Site Discussions

Hi from over the Atlantic! Been reading about late leaf fall on Oak trees and we have had our house built on the edge of a wood containing many oak trees in the area and fields around. We have one oak which must be 200 plus years old in our garden which is still in nearly full leaf and yet the 3 oaks in the wood next to it lost their leaves about 2 months ago. Just wondering if the main tap root to our tree is deeper and larger thus keeping the tree in leaf much longer? Thoughts on that please from the expert arborialists out there….

Tree cavity in NE VT: apparently made decades ago by a logger with an axe, who after finding a rotten corer, decided that continued felling of this large , 2.5-ft diameter, tree was not worth the continued hard labor (axe markings are visible inside the cavity).  The tree survives, making a large cavity as it tried to repair the damage, probably to the liking of generations of birds.

Thank you for this extraordinary article with its very good links!

With climate change, are they likely to migrate northward? If so, what could we do to provide habitat that doesn’t conflict with farming in the hilltowns?

Interesting to know, Tom. Wow, that’s a big oak tree!

Along the LaHave River Valley in SW Nova Scotia there are many Red Oak.  Good growing conditions and many were uncut and left to grow.  The biggest I’ve found is about 216 inches in circumference, a massive beauty and still vigorous.  We’ve just concluded the spectacular fall colour change, altho many of the oaks refuse to let go of their leaves.

Voles are indeed extremely numerous. I often see several scampering out of the way while mowing the fields in late fall.  I see far fewer mice and moles while mowing.

Nice article. I will look for your magazine

An exceptionally beautiful essay. Thank you for this.

Love the Bubs!

Living in a woods, I enjoy observing the many birds and other animals that occupy various trees, but I hadn’t thought about how many must reside there that I cannot see. I thoroughly enjoyed this informative and beautifully written article by a fellow Ohioan.

In the 70’s we raised a pair of turkey chicks along with our laying hens, and both of them turned out to be Toms.  They imprinted on us and would often compete for our attention, entering full strut display and sometimes becoming pretty combative. 

We soon realized that one effect of dragging the primary wing feathers on the ground was to sharpen the feather shaft tips.  When sparring, the toms would hop sideways and attempt to jab one another in the lower shank of the legs with these stiffly extended and dropped wing feathers.  It looked to us to be an instinctive behavior.

And he puts up with little old ladies who talk to trees.

What a beautifully written and inspirational article!  Thank you.

I have not seen the creatures tunneling outside the house. In my back yard, I started noticing the “give” in the ground as I walked on it and saw that the give went in more or less straight lines. Neither the grass, flowers or vegetables in my garden have suffered.

In November, I started finding holes seemingly going straight down outside close to the house and the barn. We have had mice in the basement regularly, but never seen these holes.

Are we being visited by different animals? I’m mostly concerned with the holes near the house now as I assume that these critters are moving indoors. I fill in the holes and they reappear. What should I do?

I have many brush piles on our timberland.  They are also very good hideouts for various snakes I have found to my surprise.  Great magazine enjoy reading it!

Thanks for this informative article. I always look forward to the Outside Story articles.

What about amphibians and reptiles? I see snakes and toads in, on, and by my brush piles.

Thanks for the info. Extremely useful and I will start tomorrow.

My sister was mowing lawn yesterday, 11/8/2020. A bird I thought may be a Partridge, was following her everywhere she mowed. Then when she was done it followed her to the house and was hanging around, no offer of food or anything. I took a picture and Google said it was a grouse. I dug a little deeper and read your article. Her name is now Patty or Pat for short lol. Thanks for the article.

Excellent story and not to forget the Pitch pine and scrub oak, low bush blueberry communities that also cling to the higher elevations and rocky summits in southern New England and down through the Appalachians.Remnants of a distant past climatic interval McPhee’s book is titled The Pine Barrens