Notes from a Nature Watcher
By John Roberts

The North Georgia tree show this strange year reminds me of going to the Saturday afternoon cowboy double features a few years ago. My weekly quarter covered the 15 cent ticket and if I walked rather than spend the nickels for bus fare, I had enough for a bag of popcorn and a candy bar. Instead of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry movies when I was a youngster, this year has featured a very different kind of double feature.

I seem to be spending much of my time watching the effects of the great Easter Freeze of '07 and the follow up drought-and high-temperature added stresses. Our "double feature" this year has resulted from these unusual conditions. We have had two fall leaf watching peak periods. The first was nearly on schedule but was only on the higher elevations, those trees that did not have their new leaves killed by the freeze, and thus were not forced to make new ones. They were delayed by the severe cold but proceeded to present their fall show. Many of us had feared that the season would not be as good as usual but were pleased to note that the trees did their best in spite of all the season's problems. While the peaks peaked, the trees on the lower elevations which had to "releaf" remained green, and seemed to be about three to four weeks behind their upstairs neighbors. This twotoned look on many of our mountainsides was very interesting and we wondered what the next chapter would bring. As the upper story began to fade and the trees on the ridges began to lose their leaves, the downstairs trees began to show off. It was as if they were determined to not disappoint us. I have never seen more beautiful fall colors. The brilliant oak and maple reds and the stunning hickory yellow golds will be hard to beat in any years. I wonder if any older "old-timers" have seen colors this vivid as late as Thanksgiving week.

The falling leaves also offer interest and entertainment. Our calico cat 'Tober loves to watch them drift past our windows and chatters at them as they flutter by. I have noted two interesting events this year many years after I witnessed it for the first time. One frosty late fall morning I left for work watching the pretty yellow leaves on the five cherry trees in our yard. When I returned that evening, all the leaves were on the ground. It was the result of the cold causing the liquid in the abscission layer of the leaves to freeze. The expanded ice layer separated the simple leaves from the twigs and held them in place until it warmed up enough to melt and release them all. Last week and thirty-three years later I saw the same thing happen to a black walnut tree's compound leaves in Young Harris and a pignut hickory tree in Trackrock. I suspect many more such happenings will soon follow.

John Roberts is a Georgia Master Naturalist who is Camp Host at Trackrock Campground near Blairsville, Georgia. He is also a retired USDA-ARS Research Plant Pathologist having spent over 40 years as a scientist in wheat breeding and pathology.