The long hanging flowers are the male catkins of the Speckled Alder or Gray alder, Alnus incana. The short green ones are the female flower. A few subtle difference between the two are that the grey alder has a shallower root system as well as large amount of suckering that takes place from the stump as well as from the root system. The bark is of course much more speckled versus the more grayish bark on the gray alder
Wonderful wildlife plant in our northern forest, alder runs are a great area when hunting the woodcock or the ruffed grouse. They grow mostly in wet, damp growth areas and are certainly one of the pioneer small trees in the forest.
While walking in our woodlot, my wife and I came upon this cluster of hatched eggs at
the base of a very old, dead, white cedar tree. Naturally, seeing all of the cracked
open eggs certainly caught our attention. After we studied the area for some
time and took into account some of the existing clues, like a remaining
feather or two, we concluded that all the eggs appeared to have been opened in such a manner that one
could see they were not opened by any type of predator. We came to the
conclusion that this was the remains of a ruffed grouse (partridge) nest. One
could see that the mother hen really did her work and investigation to make for
a pretty secluded spot to have her chicks.
