Seeds, Nuts and Berries

     For an hour one afternoon late in October of this year, I visited an overgrown habitat of deciduous trees, shrubs, vines, weeds and grasses to experience what birds and mammals those plants were feeding and sheltering.  A flock of American robins, smaller groups of eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings and yellow-rumped warblers, and an individual each of Carolina wren and northern cardinal were feasting on dark wild grapes hanging on their vines on ash-leafed maple trees.
     Meanwhile other robins were eating earthworms on a nearby short-grass lawn, a half-dozen northern flickers were on that same lawn consuming ants in their tunnels in the soil and a northern mockingbird was eating a variety of invertebrates from the short grass.  And a red-tailed hawk circled that impenetrable thicket and watched for gray squirrels to catch and ingest.
     Overgrown thickets form from woods that were lumbered off, abandoned fields and meadows, and deserted corners of fields and developments.  Seeds either blow into abandoned areas on the wind, or are brought in on animal fur or in digestive tracts, depending on the kind of plant that produced them.  The resulting plants get much sunlight without a canopy of tree foliage over them, resulting in rapid growth that densely covers the ground.  That thick growth provides abundant food and shelter for insects, birds, mammals and other kinds of critters.
     In southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere in the world, thickets of successional vegetation produce seeds, nuts and berries in abundance that feed several kinds of birds and mammals in fall and winter.  And those same jungles of plants shelter those wild creatures as well.  Small seeds are produced by foxtail grass and other types of grasses, Queen-Anne's-lace, chicory, smartweeds, goldenrods, asters, ragweeds and other, weedy plant species.  American goldfinches, house finches, song sparrows, white-throated sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, northern cardinals and other kinds of small, seed-eating birds consume many of those small seeds during winter.   
     Deer mice and eastern chipmunks also ingest some of those grass and weed seeds and store others in their nests.  They consume those seeds during the hardships of winter.  And the many seeds that survive the appetites of birds and mammals in winter will sprout the next spring.
     Nuts grow on black walnut, pin oak, white oak and other kinds of trees in successional thickets after timbering or deserting farmland.  White-tailed deer, black bears, deer mice, eastern chipmunks, at least three kinds of squirrels, American crows, blue jays, wild turkeys and ruffed grouse are some of the local critters that consume acorns in fall and winter.  But only the squirrels, chippies and mice, being rodents, can chew through the tough husks and hard shells of black walnut tree nuts because only they have jaws strong enough and teeth sharp enough to do so. 
     During fall, squirrels of every kind and blue jays stash nuts and acorns into tree cavities or bury them in the ground.  And during inclement weather in winter when food would be hard to find, the squirrels and jays eat some of those nuts and acorns.  But they don't get around to all of them, and surviving nuts sprout into trees the next spring and summer.
     Acorns and their "caps", by the way, are beautiful and decorative.  Most of them are warm-brown in color and shiny.  
     Many kinds of trees, shrubs and vines grow small fruits or berries that birds and mammals consume in overgrown habitats in fall and winter.  Some local, fruit and berry-producing plants are Bradford pear, crab apple  hackberry, staghorn sumac and American holly trees, multi-flora rose, Tartarian honeysuckle and winterberry shrubs, pokeweed, and green briar, deadly nightshade, wild grape, tearthumb, poison ivy, Virginia creeper and bittersweet vines.  Crab apples, hollies, winterberries, sumacs, Tartarian honeysuckles and multiflora roses have red fruits or berries while bittersweet has bright-orange ones.  Those fruits are not only attractive for us to see, but they also attract the attentions of hungry birds that eat them.
     Greenbriar, poison ivy, Virginia creeper and pokeweed have beautifully colored foliage in fall that adds to the beauty of that enjoyable season.  Virginia creepers have red autumn leaves and deep-purple fruits on short, red stems at the same time, which makes than vine quite pretty to see.
     Flocks of wild turkeys, American robins, eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings and yellow-rumped warblers and individual northern mockingbirds and ruffed grouse are some of the birds that regularly eat berries and small fruits in southeastern Pennsylvania in fall and winter.  Those birds liven and brighten those berry patches when feeding on their colorful, nutritious fruits.           
     As the birds consume fruits and berries, they also ingest the seeds in them.  The birds digest the pulp of those fruits and berries, but pass many of the seeds, intact, in droppings all over the countryside as they fly from place to place.  Seeds not eaten by mice and squirrels have a chance to sprout into new plants.  It's a win/win situation.  Each plant species colonizes new areas and the birds insure food supplies for future bird generations.
     Several kinds of local mammals eat fruits and berries in fall and winter, including white-tailed deer, black bears, three kinds of squirrels, chipmunks, deer mice, raccoons, opossums, striped skunks and two species of foxes.  Those mammals, other than squirrels, chippies and mice, pass many of the seeds in droppings, therefore, helping spread each plant species across the landscape.
     Overgrown thickets are great sources of food and cover for several kinds of wildlife from insects to birds and mammals.  They are wonderful wildlife refuges, however big or small.  And those thickets develop wherever the soil is not worked by people for at least a few years.