Tree Hike at Belmont – August 2016

I volunteered to lead a tree hike at Belmont Manor and Historic Park last weekend. I went out the Friday before to walk the route I’d planned. Even though the hike was in the morning – it was going to be a hot day so I wanted every part of the hike to be worth the effort. The river birch would definitely be the first stop – with it distinctive curly bark.

Some Norway Maples had been planted near the cottage – and I decided that I’d point them out to encourage people to plant native maples instead if they wanted a maple tree in their yard.

I decided to not make the down and back (with no shade) hike down to the pond to see the bald cypress that is the tree with the rounded top to the left of the pond. I pointed it out to the hiking group from about where I stood to take this picture.

We didn’t walk over to the magnolia either. It was enough to view it from further away and talk about the history of large magnolias planted in front of the manor house and the possibility that the large specimen there now is missing the large English Elm that grew uphill until about a year ago when it was cut down before it succumbed completely to Dutch Elm Disease.

On my pre-walk, I walked all the way over to the horse chestnut. The tree is not in good shape. The top was rotten and it broke last spring. The leaves are distinctive but looked pretty battered already.

I opted to go in the direction of the dawn redwood and talk about it being the second example of a conifer that loses its needles at Belmont (the first was the bald cypress mentioned earlier).

We saw two kinds of nut producing trees: a black walnut

And a pecan.

The row of white pines has a few pine cones but the ground crews have thoroughly cleaned up any that fall to the ground.

On the way back I noticed a mushroom under a sweet gum – with bits of dirt clinging to its cap.

There were other trees along the route. The hike on Saturday was almost two hours and we saw something I had missed on my pre-hike: A large English Elm that was being treated for Dutch Elm Disease. The injection ports for chemicals were all around the base of the tree. I hope the tree survives!

Belmont Manor and Historic Park – April 2016

I volunteered for a preschool field trip and finished up a Master Naturalist project at Belmont Manor and Historic Park this month so was able to look around at the spring unfurling there. Early in the month – the maples provided a lot of color. The red maples are indeed very red.

The sugar maples are more subdued but still colorful compared to a lot of other trees that were still looking like winter time in early April.

I’ve already posted about the Horse Chestnut buds and the Ginkgo from earlier in April. Someone commented that there was a female tree somewhere because last fall there was an awful smell from some kind of fruit tracked into the nature center by a field trip group. I had somehow missed the female tree, so I made a trip specifically to photograph it. The male tree was unfurled a bit more – everything a little battered looking because of some frosty mornings.

The female tree is not as far along and the structures are not as large. The buds near the base of the tree are still tightly curled. I’ll continue to take pictures of both trees through this season (and try to avoid stepping on any fruit in the fall since they are reported to smell like vomit).

The black cherry was full of new leaves and reproductive structures by mid-April

And the Dawn Redwood (a deciduous conifer) was getting new needles.

I enjoy the stands of lilacs at Belmont. They remind me of several family homes I visited as a child.

Dandelions are everywhere.

I checked the bald cypress by the pond in mid-April. Tree swallows were buzzing past close to my head as I hiked down – they must have already staked out the nesting boxes and are defending them from anything that comes close. The bald cypress was not as far along as the one I photographed at Brookside earlier. The buds on the lower branches were still very tight.

Higher up the buds were just beginning to open.

And the dried cattails from last season were full of noisy red-winged blackbirds. They’re defining their territory too.

Belmont in January

I am working on a winter tree hike for Belmont and did a ‘walk around’ for the route to add to my collection of pictures for the brochure. There were three trees that I focused on:

The Eastern Red Cedar. I realized as I was taking the picture that my grandparents had a pair in the front of their house when I was growing up. Last time I saw the trees – after my grandparents had been gone many years – the trees were gone and I’ve always wondered what happened to them; supposedly Eastern Red Cedars can live for 900 years. My grandfather probably dug them up as saplings from a nearby forest to plan in that yard – or maybe it was the previous owner.

The Dawn Redwood is a tree that is similar to the Bald Cypress – it is in group that usually is evergreen but it is deciduous. The bark is reddish….and the small cones that stay on the tree during the winter are quite interesting looking although you need a zoom on a camera or binoculars to see them!

The Black Walnut had plenty of nuts around its base. They are the easiest way to identify the tree in the winter.

The day I was at Belmont was very cold and a little breezy. I’m always surprises that the species of grass most popular in this area stays green even when it is very cold….but it stops growing so we do get a break on lawn mowing.