FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] FW: more thoughts on fruit and nut availability

["Raincrow" <raincrow@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

My blackberries are almost gone, with extremely few takers except me and the 
skunks. One corner of my property sports a few degenerate blueberry bushes with 
fully set fruit that's all skin and seed, no pulp. I don't put out much feed 
during the summer, but this year the birds are all but mobbing my ankles 
begging for sunflower seeds; very uncharistically bold. I haven't seen nearly 
as many swifts as in usual years, so I take it the population of flying insects 
is much reduced. This does not, however, hold for TICKS. 
And whereas my 2-1/2-story A-frame house has always sported numerous and 
bodaciously sized wasp colonies, this year I cannot detect even a single nest, 
not one. Between the freeze and the drought, I've found only a couple of nests, 
both of which were attended by only 1 adult. (Unfortunately I destroyed them in 
the process of accidentally discovering them in flower pots, darn it.) I have 
lived in East Tennessee since 1978 and have never experienced a year in which I 
had no wasps. And although it's a mercy, since late June I've neither seen nor 
heard carpenter bees, which annually lay siege to my cedar-sided house.

Strange days. 

Liz Singley
Kingston TN





 C Reese/SPEC/PS/EXT/UTIA[mailto:jreese5@xxxxxxx]
Sent : 7/12/2007 12:10:42 AM
To : tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc : 
Subject : FW: [TN-Bird] more thoughts on fruit and nut availability


Carol Reese
Ornamental Horticulture Specialist -Western District
University of Tennessee Extension Service
605 Airways Blvd.
Jackson TN 38301
731 425 4767 email jreese5@xxxxxxx

I saw lots of fruit on wild grape (what I call possum grape) still green.
Of course the smooth sumac is fruiting already, winged sumac is just
blooming, so that will help. Blackberries here are much plumped up by
recent rains, and elderberries are still forming, just finishing their
bloom They bloom on new wood, so freeze didn't seem to affect them, and I
wish I knew which trees bloom on new wood!

Red oak acorns take two years to develop, white oak only one, so red oak
may not produce acorns next year if the "babies" were killed. Most critters
around here are currenlty gorging on field corn. Feeder business has
dropped accordingly, but hummingbird activity has picked up...

cr

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Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com 

_____________________________________________________________




=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with
first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation.
You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds
you report were seen.  The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should
appear in the first paragraph.
_____________________________________________________________
      To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
                    tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____________________________________________________________ 
                To unsubscribe, send email to:
                 tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
            with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
______________________________________________________________
  TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society 
       Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
        endorse the views or opinions expressed
        by the members of this discussion group.
 
         Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
                 wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                ------------------------------
                Assistant Moderator Andy Jones
                         Cleveland, OH
                -------------------------------
               Assistant Moderator Dave Worley
                          Rosedale, VA
__________________________________________________________
         
          Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
              web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                          ARCHIVES
 TN-Bird Net Archives at http://www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/

                  EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif
Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com

_____________________________________________________________