Dogwood, no berries

The bright red dogwood berries are usually at the center of much fall drama at our house. Usually they turn slowly from green to red, have a glorious day or two on the tree, and then the birds move in and clean them off in a few days.

Dogwood berries are high-energy food for migratory birds.

But as you can see from the photo, this year the berries are conspicuous in their absence.

Somehow, the birds have cleaned them off as they turned, leaving a tree full of little whitish nubs. [Addendum: A reader writes to remind me that those nubs are buds set for next spring's flowering.] Maybe the rain slowed the ripening process. Pawpaws are late this year (more on that later). Maybe it’s a scarcity of other foods. Though the evidence in our back yard indicates a plentitude of poke berries.

Sam Martin, who feeds a family of foxes on his Eastern Kentucky homestead, writes to say:

Not only are the foxes back early, my neighbor�s corn has more silk than he has ever seen. A bad winter, according to the old timers. (Wait a minute. I�m an old timer. So is my neighbor.)

I’m an old-timer, too, I guess. And I’m wondering if the disappearing dogwood berries may mean the same thing � a hard winter coming.