Are you familiar with the dogwood tree? Maybe you know it for its blooming flowers in the spring, or maybe you have one in your backyard.

Dogwoods are great participants in bird feeding month. Not only do they have good looks, they also host all sorts of wildlife. Mother Nature’s cycle is an everyday reminder of how everything in nature is connected. The giant silk moths, assorted species of butterflies, bees, and other pollinating insects using the tree attract birds such as cardinals, titmice, and bluebirds. Not to mention that the trees’ red fruits last into winter, providing food all year long.

You don’t need bird seed, bird feeders, or other accessories in order to help feed birds! By taking care of and nurturing trees, they, in turn, can provide food and shelter for the birds who need it.

Last year during February, which is also feeding birds month, we shared some of Charlie’s photos of birds that are commonly found at backyard bird feeders. This year we’re going to look at plants and trees that feed birds.

We’ll start with oak trees (NPC’s logo tree is a rendition of an oak). Most people will jump immediately to acorns and think about the turkeys that like acorns. While that’s true, we can’t forget about the birds, that eat the insects, that eat the acorns.

Some birds will eat the adult insects, while others eat the larval stage of insects that use acorns as hosts. I know it may not sound all that appetizing to you, but grosbeaks love the weevils that use acorns as a “home.”

Then there’s the tree itself and the insects it holds. As trees age, they often become the home to a variety of insects that live in the wood or use the wood as a host for their young. Probably the most familiar bird that will eat these insects, in various stages is the woodpecker. The rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker on an oak tree is fairly common in Pennsylvania.

So, while oak trees in your yard can lead to acorn missiles while you’re mowing the grass in the Fall, they also provide a variety of birds with food during different times of the year.

We’re still talking about deer at NPC. The regular firearm season wraps up on Saturday, December 12, 2015. So, remember, if you’re going out in the woods on Saturday to enjoy the warm weather the weathermen are predicting, don’t forget fluorescent orange so you can be seen!

Deer can see quite a bit. They have a large range in their eyesight. The deer’s eyes are located on the side of their head. This placement gives them more than a 300 degree field of view without turning their heads.

Deer also are also fairly successful with their reproduction. When there are no natural predators and hunting is not permitted deer populations can double in one year. Given time, that number increases in only seven years one pair of deer can produce 35 deer. That’s a lot of deer.

To give you some perspective, estimates of deer population density before European settlement vary widely, but the best assessment is that there were 10-12 deer per square mile.

Wildlife biologists for various agencies and researchers at many universities are studying the populations of deer throughout Pennsylvania, the impacts deer have on forests and other habitat, and how deer are handling the changes to their habitat are various types of development and land use conversion take place.

The TV weather folks give reports on more than just the weather, they also give daily updates on when and where the fall foliage colors are peaking. But, the peak varies from place to place and by the day. However, the most brilliant fall colors tend to occur where sugar maple grows which is why the best fall colors tend to occur in the northern portion of our region where sugar maple is a common tree. The color displayed by sugar maple varies from pale yellow to bright red, but most commonly varies from golden yellow to orange. Sugar maple is the tree that provides maple syrup and bowling alleys in addition to a feast for the eyes.

It’s not just sugar maple that colors the hillsides in the middle of fall foliage season, many other trees are at the peak of their color now. In the southern part of our region the hickories are now displaying their glowing yellow color. There are four common hickories in northcentral Pennsylvania: bitternut, named for the flavor of its nuts; pignut, so called because its small very hard nut were deemed fit only to feed to hogs; mockernut, the thick hulls of its nuts conceal a small nut thus mocking anyone who thinks they’ve found a large nut; and shagbark which derives its name from its usually very long loose scaly bark.

Enjoy the peak of fall colors they’ll soon fade to the grays and browns of late fall.

The season progresses more rapidly as September passes. Many of the birches and walnuts are leafless as other species of trees begin to turn color. This is the time for the reds to make themselves obvious as red maple leaves turn color. Red maple is aptly named since the leaves turn red in the fall and the new growth from last spring, the samaras (poly-noses) bearing the seeds and the winter buds are red. Red maple grows almost everywhere in our area from the highest ridges to lowland wetlands.

Also showing its now red leaves is flowering dogwood, that small tree which is often planted as an ornamental in landscaping. Those trees usually display pink flowers in the spring, but the wild flowering dogwoods growing in the woodlands in the southern part of our area are almost universally white flowered, although sometimes with a pinkish tinge. At the same time the leaves change from green to red, flowering dogwood’s fruit ripens to a brilliant red. The fruits are eaten by chipmunks, gray squirrels and many species of birds.

There are signs of autumn everywhere. For many the true indication is the turning of trees’ leaves from green to various shades of red, yellow, orange and brown.

Look at the hillsides and you may see the first yellow leaves appearing on the birch trees; black, yellow and white birch are among the first trees to change color – frequently beginning to change in mid to late August and reaching their peak in early to mid-September.

And what causes the trees to change color? Some people believe it’s a frost – but it’s not. What causes tree leaves to change color is actually the shortening days. And the colors are the result of pigments in the leaves:
• Chlorophyll, the pigment that gives leaves their green color. It is where photosynthesis occurs whereby plants use sunlight to manufacture sugars. Toward the end of the growing season chlorophyll is broken down and no more is produced.
• Carotenoids that produce the yellow, orange, and brown colors in other plants like corn, bananas, carrots, and daffodils. These pigments are also present in leaves throughout the summer.
• Anthocyanins, are reddish pigments which color cranberries, apples, cherries and strawberries. These pigments form in the leaves in late summer and fall as the leaves prepare to fall from the tree and sugars are trapped in the leaves.

When all the chlorophyll in the leaves is destroyed the carotenoids and anthocyanins are revealed and with that the fall coloration is created.

Warm, sunny days and cool, but not freezing, nights usually produces the most glorious red and orange colors. That’s because during the day a lot of sugars are produced in the leaf but the cool nights and closing of the vessels between the leaf and twig keep the sugars in the leaf. A lot of sugar and a lot of light produce bright anthocyanin pigments. Because the yellow and brown pigments are always present in leaves, the yellow and gold colors don’t vary much from year to year.