Fall colors

Children play behind a pumpkin carved and lit for Halloween, on Oct. 30 in Monterey Park, Calif., a day before the holiday.

A view of vineyards near Marktbreit, Bavaria, Germany, on Oct. 30.

An autumn leaf floats on the dark waters of a swamp on the Elbsee Lake near Aitrang, Germany, on Oct. 29.

The sun shines through the cloudy sky behind a tree with autumnal leaves in Cologne, Germany, on Oct. 29.

People stop on a bridge over the Garry River to view the autumn scene near Killiecrankie, Scotland, on Oct. 28.

A diver dressed as a skeleton feeds stingrays from plastic Halloween pumpkins in a publicity event at SeaLife on Oct. 28, in Berlin, Germany.

A coati licking a pumpkin ahead of Halloween at Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria.

Heavy rain falls at a road covered with leaves in Offenbach, central Germany on Oct 27.

An egret sits in a canal as morning sun reflects off the mist, on Assateague Island off the Virginia Coast on Oct. 26. Many bird species make their home on Assateague on a seasonal basis, making the undeveloped island a popular destination for birdwatchers.

A Kaligo Memnon butterfly emerges from its chrysalis during the Butterflies exhibition in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Oct. 26. Kaligo Memnon is also known as the Pale or Giant Owl butterfly, the species feed on the juice of rotting fruit, can found in the rainforests and down to the Amazon rainforest of Mexico.

A woman walks her dog on an autumn morning as Virginia Creeper grows on the outside of Christ Church College in Oxford, UK, on Oct. 26.

A dog chases falling autumn leaves in a park in Berlin, Germany, Oct. 26.

A young deer hides among the autumnal bracken at the National Trust's Dunham Massey park on Oct. 24, in Altrincham, United Kingdom.

A cyclist bikes through the city forest Eilenriede in Hanover, Germany, on Oct. 24.

A picker cuts a cluster of grapes at the vineyard at the Havlicek Garden on Oct. 23, in Prague, Czech Republic. The vineyard was built by Prague Jewish businessman Moritz Grobe in 1870. The vineyard deteriorated after World War II but in 1992 was reinstated. Now the vineyard has 13 thousand grape vines and produces 6.5 thousand litres of wine per year.

Autumn Watson carries a pumpkin through the patch at Councell Farms in Cordova, Md., on Oct. 19, as Halloween quickly approaches.

Morning fog drifts across downtown Vancouver as landscaper Graham Reid cuts the grass on top of the Vancouver Convention Center's living roof in British Columbia, on Oct. 17. The roof is the largest of its kind in Canada with over 400,00 indigenous plants and grasses from 25 different species of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The plants and grass are trimmed every autumn at the end of the growing season.

Third grader Charlie Jenson watches leaves fall after tossing a bunch into the air while on recess at West Woodland Elementary, on Oct. 17, in Seattle.

Sheep stand in a field in front of snow covered mountains on an autumn day in the western Austrian village of Absam, on Oct. 17.

Autumn colored leaves fall from trees as a man and a woman take a stroll in Hanover, central Germany, on Oct. 17.

Colorful leaves climb on the wood of a house in Sieversdorf, eastern Germany, on Oct. 16.

Church volunteers help set up a pumpkin patch as they unload a semi-trailer truck full of pumpkins at the Miami Shores Presbyterian Church, on Oct. 15, in Miami Shores, Fla.

Walkers view the autumn colors along The Great Walk in Windsor Park, with Queen Elizabeth's residence, Windsor Castle, seen behind in Windsor, England, on Oct. 14.

A girl shakes a young tree to make the yellow leaves fall in a park on an autumn day in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, on Oct. 14.

A jockey spurs the cows as they race in Pacu Jawi on Oct. 12, in Batusangkar, Indonesia. This Pacu Jawi (traditional cow racing) is held anually in muddy rice fields to celebrate the end of the harvest season by the Minangkabau people. Jockeys grab the tails of the bulls and skate across the mud barefoot balancing on a wooden plank to show the strength of their bulls who are later auctioned to buyers.

A ladybug crawls across a leaf in Irsee, Germany, on Oct. 12.

People are reflected in water as they cross a bridge in a park on a sunny autumn day in Moscow, on Oct. 12. Editor's note: The picture is rotated 180 degrees.

A tree is covered in the first snow on Oct. 11, in Goerisried, Germany.

Fallen leaves lay on the ground in Munich, Germany, on Oct. 10.

Matt Surface, from Shawnee, Kan., stands next to a 137-pound pumpkin in the back of an SUV at Schaake's Pumpkin Patch near Lawrence, Kan., on Oct. 10.

An early morning frost covers the foliage of changing leaves at the base of Mount Washington, on Oct. 9, in Bretton Woods, N.H. Thousands of tourists are expected in New England this weekend to look at the changing colors of autumn during the Columbus Day holiday.

An apple picker gathers Gala apples in an orchard at Stocks Farm in Suckley, on Oct. 8, in Worcestershire, England.

A duck flaps its wings in the autumn sunshine in Sheffield Park Gardens near Haywards Heath in Southern England, on Oct. 7.

Three-year-old Eva Mahesan and her grandfather look at the brightly colored leaves in Sheffield Park Gardens near Haywards Heath in Southern England, on Oct. 7.

Owners and their pets attend a mass at the Saint Pierre D'Arene church to honor the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi in Nice, France, on Oct. 6. Saint Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals and the environment.

Oktoberfest waitresses hold sparklers while celebrating the end of the world's biggest beer festival, the 180th Oktoberfest, in Munich on Oct. 6.

A vampire couple enjoy a drink and a burger at the Shocktober Fest at Tulleys Farm on Oct. 5, near Crawley, West Sussex. Each October thousands attend the United Kingdom's biggest Halloween themed attraction which includes six different haunted attractions and rides. The event set a new UK record for the biggest gathering of vampires, but missed out on breaking the world record.

A bull elk makes its way through the field as corn is harvested at the Kenison Farms in Levan, Utah, on Oct. 5.

Hoarfrost is seen on the leaves of a plant at Zabar, northeast of Budapest, Hungary, on Oct. 4.

Fresh snow covers a roadside where Aspen trees turn yellow each Autumn, near Frisco, Colo., on Oct. 4. Powerful storms moved into the Midwest, causing the snow.

Megan Aitchison carves pumpkins in a barn at Swartz Dairy and Produce in Schodack, N.Y., on Oct. 3. The pumpkins will be used in for a weekend Halloween event at the farm.

People harvest on Oct. 3 at the Appellation d'Origine Controlee Cote-Rotie vineyard in Ampuis near Lyon, France.

Thousands of Brent Geese gather at Two Tree Island in the Thames Estuary on Oct. 2, in Leigh on Sea, England. Each year Brent Geese make a dangerous 2,500 mile journey across frozen land and stormy seas from Siberia to spend the winter around our coast with up to ten thousand settling in the Thames Estuary.

Hmong ethnic hill tribe women harvest rice on a terrace rice field in Mu Cang Chai district, in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai, on Oct. 1. The local residents, mostly from the Hmong hill tribe, grow rice in the picturesque terrace fields whose age is estimated to hundreds years. Due to hard farming conditions, especially irrigation works, locals produce only one rice crop per year. In recent years a growing numbers of tourists have been attracted by the beautiful landscapes created by the region's rice terrace fields.

Lloyd Giles climbs up onto his combine to relieve his wife Tara who had been driving the afternoon shift during the annual harvest, on a 160-acre field south of High River, Alberta, Canada, on Sept. 28.

Layren McDaniel, 11, leaps on hay bales in the kids village during the Harvest Festival at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Ky., on Sept. 28.

A butterfly sits on a red spider lily in full bloom at the Kinchakuda park in Hidaka, Saitama prefecture, near Tokyo, Japan, on Sept. 27. Red spider lilies, or Higanbana, mark the end of summer and the entry in autumn with its cooler days. Some 5 million red spider lilies are covering the area.

A stag barks during an early, misty morning in Richmond Park, south west London, on Sept. 27.

Mist blankets a valley near Goathland in the North Yorkshire Moors at sunrise on Sept. 26 in Pickering, England.

Pumpkins are harvested at David Bowman Pumpkins in Spalding, central England, on Sept. 25.The company produces four million pumpkins annually on its 450 acre farm, supplying supermarkets in Britain and exporting to Europe.

A red squirrel holds a nut in its mouth in a garden in Hannover, Germany, on Sept. 25. Squirrels are busy in autumn to collecting food and storing it for winter.

Mayan indigenous priests and priestess conduct a ceremony to celebrate the Autumn Equinox at Cihuatan Archeological Park, in Aguilares, El Salvador on Sept. 22.

Visitors walk through a crowded street during sunset at the Oktoberfest 2013 beer festival at Theresienwiese on Sept. 21, in Munich, Germany. The Munich Oktoberfest is the world's largest beer fest and draws millions of visitors.

A full moon, or Harvest Moon, rises over government landmarks Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol buliding and the under-repair Washington Monument on Sept. 19, in Washington, DC.

People launch water lanterns during festivities ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival at Gardens By the Bay in Singapore, on Sept. 15. The Mid-Autumn Festival, a Chinese harvest festival, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar during a full moon, which falls on Sept. 19 this year.

Decorated cows stand on grassland in Mutters, around six miles south of the western Austrian city of Innsbruck on Sept. 14. At the end of the summer season, farmers move their herds down from the Alps to the valley into winter pastures.

Migrant workers from Mexico and Nicaragua harvest Burley tobacco grown by Tucker Farms before hanging the leaves in barns to begin their six week curing process on Sept. 9 in Pleasureville, Ky.