BIRCH TREE SEEDS ON THE SNOW

This past weekend we had our January thaw, an expected but not always given mid winter treat.  A January thaw gives you a chance to take a long walk outside and serves as a reminder that winter will not last forever.  Saturday on my walk I noticed hundreds of little seeds atop the snow underneath this birch tree. I love the patterns created on birch tree bark, this tree is no exception.

 

I've probably seen these little flecks atop the snow many times before, but today they caught my eye with their little tan and brown bird like shapes.  Brisk winds from the past couple of days more than likely caused them to scatter from the tree tops to the snow covered ground.

After kneeling down and looking at the little bird like shapes and wondering what they were all about, I took a few photos of them.  

The paper birch tree as shown above has seed pods called catkins that hang from the outer edges of it's branches.  The catkins, when mature, come apart, and fall to the ground.  They have a stem in the center with "separators" and seeds in between them that remind me of shish kabobs.

Each catkin can hold over a thousand birch tree seeds.  The separators are the bird shaped pieces and the seeds are round with what look like two wings attached to them.  Birch tree seeds fall off the trees from August all the way through the following winter months.  The seeds provide food for winter birds but most of all they just want to turn into little birch trees.

Next time you go for a winter walk with snow cover, look under a large birch tree and maybe you'll see the little bird shaped pieces and birch tree seeds scattered all around you on the ground.  I marvel at the little things in nature that can turn into big things like a beautiful paper birch tree.