White Pine Blister Rust Attracts Rodents
When a white pine has been infected with white pine blister rust (a fungus), cankers appear on the branches and sometimes the trunk of the tree. A large amount of sap-like ooze flows from the cankered areas, sometime drying and resembling a sugary-looking crust or film. These areas are, in fact, high in sugar content, and rodents frequently chew them. It’s likely that a red squirrel visited and sampled the infected white pine in the photograph, leaving a freshly-gnawed patch in the bark.
Mystery Track Identification
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Balsam Fir Cones
Balsam fir’s (Abies balsamea) cylindrical cones are very distinctive, in that they stand erect on year-old branches at the top of the tree, and are not pendant, like the cones of many conifers. They differ in another way as well, for after the seeds mature and the cone opens to release them in the wind, the cone disintegrates, with the scales falling to the ground, leaving candle-like spikes on the tree. Some historians think that these spikes, when snow-covered, inspired the Germanic people to decorate trees with candles or lights.
Naturally Curious with Mary Holland 
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