No acorns this year?

[n2doc]

Acorn Watchers Wonder What Happened to Crop

A flying squirrel retrieves food put out by the staff at Long Branch Nature Center in Arlington County. (By Richard A. Lipski -- The Washington Post)



By Brigid Schulte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 30, 2008; Page A01
The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head.

Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill.

But Simmons really got spooked when he was teaching a class on identifying oak and hickory trees late last month. For 2 1/2 miles, Simmons and other naturalists hiked through Northern Virginia oak and hickory forests. They sifted through leaves on the ground, dug in the dirt and peered into the tree canopies. Nothing.

"I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe," he said. "But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/29/AR2008112902045.html

[HeeBGBz]

1. We have a ton of hickory nuts, but our oaks are dying

I will have to go see if I can find any acorns.

[SoCalDem]

2. Nuttin' but palm tree seeds here

I don't see any critters eating them.. must be toxic:(

[TWiley]

16. We have "Oak Blight" in our neighborhood.

It puts dark spots on the leaves and will eventually kill the tree. The trees should not be pruned until the sap stops running in the late fall or early winter.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "This is what happens when Republicons are in charge: Epic Fail." - Rocket J. Squirrel

[Breeze54]

4. FR is a major RIGHT TURN from here....

"Get thee hence, asshole!"

:grr:

[n2doc]

8. WTF???

Did you take the wrong meds this morning?

[Lasher]

5. It happens.

Some years there's lots of mast, and sometimes not so much. Sometimes the spring frost kills all the blooms on the beech, for instance, but the hickory and white oak do OK and have a bumper crop in the fall. And it varies by area.

This year I've seen some mast of all kinds, but not a bumper crop of anything except black walnuts. I've never seen the trees produce so many.

[shugah]

20. that is strange

i was reading about the acorns and was going to comment that i had no black walnuts from my tree this year. none, zero. usually there is a plethora.

[Lasher]

22. Have you ever noticed that there are no apples some years?

For me it is easier to note the effect of spring frost on blooming apple trees. Once those blooms are out, if you get a heavy frost or particularly a freeze, it's all over for that year. But some varieties bloom at slightly different times, so you might have lots of golden delicious but no winesap that year. But if the frost occurs after the blooms have had time to 'make' into tiny apples, you're generally OK.

It's the same with anything that makes fruit from a bloom.

So this year I'm collecting black walnuts with a shovel and you don't have any at all. But the geographic variances can be more localized. All the shag bark hickory trees might be barren, while just over the hill they are drawing a squirrel convention.

Don't worry, you'll probably have lots of black walnuts next year. And I think it's good for the trees to get a rest every few years.

[Maine-ah]

6. had plenty of acorns around here.

my daughter kept bringing them in the house until I explained to her that acorns are squirrel food and she needed to give it back to them :hi:

[samplegirl]

7. Same here I had a ton of acorns...

I thought more than usual. My backyard was covered and the deck as well.

[Tom Kitten]

9. Plenty of big fat squirrels round these parts

Feel free to come catch as you can, I don't think they belong to anybody in particular...

[Possumpoint]

10. Very Few Acorns

and another oddity is that there are very few Canadian Geese or Mute Swans out on the tidal creek.

[Tom Kitten]

11. Birds I worry about

they are fragile creatures and the "canary in the coal mine" cliche holds true for humanity itself. I still cannot comprehend the fact that once billions of passenger pigeons used to darken the skies and they were all gone before I was born...

[surrealAmerican]

12. No acorn shortage here.

Did it warm up too early and then freeze there? Was there a drought in the summer months?

[Uben]

13. I have about 200 billion....

....acorns! Send me your squirrels! With about 200 oak trees on my lots, acorns are abundant this time of year.

[lonestarnot]

14. I knew that pianno in the forest was for the squirrels' last concert.

:(

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. lol n/t

[TWiley]

15. Acorns, like most fruit, are bi-annual

Damage to the stem area when the fruit is harvested can carry over into the next year making it less productive. The good years typically alternate if all other conditions remain the same.

[ThomWV]

18. Maybe they shold cross over the next hill and start counting again

I don't see any lack of nuts this year, in fact this has been a very good year for the forrest. I should qualify that, I am in northern West Virginia, just about 30 miles east of the western-most border of Maryland and we live on 100 acres that is mostly wooded. We heat with wood and being retired I am able to take long walks in the woods just for pleasure, so I am familiar with their apparent condition.

[bluedawg12]

19. True, I noticed it with our oaks- we put out bird seed

all year around, and all of the animals are welcome to it. We just put out more.

[soothsayer]

21. i'm in arlington, va not far from that pic and definitely no acorns.

our squirrels have bben just gluttonous for the past month or so, but maybe this explains why they are acting so greedy.

[ColbertWatcher]

23. "It's a zero year." Damn. n/t

[Obamarama]

24. Seems like a normal acorn crop here in Southwest Michigan...

I live amidst an area very heavily forested by oaks. Have several in my yard as do my neighbors. Also have one walnut tree in my yard. Absolutely no shortage of acorns or walnuts this year. Hence, it's squirrel central at my house!