Bat populations increase, Beaver Moon, Daylight Savings Time

Autumn Color in San Diego County’s mountain areas reaches its greatest intensity in late October and early November. The forested heights of Palomar Mountain are especially colorful right now. Black oaks on Palomar’s rolling uplands will be exhibiting bright yellow and brown hues for the next few weeks. Cuyamaca Reservoir remains a worthwhile leaf-peeping destination. The shimmering leaves of the Lombardy poplar, an Italian import that has taken root at the south end of the lake, delight the eye with their golden radiance.

Bat populations increase in coastal areas of San Diego County during the fall and winter due to migration. Not only are there bats that are migrating to and through the county coastal areas on north-south migration routes, there are also local migrations where bats from inland areas move closer to the coast. You can usually see bats in locations where open water occurs near riparian trees and close to exposed rocky habitat, such as Mission Trails Regional Park near the old Mission dam, or Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve near the waterfall. The most common bats in San Diego County include the Mexican free-tailed bat, Yuma myotis, and big brown bat.

November’s full Beaver Moon reaches peak illumination in the morning hours of Tuesday, November 8, which is also Election Day! In addition, the Beaver Moon will also undergo a total lunar eclipse! November’s full moon is called a Beaver Moon because this is the time of year when beavers begin to take shelter in their lodges, having laid up sufficient stores of food for the long winter ahead.

Remember to set your clocks back this Sunday morning at 2 am, when Daylight Saving Time ends. In 2018, California voters approved Proposition 7, a ballot initiative that permanently adopted daylight saving time, but the legislature never passed it. This year, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a bill called the Sunshine Protection Act, which would permanently extend daylight saving time from eight months of the year to the full 12 months. But the measure has not yet been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, nor has it been signed into law by the President. San Diego’s latest sunrise this year occurs on Saturday, November 6, at 7:11 am. If standard time were observed year-round, the latest possible sunrise in San Diego (6:52 am PST) would always take place near January 8.