Wildlife and Wood

 

 The other day Kim and I hiked up Mount Pisgah and walked through part of the arboretum. We’d always meant to walk through the arboretum but hadn’t. It was exciting to see some of the trees that I’ve been reading about in my new book The Sibley Guide to Trees. David Allen Sibley, well known for his bird guides, has written a guide to American trees. I really like how it breaks trees into families and subgenera and talks about the commonalities between these different groups. It makes it more readable than many field guides.

We didn’t take any photos in the arboretum, but here are some photos of tree branches from our back yard. To the right are some Western Hemlock stems. I included cones (about three quarters of an inch in length) still on the stem, cones that have recently fallen, and old cones. Notice how the length of the needles alternates between long and short as you go down the stem. The underleaf has two bright white lines (it's kind of hard to see the thin green line separating them in this photo. The Western Hemlock is the state tree of Washington.

To the right are some leaves from a Port Orford-cedar (the hyphen indicates that it is not a true cedar). Instead of needles it has scale like leaves. Our tree also has these beautiful blue round cones. Like with the hemlock I have included the top and bottom of the leaves and pictures of the cones at different stages. It is difficult to see on this photo but there are white x's on the underside of the leaves that are one of the characteristics that differentiate the Port Orford-cedar from Alaska-cedar.

 

 These are Douglas-fir stems and a cone. The Douglas fir is a very important tree to the forestry industry out here. It is the state tree of Oregon. Most of the forest regrowth is Douglas-fir. Older forests have less Douglas-fir and more of other species of trees as Douglas-fir does not grow well in shade. Notice how the three-pointed bracts project far past the ends of the scales.

Continuing the tree theme yesterday Kim and I spent a good part of the day moving wood. We moved a woodpile closer to the house and out of the way of a future fence, and we moved a pile of split oak closer to the cottage. I’m hoping that the increased surface area from splitting the oak will help it to dry out more before we burn it.

I went back outside to check the mail after we finished and saw turkeys scratching in the dirt on the hill near our car. I went back inside to get the camera. As I walked towards the turkeys three deer walked down the sidewalk and across one of the terraces. So I snapped pictures of the deer before I got close enough to get good photos of the turkeys. I'm not sure I did get close enough. I guess I need to work on my turkey stalking.

 Once I was back inside I checked about the turkeys. The turkeys in this part of Oregon are the Rio Grande subspecies, the same species that the pilgrims brought to the new world with them not knowing that there were already turkeys (and larger turkeys at that) in the eastern woodlands. Did you know that the turkeys we eat every thanksgiving have world-traveler ancestors?