moon, so called by some Native American tribes as it is the start of the hunting season and time to prepare for winter.

What a time to take a pause and look up at the sky and think about all we have been through, as we head towards the end of 2020.