mast years

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Everyone,

I wonder what others have noticed about the seediness of trees this year?

Here in Bishops Mills the Honey Locusts that produced so many pods last
year that they're still mulched up in piles around the trunks of the
trees have absolutely no pods this year.

The Grand Fir beside the house here, which produced almost no cones last
year is now crowned with massive arrays of green cones, and the Cedars
also have lots of cones.

The Manitoba Maples around the houses here are literally brown samaras
(we've had lots of leaf die-back from Aceria negundi galls, which makes
the seeds more conspicuous).

Sugar Maples have a modest crop, the Red Maple here produced almost no
seeds this spring, Hawthorns have only a few berries, and I haven't
checked the status of Spruces or Pines or Oaks.

fred.
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[V. Kirkwood]

There are lots of cones on the cedars here, and a bumper crop of wild apples. Sadly, my domestic apples have yet to produce any, although some have been here since 2007, and are within spitting distance of some bountiful wild ones.

Valerie Kirkwood

Acton's Corners

---

Visit my fine art photography page at http://valerie-kirkwood.fineartamerica.com/

[rmb...@istar.ca]

We have ACORNS! Two years of spongy moths and then last year's cold
spell during the oak blooming session had deprived us for 3 years of
any acorns. They are now falling with abundance from my 2 big oak
trees by the lawn. Oddly, some of the oaks have none, such as the one
beside my parking area that usually beans us in the head when we take
a few minutes to sit out there on the lawn chairs. I've only see 2 or
3 acorns on the ground where they are usually scattered.

The shagbark hickory trees are also loaded this year, they too had a
spindly crop the past 3 years.

The maples had low-normal year for seeds.

The pines were loaded last year, the whole region had a huge pine
crop. In response to the big crop there were many sightings of
crossbills, including a pair that were seen right outside of my front
door several times. There are about 6 balsam trees to one side of the
front of my house, they had a lot of the "beads" on them. I'm finding
beech seeds being dropped on my balcony.

The birches had a lot of seeds last year, I picked up several of those
caterpillar "pods" last fall and put them in a baggie and out in the
shed cupboard to overwinter. I had fully intended to spread them on
trays of dirt this springtime to see if they sprouted, but like so
many things I had plans for that's one more thing that went by the
wayside. I'll keep them for next year. There are no seeds on the
birches this year, they tend to be stingy in producing seeds.

Sidetracking now to critters that love acorns, the squirrels and
chipmunks are quite busy with the harvest. During the night When
Kerrie the Merry Pup decides it's time to
Wake-the-human-and-get-her-outside in the wee hours I have heard
activity in the oak trees. I have shone the flashlight hoping to see
flying squirrels in action but no luck yet. I need to take two of the
big flashlights down the hill and peer up into the big oaks. I haven't
seen any porcupines down on the lawn where the acorns fall, porkies
have been scarce this year. When there's a good crop of acorns
they're usually down there munching If it's a good enough crop I
will once again collect a couple of cartons for the Sandy Pines
Wildlife Center.

Rose-Marie

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[Greg Hutton]

Our Red Oak tree on our front lawn has had a prolific crop of acorns as well. The lawn is thick with the fallen nuts or the acorn caps, and there’s still a fair bit on the tree.

The squirrels have driving me, er, nuts with their branch trimming. Every day there’s at least a dozen branches littering the road and lawn. They’ve been doing this to the other oaks on the street. As soon as I pick up the limbs, another pile of them falls to the ground.

Messy little ingrates.

— Greg

Sent from my iPhone

> On Sep 9, 2024, at 11:20 AM, rmb...@istar.ca wrote:
>
> We have ACORNS! Two years of spongy moths and then last year's cold spell during the oak blooming session had deprived us for 3 years of any acorns. They are now falling with abundance from my 2 big oak trees by the lawn. Oddly, some of the oaks have none, such as the one beside my parking area that usually beans us in the head when we take a few minutes to sit out there on the lawn chairs. I've only see 2 or 3 acorns on the ground where they are usually scattered.

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[brian....@sympatico.ca]

In our little corner of suburban Kanata, there seem to be prolific crops of red oak acorns and yellow birch seeds.
BH

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[Jim Beckett]

Around my field and garden the most noticeable element this year is the almost complete absence of black walnut nuts, wild apples and crab apples. The horse chestnuts have a lot of nuts but they are much smaller than usual.
Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: natur...@googlegroups.com <natur...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Frederick W. Schueler
Sent: Monday, September 9, 2024 9:22 AM
To: Eastern Ontario Natural History listserve <natur...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [NatureList] mast years

Everyone,

I wonder what others have noticed about the seediness of trees this year?

.

[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 09-Sep-24 9:21 a.m., Frederick W. Schueler wrote:

> Sugar Maples have a modest crop

* I haven't checked this out generally, but our remaining big Sugar
Maple, the Faucet Tree (from its historic sap production) has got quite
a good crop of seeds, and, something I'm not sure I've seen before, Red
Squirrel(s) are eating the seeds, and dropping the hulls, so that right
under the tree about half of the fallen seeds are hulls (22 hulls, 27
seeds on the roof of the trailer under the tree).

I've only seen one Red Squirrel on the tree, and haven't heard any
vocalization from this tree, so either it's just one individual getting
nice and fat, or more than one so busy eating that they don't have time
to squabble.

fred.
------------------------------------------------------------
---------Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad ------------
Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
6 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
------------------------------------------------------------

[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 09-Sep-24 9:21 a.m., Frederick W. Schueler wrote:

> I haven't checked the status of Spruces or Pines or Oaks

* the tops of White Spruce in the village here, and others seen
elsewhere, are brown with cones. I haven't seen many cones on any White
Pine, and the sidewalks under some Red Oaks in Oxford Mills and the
Kemptville Campus were littered with squirrel-cut acorn-bearing twigs.

[Jim Beckett]

With respect to the discussion of seed bearing, my black walnut trees have virtually no nuts this year.... the red squirrels that usually fill my barn and compost bin with the nuts are going to have a lean winter. The apple trees also have virtually no fruit.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: natur...@googlegroups.com <natur...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Frederick W. Schueler
Sent: Tuesday, October 1, 2024 10:37 AM
To: Eastern Ontario Natural History listserve <natur...@googlegroups.com>

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[Douglas Thompson]

I have a good quantity of black walnuts this year, as I have had in recent years.  Many squirrels going after them.

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