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No Nuts
I’m sick of the markets. If you want some erudite comments on the latest eco crap or some deep thoughts on when the EU will tank, go elsewhere today. I've got nothing erudite to say. So something different this A.M.
I live about an hour north of NYC. Not far from one of the big reservoirs. There is a lot of protected watershed property. Much more woods than people. I have all sorts of critters around. It’s not unusual for me to see a half-dozen deer on the lawn in the morning. There are flocks of wild turkeys. There are dozens of both black and white squirrels. Chipmunks everywhere. All these animals are dying.
I’ve been aware of something going on for about a month. This is not the first time that a mass death of animals has happened. Some years ago we had a rabies epidemic. It quickly moved from one animal group to another. It damn near wiped out the raccoons, skunks and possums. As the kill of these animals progressed varmints came in to clean up the dead. In just a few years the coyote population exploded. But nature had its way (as it always does). As they coyotes ate the diseased carrion they too became sick and died. The cycle ended when the animals all died.
For a year or so it was safe to put garbage out at night because the coons and skunks were gone. When the small animals died the big ones who ate them moved on. The coyotes left and folks started letting the cat out at night again.
The coyotes are back this year. I’ve heard them at night as they form packs to kill weak animals. They howl a horrible noise to scare their prey into confusion and fear. This time it’s different. Different animal groups are affected. It’s not rabies that’s the problem. The animals at risk don’t eat meat.
I didn’t think much of this until I happened to have a conversation with the fellow from Ecuador who was cleaning up my leaves. He says to me:
"No frutos secos esta anos."
I walked away thinking to myself, “No nuts?”
It took me a bit, but I finally got it. There are almost no acorns this year. No big healthy ones at all. The ones that you might find are the size of a pea. They contain no food, they’re just husks. And that's why the animals are stressed and the coyotes are back.
If you Google, “Missing acorns” you will see that there are chat rooms from garden types who have made note of the acorn issue. It seems to be contained in the North East this year (there is no actual data.) While looking around on the topic I found this interesting (and a bit eerie) article from 2008 in the Washington Post.
The same thing happened around the D.C. area 3 years ago. From the article:
The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. "We're talking zero. Not a single acorn. It's really bizarre."
A naturalist in Maryland found no acorns on an Audubon nature walk there. Ditto for Fairfax, Falls Church, Charles County, even as far away as Pennsylvania. There are no acorns falling from the majestic oaks in Arlington National Cemetery.
Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. This year, experts said, many animals will starve.
Some of the scientists made light of the 2008 development:
"What's there to worry about?" said Alan Whittemire, a botanist at the U.S. Arboretum. "If you're a squirrel, it's a big worry. But it's no problem for the oak tree.”
Sure enough the next year acorns came back to Virginia. But obviously three years later the same thing is happening in a different region. Back in 08 the thinking was “Why worry”. But the thinking was also, “If this happens again we have something to worry about.”
"But if this were to continue another two, three, four years, you might have to ask yourself what's going on, whether it is an indication of something bigger."
Well, it’s happened again. We shall if there is anything to this. I suspect this might get broader attention in the media. It’s too weird not to get noticed. Anyone else missing their acorns this year?
Now you can go back to the stupid markets.
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I have observed a similar pattern to others in New England (I am in south-central NH)-- bumper crop of acorns last year, absurd really, then cold, long snowy winter, followed by thin crop this year. We're overdue for a mild winter, I'd be happy to have one frankly (the last really mild one that I remember was 2001-2002).
Finally BK comes up with a title worthy of writing about. I now have the peace of mind that comes to dying men. Thank you, Bruce.
I live in Southern Oregon, I noticed last year that there were no acorns, none, zero, zip. I usually notice because they fall and it the metal roofing on my shed and the roofs of our vehicles. I mentioned this to friends and they noticed the same thing. I even posted about it here on ZH awhile back. It seemed very strange to me. I also noticed that the squirrel population was lite this year. It didn't accure to me that it was from lack of acorns til I read this article. The acorns are back this year.
If a young apple tree becomes overburdened in fruit one year, it may turn biennial- and it is extremely difficult to return it to annual production
Hydraulic fracturing in your area?
In the southeast this year we've had record acorn production, the quantity has been less than normal, but the size of the acorns has been amazing.
One of the reasons that home price have dropped so much in Atlanta is all the damn trees. The acorns are so big, people are hollowing them out and living in them. I can pickup a 3 bedroom/2bath nut for less than an Ipad.
It's got the squirrels loco, the veternarians are doing boffo business repairing squirrel hernias on the the government dime. Every vet is driving a Jaguar and that is their commuter car.
7 killed by falling acorn, used to lead the news, now it doesn't even rate the news of the weird.
Its a mad world, just yesterday I saw a mountain cabin made entirely of cheese logs.
Just keep your nuts dry and your powder warm, or is it the other way around?
+1 funny
That's nuts.
We had no acorns in 1983 and the following winter was very warm.
sometimes rodent overpopulation can affect a food source, such as acorns, and sometimes underpopulation, due to some sort of epidemic. the oak tree is not always going to produce the same crop of acorns automatically, nature is not a machine. in the pacific northwest redwood trees get most of their moisture from fog, not rain. time and again it has been shown that if you clear cut the redwood, the fog will no longer come. its not magic really, think of the tree trunk as a large pipe, place water in the pipe, and create a flow, and it will draw water from outside sources, like the pump in a well. when it does rain the roots of these giant trees hold the water for several days, before they release it, or they simply let go what they don't need. then days later after it stops raining suddenly water is running all over the place.
a redwood has an incredible amount of leaf area to trunk space however, what sort of conditions are there in your ground water
i wonder why we have such a large hawk population the last few years in ky . i know alot has to do with the ice storm few yrs back. but they were thick before then too. when i was a kid they were rare to see
There were tons of acorns falling from the oak trees in the Dallas / Fort Worth area, in spite of record drought this year (I don't know if there is normally a relationship or not with drought). There have been so many full-size acorns falling that it sounded like a hail storm when the wind blew, and we know all about hail storms in this part of the country. I am looking out a window into my back yard and watching 3 to 4 squirrels racing around in the trees. They should be called tree rats (no, I don't like squirrels).
its all good in michigan
Sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don’t
1st they came for the acorns and I said nothing because I was a walnut...
...
Bruce, I am now happily Swiss but I grew up in your area, As a boy I'd go bass fishing in Croton Resevoir but I think you may be talking about that small resevoir off Pleasantville Rd., which I would pass on the way to Reader's Digest, where my mother was treasurer (thank God she died).
The man you want to talk to is the environmentalist for the entire watershed, Dr. Elliot Schneiderman. He is an old friend from Ananda Ashram, accross the river from you in Monroe. It has been too many years and I have lost contact with Elliot but he is your man.
Tks.
bk
Plenty of nuts in Memphis. We have lots of acorns, too.
Happy Holidays to all.
Oh, this is definitely a sign of global warming or maybe the rapture.
"We identified regular cycles of acorn production that ranged from 2 to 2.4 yr for white oak species and from 3.6 to 5.5 yr for red oak species and found evidence that annual acorn production is affected by the interactions of precipitation, which is highly variable seasonally and annually in peninsular Florida, with endogenous reproductive patterns."
http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/01-0707 My boyhood memory growing up in a NJ oak forest is great variability. You knew when there was a good acorn crop because the acorns fell from the trees in the wind and loudly bounced off the roof.Well, it must be the Rapture, then, as GW is not happening. In fact 5 of the coldest winters, in both hemispheres, in the last 3 years are likely saying. . . . We'll see what this winter is like. Look to England in December to have lots of snow, like last year. It really hurt the AGW belief system over there.
GW has been officially replaced by climate change.
We have a saying out west. "If you don't like the weather, wait a bit. It'll change." That might be what they mean.
I wonder if Hurricane Irene had anything to do with it, plus the other windstorms.
Seems like the acorns fell early this year in central NJ.
I usually put out feeders with nuts in them when this happens.
Listen and learn, evolutionistas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA-BrPgSXZ0&feature=related
Bruce,
Why are you "sick of the markets"? Seems like they are doing what they always do. Are you of the opinion they should be priced differently or is it some other characteristic that has you feeling such disgust?
There is not one market in the globe you can point to that is not being manipulated with intervention in either the bond or currency markets. The scale of the intervention in the US (QE1&2, ZIRP) has no precedent. China, Europe, everyone has some monetary con game going on. When oil gets dear, they open the spigots from the petroleum reserve. I could go on and on.
There is so much smoke from the various governmental "Official Guidance" of markets that I can't tell where the fires or the opportunities are. Looking at the volatile markets I would say I'm not alone.
Bruce, the fact that you reside in Northern Westchester has increased my already high opinion of you.
The MF Global fiasco paired with Jon Corzine's ability to wear anything but a prison duds have been reason enough to withdraw from the bogus "markets".
way way way too many comments on this subject. Something is definately wrong. ROFLMAO
Yeah, probably, but then on the next post there will probably be none, and our minds will starve from the lack of reading material.
I moved out into the sticks, N Fl, a couple of years ago. My place is covered in oaks. Acorns this year are as thick as I've ever seen.
I live in a little single wide trailer that has a double wide aluminum roof over. My office is in an unheated room built under the roofover, with the aluminum roof being the only roof (no insulation, just alumunum sheet). This year the acorns dropping on the roof sound like gun shots. I still jump evey time one hits. On the rare occaision someone comes down into my room to talk, they almost jump out of their skin when one hits.
Good luck on next years crop. I hope a few critters make it until then.
Noticed a lot of acorns when we went deer hunting here in Michigan. Shitloads of walnuts, too.
Doesn't seem to have moved this way, keep it on the east coast, thank you.
It's sad - tragic - to be sure, and I do not mean to make light of it, but perhaps this will uplift anyone's sprits that need it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbsGWNXZ51I
Bruce,
As one commenter has already pointed out, nut producing trees like Oaks and Hickories have synchronous reproductive cycles over large geographical areas. This can lead to overabundant production one year, and none the next or in another year. This has been known for centuries. The overabundant years are called "mast years".
I thought this was going to be an Obama hit piece... Oh, and my place is called 'Squirrel Ranch' and it's a boomin' year for them and acorns. Of course the mosquitoes joined in and are now so big they're carrying off the squirrels. Welcome to FL...
The oaks are going to have to print more nuts soon or else the squirrels are going to take to the streets.
Its Deflation of the nut supply. Blame the ECB.
There's a fitting metaphor in here somewhere.
"He says to me:
"No frutos secos esta anos."
Dammit Bruce, would it KILL you to hire an American?
you are missing the point Bruce is trying to make.
what? that he's a serial employer of illegal "landscapers"??
He's doing his part to keep inflation under control.
Banana - South Americans are Americans.
um, no, they're "South Americans"...
where'd all you glue sniffing raycisses come from this morning anyway?
>> would it KILL you to hire an American?
And you know he's not an American how?
erm..
because i can read English??
"I happened to have a conversation with the fellow from ECUADOR who was cleaning up my leaves"
Bruce wanted to pay him with acorns and sea shells. There's the problem.
>> from ECUADOR
Oh, that's righ, immigration is illegal.
"Oh, that's righ, (sic) immigration is illegal"
no, but I think we've imported enough Black Friday shoppers to last us for a good while and I don't really care if we reach wage parity with the Chinese...
lo siento culo