trees
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Oaks
I assume you’re all voting tomorrow. Hopefully you’ll take friends and relatives along with you…
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Black Tupelo
Blackgum, sourgum, pepperidge, bee gum: Nyssa sylvatica. These berries, ripe now, are savored by birds and mammals, in the tree or on the ground. *** You may have noticed a dearth of bird photos in the midst of fall migration. My camera has died, after a lot of hard work (and getting smashed up during…
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Lobster Claws
The emptied husk of a dog day cicada (Neotibicen). This is the final form of the underground nymph stage of these annual cicadas, which spend four to five years underground sucking on plant roots, counting the days. They’re “annual” because there’s a brood or cohort every year. This is split open and hollow inside now,…
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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,…
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Barks
Beech and Sassafras running the gamut.A nice-sized Sassafras albidum. They run smaller in the city, where they’re often much newer plantings.And somewhere in the middle zone, Prunus avium, bird or sweet cherry.
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Beeching Out
All the same Fagus.Galls, burls, one and the same? Did they dig out or dig in?
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Sappy
A Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica)A line of sapsucker holes. About 3/4″ deep, through the bark.These holes are chiseled out by, in our parts, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius), who drinks the sugary sap and snaps up any insects also attracted to the sweet stuff.
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A Tree for Tuesday
I was circling around St. Michael’s tower in search of the Kestrels that have been frequenting the raptor anvil, as I like to call it, atop the cross up there. These local falcons will be a subject of a future week’s worth of posts. Yes, they have been active! This excursion gave me an opportunity…
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Sap Fall
A great frozen waterfall of beech sap stalactiting from a massive specimen. The hang here is two plus feet!Gorgeous, but a sign of distress for the tree.
Backyard and Beyond 