A newly fallen leaf having landed upon a pile of decaying autumn leaves in Mast Park, Santee.

Leaves Are Beginning to Turn in coastal San Diego County’s riparian woodland and oak woodland habitats. The summer-green crowns of willows and sycamores are slowly fading to yellow and brown. Beneath the oaks, the deciduous poison oak is flushing red. Some good places for autumn walks this month and next include San Clemente Canyon (Marian Bear) Park adjacent to Freeway 52, Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve north of Mira Mesa, and Wilderness Gardens Preserve east of Pala in North County.

Orb Weaver Spiders often weave webs spanning sidewalks and driveways, watch out tall people!

Just As People Are Decorating Their Yards with Halloween decorations, Orb Weaver spiders are joining in and adding their webs to every span they can. Late summer rains have again increased the insect population, which means well-fed spiders, and well-fed spiders have the energy to create more spiders. That means a lot of Orb Weavers, so named because of their circular webs woven along radiating spokes. The males, notably, are smaller than females, and rarely build webs, which can span enormously large gaps between houses or just fill in a narrow walkway. Evenings and early mornings are the prime time for web facials, but no need to worry: they aren’t venomous and almost always choose to scurry away before biting.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C/2023 A3) Was Visible in the early morning sky from October 4-6 and is now making it’s orbit around the sun and out of our line of sight. But beginning October 10th, the comet should be visible after sunset near the horizon in the west. It will then reach its closest approach to Earth (43.9 million miles) on the evening of October 11th, it will be heading up into the sky, its dust tail pointing toward the horizon. It’s notoriously difficult to predict comet visibility, but some experts are calling this “the comet of the century,” and some even say it should outshine everything in the night sky besides the Moon. That means we can at least hope that it will be visible to the naked eye, or at least to a good smartphone. Binoculars or a telescope should give an even better view. However, other experts think the comet will break apart when it is closest to the sun. Whatever happens, by October 14th, the comet will have “flipped,” and will appear to be heading away from the sun, because the Earth crosses the comet’s orbital plane on the 13th. By October 15th, its visibility will steadily decrease due to increasing light from the Moon — which will be full on the 17th.