My blackberries are almost gone, with extremely few takers except me and the skunks. One corner of my property sports a few degenerate blueberry bushes with fully set fruit that's all skin and seed, no pulp. I don't put out much feed during the summer, but this year the birds are all but mobbing my ankles begging for sunflower seeds; very uncharistically bold. I haven't seen nearly as many swifts as in usual years, so I take it the population of flying insects is much reduced. This does not, however, hold for TICKS. And whereas my 2-1/2-story A-frame house has always sported numerous and bodaciously sized wasp colonies, this year I cannot detect even a single nest, not one. Between the freeze and the drought, I've found only a couple of nests, both of which were attended by only 1 adult. (Unfortunately I destroyed them in the process of accidentally discovering them in flower pots, darn it.) I have lived in East Tennessee since 1978 and have never experienced a year in which I had no wasps. And although it's a mercy, since late June I've neither seen nor heard carpenter bees, which annually lay siege to my cedar-sided house. Strange days. Liz Singley Kingston TN C Reese/SPEC/PS/EXT/UTIA[mailto:jreese5@xxxxxxx] Sent : 7/12/2007 12:10:42 AM To : tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc : Subject : FW: [TN-Bird] more thoughts on fruit and nut availability Carol Reese Ornamental Horticulture Specialist -Western District University of Tennessee Extension Service 605 Airways Blvd. Jackson TN 38301 731 425 4767 email jreese5@xxxxxxx I saw lots of fruit on wild grape (what I call possum grape) still green. Of course the smooth sumac is fruiting already, winged sumac is just blooming, so that will help. Blackberries here are much plumped up by recent rains, and elderberries are still forming, just finishing their bloom They bloom on new wood, so freeze didn't seem to affect them, and I wish I knew which trees bloom on new wood! Red oak acorns take two years to develop, white oak only one, so red oak may not produce acorns next year if the "babies" were killed. Most critters around here are currenlty gorging on field corn. Feeder business has dropped accordingly, but hummingbird activity has picked up... cr =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________ =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________