Dogwood berries

[ReneeinWinslow]

Hello All,

This has been a strange year in more ways than one. But I’ll get straight to my topic. This year is the first time that my Dogwood trees were not stripped clean by the end of October the birds. My trees are still full of berries. Has anyone else notice this on their trees or is it just happening in my area. Hope everyone had a nice Christmas.

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When the new wears off the old shines through

When The New Wears Off The Old Shines Through.

[tamsea]

I have no berry trees at my house so I can’t help you.
I’m hoping the blues are munching on berries somewhere right now because it’s been cold and I haven’t seen them for about 4 days.

Tammy

[Chris]

Renee, I realize there are several different varieties of Dogwoods. Ours is Koosa and the berries have never been eaten in the 10 years we’ve had it. Along with several different ornamental cherries. All the fruit eventually falls to the ground and returns to mother earth!
And we have tons of every berry eating birds. However… we did plant a hand full of service berries. The Waxwings devour those before they’re done growing. Such a delight to observe.

Chris
Rochester, NY

N

[Carol – Mid-Mo.]

Here in Mid-Missouri we have had such warm weather (Until about the last few days) that my Bradford pear tree actually began to get new buds on it (we actually hade about 1 or 2 days of close to 70 degree weather) – I was beginning to worry about it when the cold weather hit (which it did the last couple of days), but I believe it is such a hardy tree that it will survive.
These past few days I knew we were going to get colder weather because my winter birds are just devouring my home-made peanut butter suet. I have two cage feeders (on my deck railing) where I feed the suet and a handful of suet in each cage is usually gone in about 5-1o minutes. My blues (I believe there are four still here) really have to fight the large quantity of other birds (white-heated sparrows and juncos and of course, HOSP) to get to the suet. We also have a seed-feeder in the back yard for the larger birds like cardinals, woodpeckers, blue jays, etc. I even saw a starling (they have been mixed up because of the warm weather and are still around) squeeze inside my cage feeder for some suet because today it had turned very cold and trying to snow. He had a problem getting out but finally twisted enough to get it done.

I say let’s get the cold weather over so we can get to spring!!

[Chris]

On the 2nd of January, i did come acrosss a dogwood tree here in Ohio that still had a lot of berries. I was doing the annual Christmas Bird count for the local Audubon Society with a friend and came across one the birds hadn’t devoured the fruits of yet. It must be the warm weather, and here in my part of Ohio we have not had snow covering up food. I still have robins and starlings eating the bradford pear fruits. I have a dogwood tree, a cultivar called “Spring Grove,” that is supposed to fruit heavily, it was cloned from a tree in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. I get some berries on this tree, but i think the squirrels get a good number of them.

Now that we’ve had some weather down to 10 degrees F, the bluebirds are coming around to the feeders. I’m feeding dried mealworms, i have a couple robins here all the time and a flock of about 4 blues that visit. I made home made suet tonight, we have some winter weather coming in tomorrow.

I’ve noticed the birds lately really using the heated bird bath, not much moisture around since we dont have snow.

[Carol – Mid-Mo.]

Sure is good to hear from everyone. Yes, those heated birdbaths are greatly used, even in the winter. I’ve had my heater for probably 10 or 15 years and it is still going. I am feeding tons of peanut butter suet to those who can fit inside a cage feeder. which include my bluebirds, juncos, white-crowned sparrows and of course HOSP. I have two cage feeders and usually have at least 30 birds taking turns at the feeders (really can’t count them but there are lots – have at least 7-8 inside each feeder at one time, with my trees full of the others waiting their turn).

COME ON SPRING!

[Author]

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