What to look for in nature in New Jersey this October

When is peak fall color in New Jersey?

Where can you watch hawks and migrating birds in New Jersey in October?

• The Cape May hawkwatch

  Staffed daily September 1 to November 30; the most raptors and the most species from late September into October · Hawkwatch platform, Cape May Point State Park

  The Cape May Bird Observatory has counted from this platform every fall since 1976, and it turns 50 this year. Late September into mid-October brings the widest mix of raptors and the big peregrine falcon days. Sharp-shinned hawks, the site’s most numerous raptor, keep coming all month. The best flights follow a cold front, on the first day of northwest wind. On October 3 CMBO holds a free half-hour hawk ID session at the park. At dawn, songbirds drifted out over the bay overnight stream back over Higbee Beach in “morning flight.”

• Montclair and Bernardsville

  September 1 to November 30; red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks build late in October · Montclair Hawk Lookout on First Watchung Mountain; Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary, Bernardsville

  Montclair has been counted every fall since 1957, which HawkCount calls the second-oldest continuous hawk count in the country after Hawk Mountain. Its fall averages are about 2,560 sharp-shinned hawks, 712 red-tailed hawks, 82 bald eagles and 32 peregrines. Late October belongs to red-tails and red-shouldered hawks, with the odd golden eagle. NJ Audubon’s Scherman Hoffman sanctuary in Bernardsville runs a free hawkwatch from its observation deck on some fall days; the October calendar has it on the 1st and 2nd.

• First snow geese at Brigantine

  Snow geese arriving in October; the peak for snow geese and brant from mid-November into December · Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Wildlife Drive, Galloway Township

  Forsythe protects more than 46,000 acres of salt marsh, bays and pinelands along the southern shore. The refuge’s season calendar lists October as the month when snow geese begin to arrive. In early November, more than 100,000 ducks and geese can pack the impoundments, and snow geese and Atlantic brant peak after mid-November. The eight-mile, one-way, unpaved Wildlife Drive is open daily from sunrise to sunset.

• Sparrows, kinglets and the Great Swamp

  All month · Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Morris County; field edges and thickets statewide

  Warblers thin out after the first week and sparrows take their place. Look for white-throated, song, swamp and white-crowned sparrows, with golden-crowned kinglets working the conifers. Great Swamp in Morris County is an easy place to find them. Its Wildlife Observation Center on Long Hill Road has about a mile and a half of boardwalks and blinds over the wet woods, and the ducks start building on the pools. The Friends group posts fall walks on its calendar.

When do monarchs pass through Cape May?

When is fall trout stocking, and when do striped bass run along the New Jersey shore?

• Fall trout stocking

  Tuesday, October 13 to Thursday, October 22 · Rivers the first week, lakes and ponds the second

  NJ Fish & Wildlife plans to stock about 29,000 rainbow trout this fall, mostly two-year-old fish. About 1,000 are three-year-old breeders weighing 4 to 6 pounds. The major rivers are stocked the week of October 13, for example about 1,700 fish in the Paulins Kill and 1,280 in the North Branch of the Raritan on the 13th and nearly 3,000 in the Musconetcong on the 14th. Lakes such as Swartswood, Furnace and Echo follow from October 19 to 22. Stocked waters can be fished as soon as the trucks leave, and the daily limit under the revised program is two trout of at least 9 inches. Check the stocking schedule for your water.

• Striped bass on the move

  Building through October; the big fish mostly in November · Raritan Bay, the surf from Sandy Hook to Cape May, inlets and back bays

  Striped bass spawn in the Hudson, the Delaware and the Chesapeake, and NOAA Fisheries notes that the adults move south along the coast in fall and winter. New Jersey’s beaches are on the way. As the ocean cools, baitfish pour out of the bays with bass and bluefish behind them. NOAA rates the coastwide stock as overfished and under a rebuilding plan, so rules are tight. Check NJ Fish & Wildlife’s current saltwater limits (a narrow slot of 28 to under 31 inches was in place this year) and use circle hooks with bait.

What is happening in the Pine Barrens, and what is blooming in October?

• The cranberry harvest

  Mostly in October · Burlington and Ocean county bogs; Whitesbog Village in Brendan Byrne State Forest

  Most of New Jersey’s cranberry crop comes in during October. Growers flood the bogs, and a machine shakes the berries off the vines so they float to the top and can be corralled into a red raft. The Pinelands Alliance traces the commercial industry to the bogs near Pemberton in the early 1900s. Whitesbog was then the largest cranberry farm in the state, and it was there that Elizabeth White and USDA botanist Frederick Coville turned the wild highbush blueberry into a crop. Pinelands Adventures runs a few bog tours in October. The 2026 Chatsworth Cranberry Festival is Saturday and Sunday, October 17 and 18, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. Bring cash; phone service in Chatsworth is poor.

• Pine barrens gentian

  Late September into November · Moist, sunny, sandy openings in the Pine Barrens; roadsides and firebreaks

  This is the rarest-looking flower most people will ever find by a sand road: an upright deep-blue trumpet about two inches long, bronze-green inside. North Carolina State’s plant guide puts its bloom from late September into December and its range from New Jersey south. In New Jersey it grows only in the Pine Barrens, in open, sunny spots. Photograph it and leave it.

• Seaside goldenrod and the dune asters

  Through October, until the first hard frost · Dunes and salt-marsh edges from Sandy Hook to Cape May

  Seaside goldenrod is the big, thick-leaved goldenrod of the dunes, and in October it is the fuel stop for migrating monarchs on the coast. Inland, New England aster and the late goldenrods carry the bumblebee queens and the last butterflies. Ten minutes at one patch fills a pollinator watch page.

• Witch hazel, the year’s last flower

  October into December · Moist woods and ravines statewide

  American witch hazel blooms after nearly everything else has quit. Its spidery yellow flowers have four ribbon-like petals and are often out while the leaves are still yellow on the branch. The same twigs hold last year’s woody capsules, which split and throw their shiny black seeds several yards.

When is the first frost and freeze in New Jersey?

How much daylight does New Jersey lose in October?

What is October weather like in New Jersey, and what could El Niño mean for the winter?

What can you see in the New Jersey night sky in October?

• Jupiter goes behind the moon

  Tuesday, October 6, about 4:22 to 5:27 a.m. EDT · East-southeast, the moon about 20 degrees up at the start and 32 at the end

  A crescent moon, 18 percent lit, rises around 2:25 a.m. with Jupiter right beside it. The International Occultation Timing Association’s predictions for New Jersey have the planet disappearing behind the moon’s bright limb at 4:23 a.m. in Newark, 4:22:41 in Trenton and 4:22 in Atlantic City. It comes back out from the dark limb at 5:27 in Newark and a few seconds under 5:27 in Trenton and Atlantic City. Civil twilight does not start until about 6:31, so both ends happen in a black sky. Jupiter takes a few seconds to disappear, because it is a disk rather than a point. Its moons go behind the moon one at a time over the minutes around it. A small telescope shows it best. You need open sky low in the east-southeast: a beach, a ballfield or the top of a parking deck.

• Saturn at its best

  Opposition October 4; the moon alongside October 23–24 · Rising in the east at dusk, south at midnight

  Saturn reaches opposition on October 4: up at dusk, highest near midnight, down at daybreak, a steady pale-gold point in a faint stretch of stars. Any telescope will show the rings. On October 23–24 the waxing gibbous moon drifts by Saturn.

• The Hunter’s Moon

  Sunday, October 25 and Monday, October 26 at moonrise · Eastern horizon; the ocean beaches are ideal

  Full phase falls at 12:12 a.m. Monday, October 26, so Sunday and Monday evenings both show a round moon. In Newark it rises at 5:27 p.m. on the 25th, over half an hour before the 6:02 sunset, and at 5:59 on the 26th, a minute before the sun goes down. At Atlantic City the times are 5:30 and 6:04. From the boardwalk, watch it come up orange out of the sea. Some headlines will call it a supermoon, but this one is nowhere near the moon’s closest point to Earth. The moon phases page has the full calendar.

• Orionids and Draconids

  Draconids the evening of October 8; Orionids October 2 to November 7, best before dawn on October 21 and 22 · Somewhere dark, such as the Pine Barrens, Stokes or High Point

  The Draconids peak the evening of Thursday, October 8, with no moon to spoil them. The Orionids, grit shed by Halley’s Comet, are active October 2 through November 7 and peak broadly around the 21st and 22nd. The waxing gibbous moon sets at about 3:15 a.m. on the 22nd across the state, and civil twilight begins about 6:48. That leaves three and a half dark hours; Wharton State Forest and the Kittatinny Ridge have the darkest skies.

• Venus leaves, Jupiter and Mars take the mornings

  Venus only the first few evenings; Mars at the Beehive October 11 · Low west after sunset; east before dawn

  Catch Venus low in the west in the first days of the month before it sinks into twilight and reaches inferior conjunction on October 23. Jupiter rules the dawn sky in the east. Before sunrise on October 11, binoculars show Mars inside the Beehive cluster in Cancer.

What are bears, deer and insects doing in New Jersey in October?

• Black bears fattening up

  Through November, when most bears den · Mostly Sussex, Warren, Morris and northern Passaic counties; reported in all 21 counties

  In fall, black bears go into hyperphagia and may eat about 20,000 calories a day before they den, which starts in November. NJDEP says bears are opportunistic and will eat whatever they can find. Feeding bears is illegal and carries fines of up to $1,000. Keep trash inside until the morning of pickup and take feeders down at night. If you meet a bear, stay calm, don’t look it in the eye, and back away slowly while leaving it room to leave. Report aggressive or damaging bears to NJ Fish & Wildlife at 1-877-927-6337. A track in the mud of a trail edge belongs on the “tracks to know” page.

• Deer in the pre-rut

  Rubs and scrapes from mid-October; the rut peaks in November · Everywhere, including suburbs, and on every road at dusk

  Look for bark peeled from saplings at knee height and bare, pawed patches under low limbs: the bucks are marking territory ahead of the rut. New Jersey is dense with deer and cars alike. Slow down at dusk on wooded roads, and if one deer crosses, expect another behind it. Log sightings on the dusk and dawn watch plate.

• Spotted lanternfly egg masses

  Egg-laying from late September into November · Tree trunks, stones, fence posts, patio furniture, vehicles

  The adults are feeding hard and laying eggs this month. The egg masses look like smears of gray mud, about an inch or two long, and the New Jersey Department of Agriculture notes that they are laid on “rocks, trees, fence posts, and outdoor furniture.” Scrape them into a bag or a jar of rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer. You should feel the eggs pop. The adults die with a hard freeze, but the eggs hatch in spring.

• Ticks, still

  Adult blacklegged ticks active October through May · Leaf litter, trail edges, dune grass, the dog

  Adult deer ticks are active on any day above freezing from October into spring, and fall is their busiest time. Wear repellent, tuck in your pant legs, and do a full tick check on children and pets once you are home.

What are the best nature outings for New Jersey families in October?

Safety notes for October in New Jersey