Oak
In virtually every place I have lived up until 2011, there have been huge oak trees in the yards. My grandparents’ place, where I spent a large portion of my childhood, had them, keeping the property under their benevolent shade. My childhood home had two giant ones in the back yard. Both there and at grandparents, back then they liked to screw eye bolts into two and run clothes lines between them. In various apartments and houses rented along the way, the trees were always there.
This place is different. The ground is wetter and it’s mostly pine, maple, birch, willow, and cottonwood. My theory is when oak trees get to a certain size out here, they fall over. There are three oak trees that I know of in sight on the property. There may well be more out back. One is a decent size. It’s tall, with a thin trunk in comparison to the city oaks. The other two are pretty much baby trees. Both baby trees have come under attack by spongy moth caterpillars (I think that’s the current DNR name for them) but both have survived. One is open to full sun most of the day, but the other grows mostly in the shadow of the pines near the carport.
The next pic is the baby oak that lives near the pine trees, taken today (041625.) The oak leaves aren’t out yet this year. You can see the evergreen mat I’m going to mention in the opossum section after this.
The next pic is the young oak, taken in 2024, after 2 years of being viciously attacked by an invasion of spongy moth caterpillars. I religiously picked off the caterpillars with a “grabber” and also sprayed it with a BT solution as high as I could. I pray they do not attack again this year.
The next two pics are of the big oak out back. I’m sad to say that the tree is already leaning and most likely will fall over in the next few years. This oak is the tree the raptors love to sit in and survey their domain in. Crows like it also.
Opossum
Opossum (or Possums) love it here! They are unobtrusive, nocturnal (for the most part) critters who mind their own business. There is a large circle “mat” of dense evergreen shrubs just outside of the carport and along the driveway that some certainly use for their home or hangout. They like to check out the scraps in the compost heap, and they nibble whatever is left from the bird feeders and suet cage when everyone else (except coyotes) are asleep.
I’ve watched them out in daytime, mostly in winter. Many think they are ugly, but I think they are cute, especially how they waddle.
Have you ever seen a possum up close?
Tao Talk 
You have a lot of trees Li!! Oaks are so beautiful but can get saturated. Sorry you’ve lost some. Possums are cute! I’ll have listen when the coast is clear for listening! 💕
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Cindy, thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day, my friend.
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ahhhhh thanks Li, you too!!! 💗
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<3
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Oaks are lovely trees. One of my favourites.
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They’re the most familiar trees to me. I hope I come back in the next life as an oak deep deep in the forest, far from humans.
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Sounds perfect!
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I woke up one morning to see a possum sitting in my bird feeder munching away!
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Well I have heard they can climb up into trees and hang upside down, so a delicious bird feeder will entice them :) What a surprise!
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I thought it was a huge rat at first! 😳
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Dana, to be honest, they do look a lot like a huge rat, in this case that ate too much bird seed ;)
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Right!
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Hi Lisa. Thanks for the post. The posom’s eyes frighten me as I’ve only seen them at night. I’m glad to hear it’s just a facade.
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Katie, they are a very benign critter. Their eyes probably need to glow to see where they are going at night?
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Such beautiful photos of Oak trees! I have never seen a possum, I am not sure if we have any local possum in our area. I will have to check it out.
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Fatima, thank you. I’m so glad the big oak was too far away from attack by the spongy moth caterpillars. I really hope they’ve moved on this year.
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I haven’t seen a possum before. They are cute.
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They are scruffy little waddlers :)
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🥹
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I’ve never seen an opossum!
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After watching the videos you will have a pretty good idea of their looks and habits.
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They are cute critters I think. I’ve not seen one myself that I remember though. I like your videos, and it was fun to see him go waddling. He probably does have a nest or den in those bushes. :)
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:) I’m glad you see them with loving eyes, Barbara. They are beneficial creatures that often take a bad rap.
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Can’t get much closer than when I scooped one up with a shovel after it had died right behind my parked car. I couldn’t leave the driveway without getting rid of it first. I wouldn’t call them cute; especially not the one that I had to scoop out from under my front porch when it rotted enough to know something had died under there.
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Ugh, Steve. Sorry you have had unfortunate encounters with them. I wonder if the possum had been hit by a car and crawled up under your tire? I came across an intact skeleton on the bike trail last year and meant to go back with a shovel and move it off for a decent burial but didn’t.
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The one by the car was undamaged. I thought it was playing possum but it was still there when I got home from work so knew by then it was dead.
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It is quite possible I saw a opposum (or a muskrat) this morning. I’ve looked up the differences, but if I recall the animal did have that white face…I’ve since looked at side by side images and – it was a muskrat. But then for the first time in over thirty years I saw a skunk in my back yard yestereday. I know they were in the neigborhood… but I hadn’t seen them. I think it is making a den under my neighbor’s shed.
There are oaks in our neighborhood. I don’t have any, but in the fall I do have to rake the leaves that make it into my yard. Good luck with your oaks.
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I don’t think muskrats have white faces. We saw one a couple weeks ago at fmg and they are completely brown and black. Oh dear on the skunk.
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Through the window and far away… on the skunk. Still not sure about the other… from the picture window it was hard to tell – since it was at the creek (about 100 plus paces away!).
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Ah! If the sun was shining on the muskrat maybe it’s little face looked white? We saw one swimming under the boardwalk and it crawled up on shore and was digging maybe roots?
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Years ago our protective dog… attacted a muskrat! Probably was a muskrat…long skinny tail. Still go play across the creek and not in my yard – thank you ;)
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Oh no on the poor muskrat. I know they must have teeth but are totally benign critters. I’d like to know if the muskrat we saw was digging up the roots of marshland plants, or gathering mud for their home.
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Our pup was just doing her job… I can tollerate most wild life, but not that which could harm me… Geese can be nasty too.
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I have not seen a possum that I know of. But we have lots and lots of raccoons. Oaks are not good street trees because the roots push up the sidewalks, although there are some around. But there are lots in the park. And, like you, all the places I lived growing up had them. I remember the sound of the acorns falling on the roof, and how they popped when we burned the leaves in the street (legal back in the day…) (K)
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Believe it or not I have yet to see a raccoon in the yard :::knock on wood:::. We had a lot of them in city and some people said they used the street drainage pipes as their highways. I did see one crawl in or out of one once (can’t remember which) so know at least one does! Yes, I remember those days when you could burn leaves in the fall. Had a lot of fun as a kid playing in the leaves and watching them burn. Such a good smell. And yes on the acorns.
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I guess raccoons prefer city living–less competition!
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Our yard is nearly all oak trees. Sooooooooo many acorns each year. And I think opossums are cute, too. :-) @samanthabwriter from Balancing Act
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How wonderful you have oak trees to share your yard with <3 Oh yes, the acorns. Makes it tough to walk outside in bare feet.
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Possums are cute and I do love your oak trees. You certainly do have a lovely yard! 😊
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oops! It’s me, Brenda. 😊
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Thanks so much, Brenda. I love this sanctuary for both the critters and for myself. I lived on a very busy road in the city for 25 years. It took quite an adjustment to get used to quiet and total dark.
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This post reminded me of the time my bandmate almost hit an opossum on my street when driving me home. I haven’t seen one in a long time.
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The key word in that sentence is almost. So glad the critter survived. I see many dead along the roads :(
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I love this! Seeing a tree grow from when they’re a baby must be so exciting. It’s the first thing I want to do if I ever get a house. For now I’m trying to grow a cherry tree in a pot, but it can’t grow too big. If I ever leave this apartment, it has to come with me. I love your posts about trees.
Cute possums too!
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Kat, I understand your concern about the cherry tree. Unless it is a dwarf variety, it’s probably going to grow too large at some point. I’ve got 2 grapefruit trees and an avocado in pots in the house and they are at the point where I need to rehome them — but to who?
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Really? I thought they wouldn’t grow bigger than the pot allowed. That’s what I think I read once… I do hope to one day rehome it to a garden of my own. An avocado tree sounds so nice, though!
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Let’s put it this way, they continue to grow, even though the pots are too small, but they don’t grow well. The avocado, especially, keeps growing taller, but the side leaves fall off. None of them have ever bloomed, which is saying something :(
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Yeah trees are definitely better off in the earth. I’m currently reading The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. I love this book. It talks about how trees are all connected and feed each other and keep each other alive. About how they talk to each other. And trees in pots can’t do that because they’re basically isolated.
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I have read that book and they also have a doc on it on netflix. Exactly on the potted plants, and they talk about city trees in their living unnatural lives in sidewalk circles iirc :(
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A doc on Netflix? What’s it called? I hope it’s available here where I live. I was thinking about the trees in the sidewalk… If they’re able to connect underground in some way or if they are completely isolated. There’s so much more to trees than most people realise.
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Oaks always make me think of magestic wise old elders. I don’t see a lot of them in the heart of the metro area I live in, but when I do I always try to stop and visit with them.
I’ve not only seen a city opposum, but saw it play dead. I was very impressed. It was out during the early morning and someone came by walking their leased dog. The dog went crazy when it spotted this strange creature, and the opposum keeled over. We literally thought it had died of a heart attack. The poor dog owner was hysterical and felt so bad, and it took quite a while to calm her down. My partner said he’d bury the opposum, but when he came back from getting what he needed, the opposum was gone. It had played dead for well over 30 minutes.
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I’m glad you see oaks that way, as that’s what they are.
So cool to see one play possum. It worked for them!
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We have a lovely big oak, but a lot of the other oaks in the neighborhood have been cut down when bigger houses are built, which makes me sad. We do have possums around here but very seldom see them (unfortunately we see them more often as roadkill than alive). But I do like them.
https://nydamprintsblackandwhite.blogspot.com
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Anne, I think anyone who wants to remove a tree should go in front of a panel and explain why, and why there isn’t a way around it. It might not save all trees but it would save some.
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