Mammal Monday

Half a dozen Greys were around or up inside this tree. (Some kind of walnut, I think; fruit looked pecan-y but leaves didn’t.) Also I wasn’t sure if the nuts raining down upon me were intentional. Poetic fallacy and all.

The tree certainly makes the animal work for it.

Update: We ran into Daniel Atha, of the NYC Ecoflora Projet. He had just come from taking a specimen of this tree! It turns out to be butternut (Juglans cinerea), which is also known as white walnut. It’s the only living one in the city he knows of. The specie sis beset by butternut canker; in some states 80% of the butternuts have been killed off.

Reading: Resistance: Reclaiming An American Tradition by Jeff Biggers. (Please don’t use Amazon. The link is to Indiebound. Or your local library.)