I went down a road that I had been curious about for years, just to see where it went, and found myself in a wide open, treeless field. When you live in a state with 4.8 million acres of trees places like this are pretty special, so I took a photo of it. When I looked at it later on the computer it looked like a tropical, white sand beach. Unfortunately the “sand” is snow, but I can dream.
After being surrounded by forest for nearly all of my life, being in a place like this makes me feel strange, like being in a house with no walls. It’s great to visit places that are so wide open and have such “big sky,” but I don’t think I could live there. I wonder how prairie people stand it.
Since I complained about having only seen script lichen twice, not only am I seeing it everywhere now but I’m noticing different kids. The dark lines, which are the fruiting bodies (apothecia), are very different between the upper and lower halves of this photo. The upper ones are long and horizontal while the lower ones are short, branched, and squiggly. I think the upper example is elegant script lichen (Graphis elegans) and the lower common script lichen (Graphis scripta). There are 39 species of script lichen.
The yellow body (thallus) and dark orange, cushion shaped fruiting bodies (apothecia) tell me that this is a sulfur firedot lichen (Caloplaca flavovirescens). Though I see this small lichen occasionally this is the first time I’ve ever seen its apothecia. I found this one growing on a stone in an old stone wall. There are 131 species of Caloplaca in North America alone, so identifying them can be challenging.
I thought this crustose lichen might be one called tiny button lichen (Amandinea punctata), but after some reading I find that tiny button lichen rarely grows on rock. It prefers bark or wood dust. Since this lichen was growing on nothing but rock I have to lean more towards rock disk lichen (Lecidella stigmatea), which is described as having a dirty white, gray, brownish gray to sometimes partly pale rusty thallus (body) with blackish brown fruiting bodies (Apothecia).
The fruiting bodies of the rock disc lichen are either even with the body of the lichen (plane) or are convex like those shown in the photo. If they were concave we would most likely be looking at one of the map lichens. Each one of these little apothecia isn’t much bigger than a period made by a pencil on paper, so you have to look closely when trying to make a good identification. Luckily the camera often sees what I can’t.
Pileated woodpeckers were building condos in this pine tree. They roost in hollow trees and have many entrance holes to the nest, but I’m not sure if that’s what was going on here.
I had to hold the camera up over my head and shoot blind to get this view looking inside a pileated woodpecker hole, so it isn’t the sharpest shot you’ve ever seen on this blog. You can see that he has excavated all the way to the hollow heart of the tree. I wonder if they know the tree is hollow before they start excavating.
It took me a while to find it because there are a lot of trees out there, but I found the tree with the zig zag scar again. I don’t know why I thought I’d learn any more now than I did when I first ran into it last fall, but I wanted to see it again and take a closer look. Of course I don’t know any more now than I did then-just that it’s a scar deep in the bark of a white pine that looks like a zig zag. It starts below the soil level and runs up the trunk about 3 feet and then stops. I don’t know if lightning or another natural event caused it or if it was a boy with a pocket knife. It is an oddity though, no matter what caused it.
I did some online searching and didn’t find anything that looked like it but I was contacted by another blogger who found an old hemlock with an even stranger scar. If you’d like to see it, just click here.
This close-up shows how thick the bark is on either side of the zig zag scar and how they come together like a zipper. The bark on older white pines is naturally platy and deeply furrowed, but it looks to me like the tree has been trying to heal this scar for a very long time.
I saw a culvert that directed spring water off a hill and into a pond. I tried to get a shot of the miniature waterfall and the ice cloak that it had wrapped itself in, but it’s a little hard to see that in this photo.
There is a lot of old fencing left in our woods from the 1800s when this was all pasture land. One day I saw a dead pine limb that had grown around the wire of an old stock fence and had broken away from the tree and was now hanging from it. The diameter of the limb was probably about 2 1/2 to 3 inches.
For the limb to have grown around the wire as it did, both would have had to have been undisturbed for quite a long time, I would think. I’ve heard of some strange things being found in trees, but wire isn’t that unusual. It is a logger’s nightmare though-imagine running a chainsaw into that. .
I found a piece of pitch pine bark that had orange colored parts that were as thin as paper.
This is what I saw when I held the piece of pitch pine bark up to the light. Is this what a squirrel sees from inside a hollow tree?
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle
Thanks for coming by.
Nice photos! The Pileated Woodpeckers really know how to hammer a tree, what damage they can make and quickly too!
Have you seen my Pileated Woodpecker post?
Michael 🙂
Thanks! Its amazing how a bird can destroy a tree like they do. You’ve got a nice shot of one there!
Beautiful to see nature through your eye and lens.
Thank you Mary. I hope to be showing you some flowers soon.
The tree scar is very puzzling. I was hoping you’d come up with an answer, the tree on the other blog looks as if something similar may have happened to me. The open space photo was lovely. Here we have both enclosed forests and ope spaces like the moors so I guess we have the best of both worlds.
I keep hoping a tree expert will stop in and tell us all about these tree scars, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Large open spaces are very scarce here so finding one almost feels like I’d imagine landing on another planet would-completely foreign.
Wow! Don’t mess with pilleated woodpeckers. If you’re interested in open spaces, you should come to Illinois and visit some of the prairie restoration areas.
I’d love to visit some real prairie, just to see what it’s like. Maybe some day.
Perfect quote for all your observations! You have opened my eyes up when I walk through trees.
Thank you, I’m glad to hear that. There’s are many beautiful things out there that so many of us miss seeing.
This is a fascinating assortment! Thanks !
You’re welcome Montucky. It’s good to see you back again.
Fantastic detail in the lichen pictures. I take my hat off to you.
Thanks! I have to twist myself into pretzel shapes occasionaly, but the camera does most of the work.
I’ve often marveled at the way digital cameras allow us to see very small things that we usually miss with the naked eye.
Me too. It’s great, because you never really know what you’re going to see when you view the photo. I’ve been surprised many times!
Being an outdoor type, I really enjoyed your blog. I often find myself taking pictures of lichens. They are close to miracle workers in turning rock into soil. Our five acres in Southern Oregon is often visited by Pileated Woodpeckers with their loud rat-tat-tats and their distinctive tree carving methods. And I spent a lot of time last year removing old barbwire from the property. The wire embedded in the trees remains embedded in the trees. My chainsaw will leave it alone. 🙂 As for wide open spaces, I am a westerner and love the open views. Our property has its share of trees but also has a great view of distant mountains. Thanks for stopping by and visiting my blog. –Curt
You’re welcome Curt, I plan to visit again. It doesn’t sound like Oregon is that much different than New Hampshire in some ways. We have some good views and some very big mountains in the northern part of the state but I don’t get up that way very often because it’s quite a drive. In this part of the state we have a few good views but you have to climb to see them because of all the trees.
I once hiked on the Appalachian Trail in Maine. Beyond the fact that it rained all week, black flies, mosquitos and no-see-ems ate me alive, and I could only see about 15 feet into the woods at any time, it was a great experience. 🙂 –Curt
The bubbles in the ice cloak are gorgeous. Also love the close-up of the wire and the branch…lovely post!
Thanks Martha. I see you like the more “artsy” shots. I do too sometimes, and I guess that’s why I take them.
Thanks for another informative post! The lichen and the fence through the branch were interesting to say the least.
I would assume that the woodpeckers can tell by sound when they start pecking on a tree if it is hollow or not, and probably by feel as well.
I too feel strange in wide open spaces like in the first photo, but I kind of like it. I grew up in the woods, and spend most of my time there, but variety is the spice of life.
Thanks Jerry. I’m forever finding wire and chains in trees!
I was wondering if a woodpecker could “read” a tree by the sound of it too. It has to sound a lot different that a tree that isn’t hollow, but we’d probably never notice it.
I’ve been in a few wide open pastures and it hasn’t really bothered me, but I have to wonder what it would be like day after day and year after year. It seems like it might wear on you a bit.
New Hapshire Gardener, While all of your post is interesting (I still have so much to learn about lichens it isn’t funny. Firrst time I’ve ever read any real botony in my entire life), I found your “wonder”: “Is this what a squirrel sees from inside a hollow tree?” most intriguing. I think you may be right; and if so, how different the world of squirrels must be, to see from “inside” a tree. What a great concept and how much to think about from that one statement. MCS
P.S. The pictures and posts about the zig-zag “thingees” on the trees is a “who knew?” to me. More to think about. I like trees; they speak to me sometimes; there’s something very “alive” about a tree. MCS
Thank you Mary. I also like trees. Sometimes there are such oddities on and around (and even in) trees that it’s hard to believe you’re seeing what you’re seeing. I also wonder what being inside a hollow tree would be like and that piece of bark gave me what I can imagine a “squirrels eye view” might be. It sure would be a different world!
It would be interesting to set up a game camera and watch the pileated woodpecker come and go for a week. Which hole does it use the most? Does it go in one and out another? It amazes me how a tree will grow around things like the wire. And yes, I wouldn’t want to hit that with a chainsaw!
I’ve been wanting to get one of those game cameras to answer those kinds of questions, but I can’t figure out how you’d keep someone from stealing it.
I’ve heard of loggers finding some strange things inside trees, and they usually do find them the hard way.
Our camera has a security box and it is locked to the tree. We’ve captured all kinds of critters on it
I’ll have to look into that. Thanks Laura.
Reblogged this on Writing Out Loud and commented:
Another great post from NH Garden Solutions. Getting ready for spring.
Thanks for the re-blog.