October gave a party;

The leaves by the hundreds came —

The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,

And leaves of every name.

The Sunshine spread a carpet,

And everything was grand,

Miss Weather led the dancing,

The Pennsylvania Game Commission is inviting you to an October party. The party is an automobile tour of State Game Lands Nos. 12 and 36 in Bradford County, held this upcoming Sunday, Oct. 1.

The tour — which consists of over 40,000 acres, and runs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. — will be approximately 30 miles long. Each driver of a vehicle will be given a tour guide, with many pictures and lots of history of the mountain. The tour can be taken at your leisure.

The starting point is off Route 154 at the top of Wheelerville Mountain, south of Canton. You will travel on the road built by the CCC to Sunfish Pond (bring a picnic lunch) and continue to the old town site of Barclay; down the mountain to the Foot of the Plane, where the tour turns back and goes up along the famous Schrader Creek to the old town site of Laquin.

From there, you will go onto the old S&NY Railroad grade. The tour ends at Wheelerville and RT154, approximately 3 miles from where you began the tour.

“The Chestnuts came in yellow,

The Oaks in crimson dressed;

The lovely Misses Maple

In scarlet looked their best;

All balanced to their partners,

And gaily fluttered by;

The sight was like a rainbow

New fallen from the sky.”

The leaves have begun to change, and they are hoping for a beautiful October day. The report this year is that the colors will be exceptional due to all of the wet weather we had this summer. Since this season had near-perfect growing conditions, of ample rainfall, ideal temperatures, good sunlight and no significant insect infestations or tree diseases. We should see the best fall foliage colors in many years.

Botanists explain autumn’s colors without using any imagination at all. The shorter days signal the trees to cut off the water supply to the leaves. The leaves change color because of the carotenoid in the leaf. The colors were there all the time but hidden by the chlorophyll. When the chlorophyll fades away, the leaves change their color.

The chlorophyll disappears when the days are clear, warm, and sunny and when the nighttime temperature drops to 45 degrees but stays above freezing.

When this occurs, three more chemicals begin to show their colors. Xanthophyll, a chemical present in egg yolks, makes the leaves turn yellow; carotene produces the orange in the leaves, and anthocyanin gives the red and purple color to the leaves. The red and purple colors appear as stains on the leaves and are water soluble.

The Native Americans believed that the leaves changed their colors when the spirit bear in the star constellation Ursa Major was killed by three spirit hunters. Throughout the year, the three spirit hunters stalked the bear across the summer sky, and as fall approached, they caught up to the bear and killed it.

The blood from the bear dripped from the sky and fell on the leaves, turning them red. When the bear meat was cooked, fat splattered out of the pot, staining some of the leaves yellow and brown.

On the next clear night, go outside and examine the night sky. Find the three spirit hunters in the handle of the big dipper and the bear, which is part of the dipper itself. The middle hunter in the handle has a dog named Alcor with him. The hunters used this star as an eye test.

Those that were able to see the dog above the middle hunter, with the naked eye, were said to have good eyesight. For a young boy, this meant that he was old enough to start accompanying the older braves on hunting expeditions.

Why not go out some evening and take the test yourself?

“Then, in the rustic hollow,

At hide-and-seek they played,

The party closed at sundown,

And everybody stayed.

Professor Wind played louder;

They flew along the ground;

And then the party ended

In jolly ‘hands around.”

That poem, which begin this column and was noted throughout, was written by George Cooper and is called “October’s Party.”

Nature’s array of colors lasts for only a few weeks. Sunny days and cool nights are essential to produce brightly colored leaves. When these conditions occur, the sugar is trapped inside the leaf and the red pigment is produced.

Sometimes, we see a combination of colors on one tree. For example, a single sugar maple tree could have red, yellow, and orange leaves on the same tree.

The red is produced by the brilliant sunlight; the yellow appears on the shaded side of the tree; and the orange is a combination of the yellow and the red showing through the same leaf.

In Pennsylvania, the southern forest meets the northern forest and we have 127 species of trees. With this many species, our mountains and roadsides have a variety of colored foliage in the fall.

Although many will travel to Vermont and other New England states to view the fall foliage of the sugar maple trees, their show cannot compare to the colors found in Pennsylvania.

Usually, one can identify a tree by its fall color. Beech and ash leaves are purplish bronze; Norway maple leaves are yellow; sugar maple leaves are red; aspen are shimmering gold; and white oak are purplish brown.

Certain colors are characteristic of species.

Oaks are a red, brown or russet; hickories are a golden bronze; beech are light tan; aspens are golden yellow; red maple leaves are a brilliant red; and sugar maple is an orange red. The leaves of some species, such as the elms, simply shrivel up and fall, exhibiting little color other than drab brown.

If you are unable to attend the game lands party, you will have at least two more weeks to view one of nature’s grand displays.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.