Yesterday (4-24-21) at Big Creek Park at the covered observation shelter on the Deep Woods Trail, I saw what appears to be the beginnings of an eagle nest. The stack of branches had to be put there because there are some hemlock branches and no other way for them to get there. Is that indeed what it is? And has it been abandoned because of foot traffic from people so close to it?
Today, on CSI: The Forest…
When we first spotted the collection of hemlock branches stuffed into the beech tree that you’d reported, our first thoughts were also, “That looks like a giant, incomplete nest.”
(Honestly, we spent about five minutes trying to puzzle out what might have constructed an incomplete nest this size.)
Then, we noticed the recently fallen hemlock tree next to it.
Put together, it sure looks like this large hemlock tree fell over from higher uphill, struck the beech tree in question, then slid down the side of it. Along the way, it left a twisted mass of broken hemlock branches jammed into a bent, broken limb of the beech tree.
This resulted in something that looks like a giant, incomplete nest, but which seems to be the residue of a tree-vs-tree collision!
Thanks for sharing this fun puzzle!
-Naturalists Chris Mentrek & Trevor Wearstler
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