Situational Awareness

From one of our morning walks we kept a sharp eye peeled and took note of the acorn crop materializing on the swamp and bur oaks.  Deer hunting should be good this fall with natural mast food sources.

And we spied a nest.  My first impression was that it was a paper wasp nest.  Yet too small - slightly larger than my clenched fist.  It was of woven grass and paper birch bark bits all-over.  It was a cup-style bird nest and superbly camouflaged. 

Having never identified one previously Google Image tells me that a red-eyed vireo constructed this home.

Another first.  

Fall Feast

Quercus bicolor​ - the swamp white oak​ - is a North American white oak species​.  A key player in our overall reforestry plan we planted thousands of them decades ago.  Its acorn development follows a fairly consistent cycle, typical of white oaks, but with a few species-specific traits​.

Like all members of the white oak group swamp white oak acorns mature in a single growing season (roughly 4–5 months after pollination).​  Fertilized flowers begin to swell in late May–June​ and the acorns remain small through early summer.​ Beginning now the acorns enlarge rapidly.

The cap is distinctive​ - shallow and scaly​ - covering about one-third of the nut, often with loose, fringed edges.​  The acorns reach full size (about 1–1.5 inches long) in September–October​ and are light brown to chestnut brown when mature.​  They drop to the ground soon after ripening, and because they lack a dormancy requirement, they often germinate in the same autumn if soil conditions are​ optimal.​  They're ​dispersed mainly by gravity, squirrels, and jays.

​This species of oak tends to have high acorn production in mast years, but irregular cycles ​with bumper crops every 4–7 years.​  As a wildlife food source they're relatively sweet (low tannin) compared to red oaks, making them highly favored by deer, turkeys, duck​s and squirrels.

​I have an aux naturele bait pile.....

Early Blooms

We planted this tree in the front yard twenty-one years ago.  It was one year-old bare root stock; a pencil-size twig.  And for the longest time we never thought it would amount to anything.

It's grown into a handsome young oak tree.  Further evidence of its maturation, it is bearing a sizeable crop of acorns again.  And if history repeats itself, when they ripen they'll barely last a week as the critters will hoover them up in short order.

The species has been forgotten so I asked a forester pal if she might ID the tree for me.  She is confident that it is a Northern Pin Oak (Quercus ellipsoidalis) commonly known as a Hill's oak.

Towards the end of last month I noticed that the tree had large numbers of catkins hanging from the branches as the leaves of 2025 emerged from their buds.

Yes, oak trees have blossoms too.  These are one of the flowers that are produced by the tree – the male flower to be certain.  This species is monoecious – meaning that it produces both male and female flowers.  Each male flower typically has six stamens (ranges from two to twelve) which have long spreading white filaments when the flower fully opens.  The female flowers are more reddish-green and appear as small slender spikes in the axils of new growth. 

I gave this tree a thorough examination and could find no flowers of the female persuasion. Not surprising inasmuch as they are not visible to the naked eye.  It is from the female flower that acorns are formed.  This species begins producing acorns around 15 to 20 years of age; give or take.  Large numbers of acorns won't materialize until the tree is fifty years of age.  Which makes sense for a tree that will live 90 to 120 years of age. 

As a general rule the acorns will mature in late summer and begin falling in September or October.  

This tree has been producing acorns for about 6 to 7 years.  From last week there is this. 

Overachiever..... 

Busy As A Squirrel

More about acorns.

 

There are approximately 400-600 species of oak world-wide. In the United States there are 60-90 species of oak. Oaks are found in most states except the central western states. In Wisconsin, we have nine native species of oak – northern red, northern pin, pin, black, scarlet, white, swamp white, bur, and chinkapin. 

An estimated 500 to 2,300 species rely upon the oak tree, such as turkeys, woodpeckers, wood ducks, blue jays and thrushes; black bear, white-tailed deer, squirrels, opossums, rabbits, voles and mice; and hundreds of species of butterflies and moths. In addition, there are many fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms which create a symbiotic home with the oak. Of these species, 320 are found only on oak trees, and a further 229 species are rarely found on species other than oak.

 

From one of the trail cameras there is this series of photos of very busy fox squirrels, squirreling-away their stash of the abundant mast crop of acorns for the winter.

 

 

 

From Little Acorns

From the Wisconsin Woodland Owners Association newsletter there is this:

In Wisconsin, the white oak seem to be having a “mast year,” which occurs every 2-5 years, with smaller acorn crops in between. Boom and bust cycles of acorn production do have an evolutionary benefit for oak trees through “predator satiation.” In a mast year, animals can’t eat all the acorns, so they leave some nuts to grow into future oak trees. Years of lean acorn production keep predator populations low, so there are fewer animals to eat all the seeds in a mast year. A year of heavy acorn production may use up much of a tree’s stored nitrogen, and few acorns may be produced the following year while the tree’s nutrient stores are replenished. 

The importance of acorns as a food source for wildlife is primarily related to their widespread occurrence, palatability, nutritional value, and availability during the fall and winter months, when they provide an excellent source of needed energy. Historically they were a source of food for humans also, however care must be taken to remove the tannins prior to consuming them.

Oak trees take decades to mature and one oak produces more than 2,000 acorns every year, but only one in 10,000 acorns will manage to develop into oak tree. 

Pictured are one of our swamp white oaks planted from two-year-old bare root stock in 1998 and a seedling growing in a sunny spot in the forest understory.

 

 

Early Blooms

The red oak tree in the yard was a bare root stick when planted twenty years ago.  In the intervening decades it has grown into a handsome pre-adolescent.   

The other day I noticed that the tree had large numbers of catkins hanging from the prior year’s growth as the leaves of 2023 emerged from their buds.

Yes oak have blossoms too.  These are one of the flowers that are produced by the tree – the male flower to be certain.  This species is monoecious – meaning that it produces both male and female flowers. Each male flower typically has six stamens (ranges from two to twelve) which have long spreading white filaments when the flower fully opens.  The female flowers are more reddish-green and appear as small slender spikes in the axils of new growth. 

I gave this tree a thorough examination and could find no flowers of the female persuasion. Not surprising inasmuch as they are not visible to the naked eye.  It is from the female flower that acorns are formed.  Red oaks mature sufficiently at twenty or more years of age before they are capable of producing acorns.  Large numbers of acorns won't materialize until the tree is fifty years of age.  Which makes sense for a tree that will live many hundreds of years. 

This tree has been producing acorns for about 5-6 years.

Overachiever.....