The weather has been terrible here since last Sunday with pouring rain almost every day, so I’ve had to break open my hoard of nut, berry and seed photos for this post. As the above photo shows the winterberry bushes (Ilex verticillata) are heavily laden with fruit this year, and that comes after a barren winter last year when they hardly showed a single berry. Many trees and shrubs will have a barren year after exhausting themselves with a year of heavy production and some, like certain species of oak, can take several years to recover from a heavy fruiting.
If you are trying to attract wildlife to your yard and have a pond or a swampy area on your land then winterberry is an excellent choice of native shrub. They like very wet soil and, like other hollies, need male and female plants to produce berries. Because the berries have a low fat content birds and animals eat them quite late in the season, so the berries will color the landscape for most of the winter.
Wild grapes are a favorite of everything from blue jays to black bears but the wildlife doesn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry to eat them this year. This was a great year for all types of fruit, nuts and seeds and I suppose they know what they’re doing better than I do.
Pokeberries (Phytolacca americana) are also withering on the frost killed plants. I found out last fall that birds usually snap these up just as soon as they ripen. I wanted to get a photo of the ripe berries but every time I went to take one the birds had eaten every one. I’ve read that birds can get quite drunk from fermented pokeweed berries so maybe that’s why they’re avoiding them. I ran into a drunken cedar waxwing one day and I’ve never forgotten how it flew right at my face and then pulled up at the last second. It seemed to be a bit of a lush because it did this over and over until I moved away from the berries it wanted.
The seeds of eastern hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis) are eaten by small birds like black capped chickadees and pine siskins, and several species of warblers like to nest in the dense foliage. Bigger birds like turkeys, owls and grouse will often roost in the branches. Hemlocks are very good at shedding rain because of the way their branches grow. I’ve stood under them in quite heavy rains and barely felt a drop. That’s a good thing to keep in mind if you’re out with a camera and it starts raining.
Aster seeds get eaten quickly, it seems. Goldfinches and other small birds will land on the plants and in the process of eating their fill will knock enough seeds to the ground to take care of the bigger ground feeders.
Though we have been conditioned by seed and feeder salesmen to believe that birds won’t make it through winter without our help, nature takes care of her own. There is nothing wrong with feeding birds but unless we have an unusually harsh winter they will do just fine without our help.
Milkweed seeds apparently aren’t eaten by anything, which seems odd. Or if they are we don’t know much about it because I’ve searched and searched and haven’t found a single reference to these seeds being used as food by anything. It must be because of the toxins in the plant. Though I don’t know how much toxin is in the seeds I do know that the seeds in some poisonous plants carry some of the highest concentrations.
Bull thistle seed (Cirsium vulgare) is another favorite of birds like goldfinches, but how they get them without being stabbed by all of those spines is a mystery to me. In Europe part of the Latin name of the European goldfinch Carduelis means “eats seeds of thistle.”
We all know how burdocks (Arctium) get their barbs into our clothes, but what we might not think much about is how those same barbs can also catch on the feathers of small birds when they land on the plants to eat the seeds.
The orange berries and yellow bracts of oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) are pleasing to see, but when birds, mice, voles, rabbits, squirrels, and an army of other berry eaters eat the fruit, they help it spread. These berries seem to be loved by all including humans, and that’s why it has become so invasive. This vine is so tough it can choke trees to death and I’ve seen it do just that numerous times.
Here’s an example of what oriental bittersweet can do to a young beech tree.
I haven’t seen many beechnuts this year but we have plenty of acorns, hazel, and hickory nuts like the one in the above photo. Nuts are important foods for many birds and animals including wood ducks, woodpeckers, foxes, squirrels, beavers, cottontails, chipmunks, turkeys, white-tailed deer, black bears, mice, and raccoons. The name hickory comes from the word pohickery which, according to Captain John Smith of Jamestown, is from the Algonquin Indian word pawcohiccora, a drink that the Native Americans made from the crushed nutmeat.
If you seek the kernel, then you must break the shell. And likewise, if you would know the reality of Nature, you must destroy the appearance, and the farther you go beyond the appearance, the nearer you will be to the essence. ~Meister Eckhart
Thanks for stopping in.
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays.
Thank you for the re-blog Agnes.
You are very welcome, Allen. Sending bright Reiki blessings your way. Namaste
Love the milk weed shot! Gorgeous!! We had a huge Holly tree on our farm and loved using it for holiday decorations. The male was scrawny and ugly but obviously kept the female tree happy regardless! I well remember the late winter days when the Cedar Wax Wings would gather and become very “drunk” on the berries. I had to keep the cats inside to prevent mayhem!
Thanks Martha. Hollies are a great shrub, both for us and the birds. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear that a waxwing was attacking cats. They’re fearless when they’re drunk!
As always, an informative beautifully done post. Milkweed bugs and Monarch butterflies seem to be the main benefactors of the Milkweed plant.
Bob
Thanks Bob. Yes, most everything leaves the milkweed alone. Maybe that’s why we have fields full of it here.
As you may have read, all my garden berries were eaten almost immediately this year, which was disappointing. I was hoping the red Cranberrybush berries would last longer so I could appreciate them in the winter.
Maybe you had a lot of migratory fruit eaters stop by. You’re obviously growing things that the birds love. Viburnums and dogwoods seem to be the first to go here.
Your blogs are always so interesting and informative … and enjoyable.
Thank you, I’m glad that you think so.
Our sloes have been very variable with some good production but many bushes with none at all. On the other hand our beech nuts are lying inches deep below the trees.
That’s interesting. I haven’t seen a beech nut for two years now.
wow, you have a great eye, your pictures are great!! 🙂
Thanks Michael!
Magnificent photos. So alive! Thanks for sharing them and educating us at the same time. We have so much to learn and thoughtful people like you make it easier and enjoyable.
Thank you Eric, I’m glad you think so. As always, I’m hoping people will become interested enough to go and see for themselves. There are some amazingly beautiful things to see out there!
I’m sorry about your incessant rain – there’s nothing more misery-making! Those Winterberries look lovely – I like all kinds of Ilex very much. We have had a good berry-year here too. The cotoneaster and pyracantha berries have all gone but the hawthorn berries are mainly still all there. Now that we have had a few frosts they may be nicer to eat. Re James Corner’s comment about sloes – we have had plenty here but they aren’t as fat as usual. My husband says he isn’t bothering with sloe gin anymore as he’s gone off it. This will disappoint my eldest girl very much!
Thank you Clare. The rain has finally moved away and today is warm and sunny and almost spring like. It’s amazing how quickly the weather can change here in New England.
Isn’t it funny that Jim has no sloes and you do. Or maybe not. I keep forgetting what a big place England really is and you could both live quite far apart. I had a drink called a “sloe gin fizz” many years ago and I think that was the only time I’ve ever tasted it. If I remember correctly is was pretty good, so I don’t blame your daughter for being disappointed.
I must have a look to see where Jim lives! I think my daughter likes sloe gin as it is quite sweet and syrupy – which is probably the reason why my husband doesn’t like it so much! I am pleased the rain has stopped for a while.
My curiosity got the better of me so I had to see where both of you lived. Jim looks to be about 3 hours to the north west of Suffolk, in Yorkshire. That doesn’t seem far enough to account for the difference in the sloe harvest but it looks like your weather might be influenced by the sea, which might mean a slightly warmer winter than what he sees.
I just had a look to see where Jim lived too! You may be right. Also Suffolk is low-lying and only really gets very cold when the wind is in the North or East. Yorkshire is much hillier. The sloe harvest would also be affected adversely if there had been bad weather when the sloes were first forming. Blackthorn blossom appears very early in the year and is very hardy so frost wouldn’t damage it too much but high winds might. Our Blackthorn blossom was wonderful this spring and we had hardly had a frost at all last winter which may also account for the difference.
Cold might affect the pollinators which of course would affect the harvest. Actually it could be several things that have affected Jim’s harvest. They say that sloes have become naturalized in this part of the country but I’ve never seen one. I’ll have to look a little more closely next time I see a wild plum.
Great post as usual but it also got me thinking about making sure I have a few more plants to produce berries for the birds. Amelia
Thank you Amelia. I’m sure the birds will appreciate your efforts!
Perhaps a modification at your end can make a difference. Some email I receive displays all the images perfectly. Others, like yours, show me a placeholder for the image and no more. In Facebook where I first saw your work, all images were fine, so I know my computer is capable. Other emails display images with no problem, so I know my email client (Outlook) is set up correctly. Got any ideas?
Love your work,
Abbott
I’m sorry Abbot but I don’t know what would cause what you describe. When I read blogs I just open the actual blog in my browser so I don’t get them by email. I checked the settings but nothing there seemed to be causing a problem so then I went to WordPress and as usual found a lot of people with your problem, but no answer on how to fix it. I guess all I can say is, I don’t know how to fix the problem. Maybe someone else will read this and know how.
I’ve seen that the weather there has been bad, fortunately that hasn’t prevented you from adding another chapter to your “book” of interesting facts about nature!
I’ve noticed that the birds have left some berries that they normally eat as soon as the berries are ripe, and have been eating other seeds and berries that they usually “save” for later in the winter. I wonder if that’s because of the taste of the various food sources, or if weather drives that?
Thanks Jerry. It looks like the weather is finally going to break. I wish I knew why birds and animals seem to change their eating habits like they do. I’ve noticed the same thing here. I’ve read that they eat the foods with the most fat content first, but that doesn’t always seem to fit with what they’re actually doing.
What an interesting post. We have quite a few berry plants in our garden but the one the birds love best is mahonia. The dark blue berries seem to go right through them though and Commando gets annoyed that they stain the decking purple.
Thanks! I can’t blame your husband for not liking that, but birds have to eat!
I especially like the milkweed seeds!
Thanks Jennifer!
I love driving by a swamp after a snowstorm and seeing the bright red winterberries against the snow. They make great decorations for wreaths.
They sure do. I’m surprised that you haven’t planted some around your pond. Another native holly called inkberry would do well there too. It has shiny black berries.
In my part of England, the blackthorn are having a rest this year and we’ve seen so few sloes that it hasn’t been worth going out to collect them. That means no sloe gin for Christmas 2015.
I remember reading your posts from previous years when you collected them Jim. I think you’ll have to pick more of them to make even more gin so you can save it for the lean years!