Gray Dogwood is for the birds, too...

Just like the Staghorn Sumac berries (drupes) from the previous post, Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa) berries are very important to the birds too! The nutritional content between the fruit of the two species is different, however, and the birds eat the fruit for different reasons. Staghorn Sumac drupes are low in fat and high in ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and tannins, which creates fruit that is hard and lasts long into the winter season. The drupes, which are ignored until all the "tasty" berries have been stripped from the trees, help birds survive the harsh, cold winter and early spring. Gray Dogwood berries are the opposite...the creamy white drupes of the dogwood are high in fat, which makes them soft and highly palatable to the birds. Gray Dogwood drupes are meant to be eaten through the fall and early winter to help fuel migrating songbirds (especially catbirds and thrushes) on their energy-expending flights south...

Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa) berries (drupes) are high in fat. Migrating birds need these high-fat calorie-dense drupes to build up their fat stores so they have enough energy to make it to their wintering grounds.

This stand of Gray Dogwood was located along the trail near the visitor's center at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge right next to the Staghorn Sumac from the previous post. Gray Dogwood has white berries, bright red pedicels (the stalks the fruit grows on), and red stems on newer growth but gray bark on the older branches. The gray bark is how the plant gets its name...

Gray Dogwood and Staghorn Sumac grow side by side along the trail near the visitor's center at Ottawa NWR near Toledo. In addition to the fruit benefiting the birds, thickets of Gray Dogwood provide cover and habitat for birds.

The white berries of the Gray Dogwood start to ripen in late August and early September. By the beginning of November the soft drupes are already showing wear. 

White berries on bright red pedicels. You can see the birds have been busy eating the fruit while the eating is good! Gray Dogwood drupes are a fall fuel treat for migrating songbirds and are not meant to last through the winter.

...only one berry remains on this Gray Dogwood pedicel. Although the drupes will be gone soon, the bright red color of the fruit stalks lasts through the winter.

Gray Dogwoods as pioneer woody shrubs...

Gray Dogwoods are one of the first shrubs to move into a prairie if it is left un-mowed or unburned, making it a "pioneer woody plant" that moves a prairie or abandoned field toward succession. Click here for an article by the Ohio Prairie Association detailing how Gray Dogwoods overtake and shade out prairies and how to manage prairies to prevent it. A good example of a meadow being overtaken by Gray Dogwoods is the Voice of America (VOA) Metro Park's high meadow. It was left untended for years, and Gray Dogwood pioneers had definitely set up camp. This spring the park service started prairie restoration in several places. I need to head back and see how it's progressing.

Flowering Dogwoods are for the birds, also...

Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) trees also have fruit high in fat, and migrating songbirds love the tree's red berries. For a post on a Flowering Dogwood tree I photographed last autumn in Greenbo Lake State Park in KY (click here). 

Chickadee with bright red berries...

Do you recognize this chickadee? He's almost in the same pose as the chickadee in the previous post. I wanted to paint him in a different style, so I first created a loose watercolor of the bird (without much of a sketch), added in berries, and created a dark background. I then went over the painting with a chalky white gouache glaze (to give the feel of the cold day), and heightened the bird, berries and his perch with a little gouache detail. I'm still experimenting with gouache and learning how to use it...

Painting 216. Chickadee with bright red berries

(watercolor glazed and heightened with gouache)

The opaque white was nice because it allowed me to fix the misshapen branch in the original watercolor. The chickadee in the original watercolor (below) is much more spontaneous than the bird above, which has been softened, highlighted and detailed with gouache. I'm not sure which I like better. It's all practice...

The watercolor underpainting of the chickadee.

...this is another painting for Laure Ferlita's 100 Paintings Challenge.

If you're an artist looking for a challenge, join up! This is my third year of the challenge. I'm working on 500 paintings in 5 years.

Goldfinches like crabapples too...or at least the seeds inside them!

While the American Robin (from this earlier post) was plucking berries from the tree and swallowing them whole, a sweet little American Goldfinch was employing an entirely different method to get his lunch. He would pierce the skin with his sharp, pointed beak and work through the pulp until he found a seed. He left the remaining skin and pulp on the tree.

An American Goldfinch perched outside my living room window gives me the eye as I photograph him eating the seeds in the crabapples.

...here he is piercing the skin. He then neatly rooted through the pulp until he found a seed.

Here he's getting ready to go back into the crabapple. If you look at all the berries, you can see those he's neatly picked through and left hanging on the branches.