Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Friday, March 31, 2006
Two Hollies
Two stories about holly trees today - a short one and a longer one.
This morning when I went out to get the newspapers, the cedar waxwings were in the little holly tree I mentioned yesterday. I assume they were eating the berries, but they flew away when I got close enough to see.
Now the longer story. Several days ago I noticed a dark spot on the mulch under a large holly tree in front of the house. I didn't think too much about it at the time, except that maybe some critter had just been there leaving me a message. Yesterday, I decided to replenish the mulch. When I got around to the holly tree, I noticed the dark spot was still there. Hmm. Sap, probably. A broken branch? I looked up into the tree. It's a many-branched thing that I limbed up some number of years ago, so when you are under it, you can see the main stems clearly. I wasn't prepared for what I saw - dozens (hundreds?) of sapsucker wells around most of the big branches and many of the smaller branches. My first thought was "Wow, cool!". My second thought was, "Uh oh, these branches look girdled". My third thought was, "I haven't seen a sapsucker all winter. How could I have missed them?". I wonder if the bird(s) that created this have moved on? According to the species description on the Cornell Bird site, they don't nest anywhere near here, so I'm thinking maybe they're gone for the year. So, is the tree going to survive? This site says the girdled branches will die, but this listserv posting, and this newspaper article, say that the tree will probably callous over the spots and be fine. I'll let you know.
2 Comments:
Thanks for the music recommendations! I'm looking forward to giving them a listen.
I am jealous of your waxwings. I haven't seen any in my yard for a couple years now. And the sapsucker wells are pretty cool too.
At least we finally got a little rain. For what should be the wettest time of year, it sure has been dry. I hope it is not a repeat of last fall.
I think the waxwings may have moved on. I haven't seen them for the last couple days. Yesterday, I found the sapsucker on the holly tree - took some blurry pictures through the window, but haven't gotten them edited and posted yet. So the sapsucker hasn't moved north yet.
I was hoping for a really big downpour from yesterday's storms, but something is better than nothing I guess.
I'm always on the lookout for new music recommendations myself, so if you hear anything good please post it. I neglected to mention my current very favorite band - Great Big Sea, but I have to admit they're not to everyone's taste. Celtic/folk/pop is how I would describe them. Way different than 70s progressive rock. I wish there was an "adult album alternative" radio station here in DC. We had one for a few months several years ago, but it didn't last. I still miss WXRT from Chicago.
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