Nature Almanac for November 2020

Here in Philadelphia…

Somehow, this almanac didn’t publish when it was supposed to, the other week. Sorry, folks.

Rain, rain go away, come again another day. Fall is often a very rainy time in the Philadelphia area. It’s raining now as I write this. The steady all-day rain falling is from Hurricane Zeta. And hurricanes are the reason for our fall rains. (See When is Hurricane Season?

Winter is setting in. The leaves are still hanging on the trees. Most of the insects are dead or hibernating (see Insects in Winter). I watched a Bumblebee slowly crawl along the ground yesterday. It was probably it’s last few moments of life.

Now is a good time to go outside and study seed pods. Milkweed and Butterfly weed have interesting pods.

Someone has been lying down in my garden at night. It seems to be a large animal. It could be a cat. But it doesn’t smell like a cat. I don’t smell anything. Which I guess is good.

By garden seems to be on the rounds of every opossum, raccoon, and skunk in the neighborhood. But they don’t bother me as much as the constantly-digging-and-uprooting squirrels.

Did You Know?

Wind dispersed seeds to be blown from place to place need to be one or two things: so small they can be carried by the wind or having structures that catch the wind. Structures are feathery plume oe wings. What wind dispersed seeds are in your garden or neighborhood?

Season Dates

November 1 – the veil between dimensions is thin. In western culture it’s called All Hollow’s Eve.

November in many natural calendars is the beginning of winter.

In the Sky This Month

Last Quarter – November 8^th
New Moon – November 15^th
First Quarter – November 21^st
Full Beaver Moon – November 30^th – time to set beaver traps before the water freezes

Penumbral Eclipse of the Moon – November 29^th – 30^th (What is a Penumbral Eclipse of the Moon? on Earthsky.org)

What’s a penumbral eclipse of the moon?

New moon always rises near sunrise
First Quarter near noon
Full Moon always rises near sunset
Winter Full Moons are high in the sky
Last Quarter rises around midnight
Moonrise occurs about 50 minutes later each day

Algonquin Indian Moon Names

Best Fishing – When the Moon is between New and Full – November 15th – 30th

Comets and Meteor Showers

There are three meteor showers this month, none are among the most prominent of the year.

Midnight Sun At the South Pole – the Sun never sets from September 23^{rd to}March 20^th,

Circumpolar Constellations – from latitude 40 degree north – these constellations are always in the sky: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia, Draco, Cepheus, and Camelopaedalis.

Winter Constellations

in the Northern Evening Sky: Pegasus, Lacerta, Andromeda, Pisces, Triangulum, Aries, Perseus, Auriga, Gemini, and Cancer.

In the Southern Evening Sky: Cetus, Taurus, Orion, Eridanus, Lepus, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Gemini, Hydra, and Monocerces.