Who Knew I’d Become So Attached?

I’ve been putting it off for way too long, but it’s time for me to face that fact that my apple tree needs to come down. The poor thing looks like it’s been in a gun battle (as modeled by my woodpecker friend who is sitting on a “good branch”). There are bare patches along the trunk where the squirrels have ripped off and eaten the bark, and at the bottom of the tree there’s a hole so big I can stick my entire head inside.

I asked my husband if he could take it down in the fall, but at the last minute I changed my mind. I wanted the birds to use it for one more winter. I can’t believe how attached I’ve become to such a messy tree. I have to pick up apples every time I want to mow the lawn, and the tree is highly susceptible to apple scab so some summers it’s nearly bare by July. One year it developed fire blight and we had to cut away quite a few branches in order to spare the rest of the tree, and another time I watched a very large chunk of it come crashing down during a violent thunderstorm. It’s sure had its share of trauma.

But it’s a great place to hang my thistle feeders for all the Goldfinches. And it’s a perfect landing spot for all the birds that visit my hopper feeders or make nests in my nearby bird houses like this Chickadee:

I love to hide under the canopy in the spring when it’s loaded with blossoms and take in the heavenly scent as I stalk warblers with my camera:

The Cedar Waxwings love to munch on the apple blossoms:

And where will I keep my extensive Mourning Dove collection in the winter?

I’m really going to miss that pathetic old tree…