Yes, I'm doing something a little different for this Thursday Tree Love post - I've put together some old and new photos in memory of a tree branch. A very special tree branch, which was part of a long dead tree and has made many appearances here on my blog, usually because of the many feathered friends who considered it a favorite perch.
To explain a bit - this past Saturday, I decided to head back out to the woods to get some shots of the bazillion mushrooms currently sprouting (and fair warning, I have a post in progress with fifty of those shots...lol!). Hubby offered to keep me from falling over company, and as we started down the yard, he casually said something to the effect of, "oh hey, did you see that your bird tree perch is gone? One of those bad storms we got over the past week must've taken it out."
No, I hadn't.
There was a time, not too long ago, that I looked out our bedroom window every day to see what feathered friend might be paying a visit. However over the past year or so, given everything that's been going on, my routine has changed and in the process, instead of taking a couple hundred photos per day, I'm now lucky to take that many in a month. I'm not exactly sure what I'm more bummed out about - the fact that it fell, or the fact that it had been gone for days and I hadn't even noticed.
However, I've know for a long time that its days were numbered. In fact, in a somewhat cool bit of serendipity, I did another post for Thursday Tree Love almost exactly a year ago about that very same branch, as it seemed pretty unsteady back then & I wanted to make sure I got some pictures before it was gone. I'm actually surprised it made it through this past winter, so all things considered, it's not something that was unexpected.
So I quickly took a couple dozen photos of the area where it fell to share today, before heading out to the woods to get the mushroom photos (my original plan was to get some random tree shots at the same time), and ended up with ten decent shots. I'm also including a bunch of photos from over the years - some I've shared on my blog before, and some from my unpublished archive, but all with fresh edits. They only span from February 2016 to August 2018 because I figured I'd narrow it down to photos I took with my Nikon (which I got early 2016), and by the time I hit the August 2018 file I had 150 to choose from! Since I'm fast running out of Thursday, I decided I'd better stop looking and start posting.
But before I get on with the pictures, a quick shout out to my WordPress blogging friend Parul to say thank you for hosting this awesome blog hop every couple of weeks, especially knowing what a challenging time you've had recently. If you want to join in the Tree love blog hop fun, it's wicked easy - here's the description from her latest post today, called #ThursdayTreeLove – 111:
Thursday Tree love is a photo feature hosted on this blog on every 2nd and 4th Thursday of a month. The next edition will go live on August 26, 2021. If you would like to play along, post a picture of a tree on your blog, tell me where did you spot the tree and link it back to this post.
If you don’t see the pingback, please leave a link to your post in my comments section. Please make sure that your post’s link is showing up on this latest edition. I will link your posts on my blog in the next edition and spread some love. Let’s come together to appreciate the beautiful nature around us.
As for these photos, as per my usual FYI - these were taken in my Durham, NH yard with my Nikon which was affixed to my handy dandy tripod. All were resized, then cleaned up a bit with PicMonkey (mostly the exposure and sharpness, but with a few other tweaks like vignette filters for the corners here and there).
Now for the photos...
In memory of a tree branch
First, a few shots of the tree from last year's post
I took this picture last year while standing outside in front of our bedroom window. The tree in the center of the frame, which is actually sort of three trees in one, was always special to me because of how many of my feathered friends liked to perch on that broken branch that sort of... branches off...
From this angle. it almost looks like two separate trees, but it's all part of one.
This particular branch is the one that has had many visitors over the years.
How it looks as of August 7th, 2021...
1. This is how the tree looks now.
2. You can barely even tell there was once an offshoot here.
3. You can see some of the pieces laying across the rocks. The spot it the very top left is where it used to be.
4. More pieces.
5. And still more. I was tempted to look for that specific perch part of the branch...
6. ...but from what I could tell...
7. ...it landed back behind this rock, which is near impossible to get to.
8. At some point, I'm sure the landlord's brother will be along to collect what bits he can, and add them to their woodpile.
9. The view from the back of the tree. The little bump out on the left is where that branch began.
10. And one last look at all the pieces - I was surprised at how spread out it all was, almost as if it had gotten struck by lightning and blown apart, rather than just simply falling.
Some of my feathered friends who liked to hang out there, in order of appearance from 2016 to 2018...
1. Red-winged Blackbird
2. Goldfinch
3. Cowbird
4. Red-bellied Woodpecker
5. Pileated Woodpecker
6. Mourning Dove
7. Male and Female Bluebird
8. Adult Broad-winged Hawk
9. Barred Owl
10. Young Red-shouldered Hawk
11. Young Phoebe
12. Bluejay
13. The crow I call "my" crow, named Angel
14. Pair of Downy Woodpeckers
15. Cooper's Hawk
16. Turkey Vulture
17. Angel again
18. Red-tailed Hawk
Hope you enjoyed my photos & Feathered Friends, in memory of a tree branch. Happy Thursday Tree Love everyone!
Thanks for stopping by!
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My photographs are taken with my trusty Nikon,
sometimes utilizing my handy dandy tripod.
Blog graphics created on Canva
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Speaking of witch which...
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