Another girdled Tamarack Tree

On the return path of the walk I came across this newly gnawed tamarack tree. There is so little bark left on this tree that it will certainly die. Tamarack is a favoured food of the local porcupine.

A Red Squirrel's Midden

I first came across the term midden when reading a report on archaeological findings where middens or piles of shells were found on the beaches of Prince Edward Island as evidence of early inhabitation by man. Always thought it was odd to have such a name for a simple pile but then it is a better explanation than just a pile. In fact Dictionary.com says that a kitchen midden is a "mound consisting of shells of edible mollusks and other refuse, marking the site of a prehistoric human habitation." That is quite specific. I have also heard it used for the small piles of spruce or pine cone husks left by squirrels as pictured here. Numerous such middens have been found throughout the property today. It must be that the reduced food supply may be diminishing to a point where cone seeds now become the best there is on the forest menu of the red squirrel.

A mammal's Breathing Hole

There is an old fence/tree line that runs near the centre and along the length of the woodlot. I call it the Hawthorn line since it is made up mainly of hawthorn trees and basswood trees. Along this line I found a hole in the snow pictured here and the outer rim of the hole was covered in hoar frost crystals as shown in the photo. This is typical of a breathing hole for a mammal that is hibernating or holed up in the snow. There are at least two of these that I know of on the property. The other is from underneath an old barn floor.

Nature's home Builder, the Pileated Woodpecker

In today's walk the second exhibit I encountered was the hard work of the pileated woodpecker [Dryocopus pileatus]. The bird, as it seeks food such as insects in the trees, hollows out sizable holes which make ideal nests for small bird or mammals. The huge chips of wood in the snow bely that the construction was quite recent, and this size of wood chip is typical of the pileated.

The woodpecker must be able to hear the insects inside the tree. Some think that the woodpecker damages trees while in fact the tree by now is already rotted or insect infested in the centre.

In woodlot management it is recommended that a number of dead trees be left standing to provide habitat for animals. This tree will likely serve as a home for some animal one day.
 

The Highbush Cranberry

Today's walk in the woods provided a number of interesting exhibits. We have a number of highbush cranberry shrubs throughout our woodlot that were generated naturally. In winter they provide a rather attractive showy red berry against the dreary white and gray winter background. Apparently after a frost the berries do not taste as strong as when they are first ripened. In fact I tried one of these berries which has a rather pretty heart-shaped seed inside and it tasted a lot like a cranberry, though it is not of the same family.

A Walk to the Red Pine Grove

Our woodlot has a very pronounced red pine grove located near the center of the bush. The grove must have been hand planted since the trees are not planted in exact rows and yet they are nicely spaced apart. It is an interesting grove since many of the trees there are shaped like a Y. I am guessing it is because of porcupine damage killing the top of the tree, and leaders then growing out of the sides below the bark damage. I am assuming it is porcupine since some of the red pines located near the house have noticeable porcupine scars which also created leaders.

This renders the wood of the trees quite valueless from a commercial perspective, so I will be thinning this grove over time, besides red pine has to be thinned. If I leave it the way it is red pine will keep growing but become thinner and overtime will not be able to withstand high winds. We have had some incredible wind storms lately with 100 km/h winds.

Today we snowshoed to the grove, my wife, my 4 yr. old grandson and I. We have had quite a bit of snow this winter. The accumulated snow was knee deep ~ 60 cm. (2 feet) next to the trails and the snow shoe trail was packed down to half the depth of ~ 30 cm (1 foot).

Along the trail we came across a well used porcupine highway which is a 15 cm (6 in) deep track in the snow.

Mice, those cursed rodents

There is no shortage of mice in the fields and forests of this woodlot. Our cat leaves us mice part offerings on an almost daily basis during summer and fall. In this picture, the hole in the snow is a ventilation or observation hole for some mice burrowing in the snow. That is likely why we see as many fox and raptors -- that prey on mice -- in this area.

There are a number of varieties of mice in this area.

Invasion of the Common Reed

I had the occasion recently to drive between Quebec City and Montreal and during that drive I was astonished at the continuous growth of Phragmites Australis a.k.a. the Common Reed, for, I would guess, at least 100 solid kilometres. I had to stop the car, get out and take the these pictures of this biological phenomenon. The plant literally coated both sides of the 4 lane highway and the median for many many kilometres without interruption.

Phragmites is a recent but known invasive weed in eastern Ontario. It was first brought to my attention by Fred and Aleta when I visited the Bishops Mills Natural History Centre, located less than half an hour from here. For more on the centre see http://www.pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm

My neighbour has a very large 2 to 3 acre pond and its north west shore is covered with the plant. He told me once that he lost balance and fell into the weed and its was so sturdy that it broke his fall and held him up.

Around here there appears to be two types of Phragmites. There is the dark very thick tassel variety and a silky white thinner tassel variety. The dark tassel appears notably more invasive in that its stands are typically large and dense and like the type pictured here. The white variant appears to be much less aggressive in its growth and not as dense. The white variety is also often seen as a landscaping plant now in the suburban gardens of Ottawa.

For a fairly thorough study of the plant see:
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/graminoid/phraus/all.html

In a later post, I hope to compare pictures of both types side-by-side.

The ever busy Bumblebee

The bumblebees pictured here characteristically have the dark shiny hump on their backs. There was a citizen article that described a parasite of the Bumblebee which seemed to have a similar appearance. Every bumblebee seen here have that same characteristic hump.

False Dragonhead or Obedient Plant

Found this lovely flower growing along our driveway[Physostegia virginiana]. It turns out to be False Dragonhead or Obedient plant. It is growing among other tall plants including grasses and golden rod.

An Trillium Fruit

During my butternut survey I found a couple of trilliums as pictured here with a red fruit. At first by the leaves one would guess possibly a Jack-in-the-Pulpit but its fruit is a cluster of red berries. After considerable research-- there is lots about the flower but not much about the fruit -- I have determined that it is definitely the fruit of a trillium. According to the internet literature the fruit body actually contains many seeds. In nature the fruit over time would drop to the ground and ants would then excavate into the fruit and take the seeds back to their nests; hence carry out one of the trilliums means of propagation in nature.

Natural Butternut Tree near our Residence

I have prepared a new blog to track the lovely natural butternut tree nearby. Click on the title.

Update and wrap up of Canker Resistant Butternut Report

Completed observing and logging the position and condition of the remaining unreported butternut trees.

Status of each tree can be found at separate blogs as follows.

Tree #1 is planted in field area i and can be found at: http://crb1i.blogspot.com/
Tree #2 is at http://crb2i.blogspot.com/
Tree #7 is found and reported at http://crb7c.blogspot.com/

- 30 -

Follow up Inspection of Canker Resistant Butternuts

There was some unfinished business to attend to. Some of the trees still had to be tagged and I found that some of the geographic coordinates were inaccurate.

Also I found tree number seven so this means we have a 9 out of 10 survival rate.

I will be updating each of the individual tree blogs.

I also found additional butternut trees for which I will be creating individual blogs as well. It is becoming apparent that I will have quite a time tracking all the blogs.

How to conveniently label trees

To uniquely label special and noteworthy trees in the woodlot and to track them with a blog they need to be labeled. The label has to be durable enough to last many years. I thought that a plastic square cut from a Javex bleach bottle, or joghurt tub might do. After all these plastic bottles are known to last for up to 30 years in a landfill. The identification information would then be marked on it with an indelible marker. I noticed however that the permanent markers will fade completely when exposed to the sun after only one season. So instead I found the aluminum cat food can lid quite suitable and there is a plentiful supply. Using a punch set - bought from Princess Auto and hoping one day to find a use for it - I could punch the tree code on the lid. I could then tie this to the tree trunk while it is still small with a bit of wire or screw it into the trunk when it is larger. Aluminum corrodes very slowly and will last much longer than 30 years and more like 50 years.

Survey of Canker Resistant Butternut Trees

I visited six of the butternut trees today, took measurements, and tagged them.
Of the trees all survived the summer except: Tree #3 was uprooted and Tree #7 was not found today but may still be healthy and alive.
I still have to measure and report on trees #1 & 2.
For the remaining healthy and measured trees I have created blogs as follows:
http://crb4c.blogspot.com/
http://crb5c.blogspot.com/
http://crb6c.blogspot.com/
http://crb8g.blogspot.com/
http://crb9g.blogspot.com/
http://crb10g.blogspot.com/

Visit these sites to view photographs, geographic coordinates or pictures of the subject trees.
Not all photographs are posted yet.

New Blog for Butternut Tree CRB1I

This is the first of the butternut trees that are confirmed to have survived the planting and the summer. The code CRB1I for numbering tree means Canker Resistant Butternut #1 in Area I of our woodlot. Click on title to see the blog.

George and Sean Planted the Black Walnut

The Walnut tree has survived the trip to Campbellton. In this picture, see link, my Grandson Sean and Father-in-law /good friend George are planting the tree.

More about the Black Walnut

At the end of the woodlot tour on Lalandes property, which was held on October 14th, 2006, one of the members was giving away walnuts that he collected from a tree on his property. He gave use about 50 walnuts, which I planned to plant here at Heartwood.

In the mean time we had the nuts stored in a basket outside, and by the time we were ready for planting on December 24th 2006 -- it was a very mild fall -- the squirrels had raided the basket and left us with 36.

We laid out a 6 metre by 6 metre grid and planted the nuts at each one metre intersection. The ground was very soft and wet so to plant them we simply pushed the nut into the ground with the heel of our boots.

Next spring 7 of the nuts sprouted. I cut squares out of old carpet and cut a slit from the middle out and placed the carpets around the nuts that survived. This was to control the weeds around them which worked very well.

The following year we had 14. Yay! seven more nuts sprouted. So what are we going to do with them all?

The previous trees did not do so well and were late putting out leaves. From this website I see now that it might be the high moisture that has delayed the trees. We have had a record number of rainy days this year in this area.

The referenced website also describes the process for transplanting walnuts. It appears that the nut produces a large tap root, so one can not wait too long to transplant them. They should be less than one metre (3 feet) tall. I might have another year yet since these seedlings are only about half a metre (16in.) tall.

This weekend I potted one of the walnuts as a gift for my father in-law who lives in northern New Brunswick. Some members of my family were going up to see him and took it with them. It is much colder up there and the winters are much longer. We are already at the northern edge of the Walnut habitat. I wonder how it will do.

Regarding Walnut and Butternut Toxicity

There is an excellent article provided by the Purdue University on this subject at: http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/HO/HO-193.pdf