The huge Oak tree that guards my house (which Jeff Norman said was a probably a hybrid between Coast and Canyon) is telling me something that I cannot quite understand. She has never spoken to me in this manner before, but is doing so loudly now. Usually, she speaks softly and gently. This has been loud with bings and bangs on my metal roof and suggestions I wear a hat when passing beneath her. Is she telling me that we are in for a wet winter? Or is she telling me she is threatened?
Given that I found tons of maple seeds had flown their way to my deck, I’m guessing they are predicting a wet winter…sigh…there goes Regent’s.
Beautiful note and photos!
I would agree with the wet weather communication. Possibly snow as well this winter? Great to learn the lost language of trees. They have much to share with us if we slow down enough to listen.
I’ve been seeing (and hearing) lots of acorns too
Acorn abundance is evidence of past wet winter(s)
The big acorn drop happened last year in my Carmel Woods garden.
Perhaps a bumper crop of acorns!
Sounds like a mast year. Oaks are known to have a wide range of fruiting/nut production. High productivity usually follows after a favorable warm and dry spring. Prepare for a boom in squirrel and rodents in response to the abundant food!
I hear this is an evolutionary method for ensuring some acorns, and therefore, future oaks, will come out of a year. How it works is there are many lean years, which discourages all the “predators” of the acorns from bothering to come around, and then many of the oaks in the same area will sort of flood the market so that no matter how many deer, squirrels, birds and other creatures eat the acorns, there will still be some left. I’m probably not explaining this terribly well.
As good an interpretation of observation as any, including evolutionary biologists. Please report to next years populations of jays and mockingbirds as well!
Profit-taking by sharing acorns with other dispersal agents like Homo sapiens ain’t all bad. Acorn planting beats jacking up resource consumption and well-intentioned container-growing! Garden or wildland, one gets better oaks at far less cost to Nature and humans by seeding than fussing around with traditional gardening.
Details upon request.
GGLGRL’s point also points out that they can also survive long dry periods as well. Note how much “better” they “do” around boulders.
Kate, whilst many plants respond to stress by reproducing more, they might be difficult to distinguish from mast years induced by precipitation. Somewhere in my old (50+ y.o.) slides is a pix of an old, but clearly declining live oak with a huge number of “pups” (knee-high in 1980) underneath. Today, they have been “reduced” to a healthy copse, as can be seen in this photo. Those across the fence where cattle graze, nothing is left. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Malibu+Creek+State+Park/@34.0964699,-118.7115365,3a,90y,38.01h,99.12t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sQZgwwTtcHeMvstE7-LtSpA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-9.116081381614535%26panoid%3DQZgwwTtcHeMvstE7-LtSpA%26yaw%3D38.00595346433378!7i16384!8i8192!4m6!3m5!1s0x80e821cd15ca1d97:0xe0a7d5b00c0d0120!8m2!3d34.0979551!4d-118.7314142!16zL20vMDJtNnlz?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MTAwMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
The larger tree at far right is much older, but those from the left of the paved highway are all from the now long-gone “mother” tree. There is a at least one reason why the ones closest to the highway are larger–would any close observer care to guess one obvious factor?
Hopefully, she is forecasting a wet winter, but a gentle rain! Please tell her that it would be wonderful if she could blow lots of the rain to Prescott, AZ!!!
When we were kids going to Pacific Valley school, we would gather eucalyptus pods and grind them in an Indian bowl we found on the school grounds. Sweet memories!!
I recently purchased a copy of the Big Sur-The Way It Was!!! Loved it!! I visited my aunt when I was 4 and we spent many evenings with Emil White and Henry Miller! It was awesome to see their talks on the video. I treasure three of Emil’s pictures he signed and gave them to me when I graduated from high school!!
The bears are gonna love this bounty!! Just what they need to fatten up, big time.
I think what your seeing is the fruit (pun intended) of the last favorable winter, spring and not too hot summer.