(Chelsea Update would like to thank Tom Hodgson and the Waterloo Natural History Association for the information and photos in this column.)
A year ago this March when temperatures unexpectedly rose into the 80s, it spelled doom for many fruit bearing trees and shrubs including most of Michigan’s apples and cherries.
Flower buds opened prematurely only to be killed by freezing temperatures later in the spring. That’s the bad news.
The good news is, free from their fruit bearing duties these plants were able to rest for a year while focusing their energies on growing stems, roots and leaves. This year, with a normal spring these well-rested plants put on an extraordinary show of new blossoms and fruit.
This phenomenon was not confined to domestic plants. Many wild trees and shrubs also produced well this year. And, their fruits will remain through the winter.
As a result, we can expect larger than normal numbers of over-wintering bluebirds and robins. We should also see many flocks of cedar waxwings feasting on flowering crab apples, mountain ash berries, winterberries and cedar berries.
Flowering dogwood is heavy with fruit this year as well. Most will be consumed by fall migrants. Another fruit in abundance this fall is pokeberry.
Pokeberries not consumed now will dry right on the stem and provide dried fruit for cardinals, red-bellied woodpeckers and even mourning doves this winter. Each fruit contains about 10 hard seeds that pass through digestive tracts unscathed. They are deposited with bird droppings, ensuring a new crop of pokeberries for next year.
Along the edges of wetlands gray dogwood and nannyberry are providing fruit for the birds as is poison sumac and winterberry (also known as Michigan holly).
So, take comfort in the fact that a good berry season also means an enjoyable winter birding season as well.
