Chomp!

The date is July 8th. The tree is our cherished oak that sits just off the front deck of our house and provides my screen porch with afternoon shade. As of today, it is barren, eaten, ravaged by gypsy moth caterpillars.

They left one branch. Why, I do not know. I guess they just didn't notice it. While they were chomping, my husband tried spraying, both with insecticide and water, and he and our ED both ended up squashing the loathsome insects on the tree trunk as they crawled determinedly up it. We are hoping that it is not too late in the year for the tree to try to grow a new set of leaves.

One happy fellow as a result of this. The dominant hummingbirds sit on a vacant branch waiting for a junior to try to get a drink at the bird feeder nearby. He now has his choice of lurking spots and an dive path unimpeded by leaves.

The last time we had an infestation like this was, we think, in the mid 1980s. If you go outside under the trees, there is a rain, a pitter patter, of caterpillar poop. The joys of nature, eh.

The Enemies of Trees

We took a tour around our bush lots last week to see how they had weathered the winter. This clump hadn't; a windstorm blew it over. Wind and weather are not kind to shallow rooted trees.



We leave dead stumps in place for wildlife habitat. Here is a stump that the pileated woodpeckers found.
This shot shows leftover damage from the huge ice storm we had in 1998. The curved tree was bent over by the ice and has never recovered properly; but it is struggling to survive as the branches growing from the curve show.

We heat with wood -- and we have lots and lots of candidates to become firewood this spring.

Sorry Exup, I should have put in the info about the bird. You can read and hear and see a pileated woodpecker here.

We also have hairy and downy woodpeckers and this evening we had three sapsuckers blow through, doing their spring thing. Very cool. Unfortunately, I can't find an easy reference to their mating display. However, we have a hunt camp on the next lot to us with a metal chimney and the birds have been drumming on the chimney for the last few days. They have to have horrible headaches.

In other news, half of my daffodils came out today. Tomorrow I am going to try for closeups with the new camera. Stay tuned.